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Modality in different languages can be expressed through different grammatical categories such as modal adjectives, modal adverbs, modal auxiliaries, and modal lexical verbs. This descriptive-analytic study aims to determine grammatical category and syntactic position of “t͡ʃəmɑn” in Kalhori Kurdish, using Cinque’s spec-based approach (2004). One of the researchers’ linguistic intuition, as the native speaker of Kalhori Kurdish, was helpful in providing and analyzing the relevant data. Based on facts such as “its optional presence in the sentences”, “not receiving negative prefixes”, “not occurring with subjunctive mood”, along with “its placement necessarily after evaluative adverbs”, it was revealed that “t͡ʃəmɑn” belongs to the category of adverbs. By assuming that there is an epistemic modality projection above the tense phrase projection, the specifier of epistemic modality projection was shown to be the syntactic position of “t͡ʃəmɑn” in this language. Finally we have argued that Cinque’s spec-based approach provides an adequate framework for specifying grammatical status and explaining syntactic behavior of this linguistic element in Kalhori Kurdish. Introduction Modality in different languages is used to express a proposition and can be conveyed through various devices, such as modal adjectives, modal adverbs, modal auxiliaries, and modal lexical verbs. The purpose of this study is to determine the grammatical category and syntactic position of “t͡ʃəmɑn” as a modality marker in Kalhuri Kurdish, using Cinque’s spec-based approach (2004). Various approaches have been adopted to determine the syntactic position of adverbs. Some consider adverbs as adjuncts, which can enter the sentence structure wherever they are produced, while others believe the position of adverbs is the specifier of the projections that dominate verbal projections. In the latter approach, Cinque (2004) proposes that sentence structure consists of about thirty functional projections, with the specifiers of these projections being the syntactic positions of adverbs, including modal adverbs. In his spec-based approach, Cinque assumes a fixed position for adverbs, and the displacements that sometimes occur in the adverb order relative to other sentence constituents result from the movement of those constituents above the adverbs. Palmer (1999; 2001) considers epistemic modality a subset of propositional modality, which explains the speaker’s attitude toward the status of a proposition. The term “t͡ʃəmɑn,” meaning “as if,” appears to function as an epistemic modality adverb. The findings of this investigation may be significant for researchers studying the Kurdish language or other Iranian languages, as they explore different modality markers in relation to the thirty different kinds of projections that Cinque proposes for sentence structure, helping to determine their syntactic position. Givón (1995), Palmer (1999), and Narrog (2005) classify modality into three conceptions: it is the semantic information about the speaker’s attitude towards their speech; it extends beyond the propositions in the speech; or it is a device to distinguish truth from falsehood. These three concepts, collectively, provide a comprehensive definition of modality. Portner (2009) further defines modality as a linguistic phenomenon that enables discussion about, or based on, unreal situations. Many studies have been conducted to explore different aspects of modality. Karimi (2005) classifies adverbs into high and low adverbs. Despite proposing a linear order for adverbs, she considers them adjuncts that enter the sentence structure wherever possible. Taleghani (2008) investigated the syntactic position of “shaayad” and “baayad” in Persian, identifying "baayad" as having both epistemic and root modality meanings, while “shaayad” functions solely as an epistemic adverb. Labbafan Khosh and Darzi (2015) studied the grammatical category and syntactic position of “baayad” and “shaayad.” Considering its two different meanings, they concluded that the position of the epistemic “baayad,” like “shaayad,” is the specifier of epistemic modality, while the position of root “baayad” is the head of root modality. Materials and Methods Using a descriptive-analytic method, this research aimed to determine the grammatical category and syntactic position of “t͡ʃəmɑn” as a modality marker in Kalhuri Kurdish, according to Cinque’s spec-based approach (2004). One of the researchers, a native speaker of Kalhuri Kurdish, relied on their linguistic intuition to provide and analyze relevant data. First, based on Palmer’s classification (1999; 2001), it was established that “t͡ʃəmɑn” is an epistemic modality marker. The main analysis was divided into two parts: analyzing the grammatical category of this modality marker and determining its syntactic position. To determine the category of “t͡ʃəmɑn,” we compared its behavior with that of adverbs to establish whether it functions as an adverb. We considered several behavioral criteria, including its optional presence in the sentence, its inability to receive negative prefixes, its incompatibility with the subjunctive mood, and its required placement after evaluative adverbs. Following this, Cinque’s spec-based approach (2004) was applied to determine the syntactic position of this modal adverb. As previously mentioned, Cinque proposes that sentence structure comprises thirty different functional projections, with their specifiers serving as the positions of various kinds of adverbs. In his approach, Cinque suggests that the projection of epistemic modality dominates the tense phrase, while the projection of root modality is dominated by the tense phrase and dominates the negative phrase. The analysis then investigated the placement of “t͡ʃəmɑn” concerning this hierarchical order and, finally, examined its position as a modal epistemic adverb in relation to other words that function as the heads of root projections. Results and Discussion This study aimed to determine the grammatical category and syntactic position of “t͡ʃəmɑn” as a modality marker. Based on Palmer’s classification of mood, it was concluded that this element functions as an epistemic modality marker, which is used in certain propositions to add the meaning of "supposition" to the sentence. The analysis revealed that “t͡ʃəmɑn” shares several common features with adverbs, such as its optional presence in sentences, its inability to receive negative prefixes, its incompatibility with the subjunctive mood, and its necessary placement after evaluative adverbs. These findings indicate that “t͡ʃəmɑn” belongs to the category of adverbs. According to Cinque, the projection of epistemic modality dominates the tense phrase, while the projection of root modality is dominated by the tense phrase and dominates the negative phrase. Thus, by assuming that there is an epistemic modality projection above the tense phrase projection, it was shown that the specifier of the epistemic modality projection represents the syntactic position of “t͡ʃəmɑn” in this language. Conclusion Through the investigation of the grammatical category and syntactic position of “t͡ʃəmɑn” using Cinque’s spec-based approach, this study revealed that “t͡ʃəmɑn” is an adverb syntactically positioned in the specifier of the epistemic modality projection. The findings suggest that Cinque’s spec-based approach provides an effective framework for determining the grammatical status and explaining the syntactic behavior of this linguistic element in Kalhuri Kurdish.

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Modality in different languages can be expressed through different grammatical categories such as modal adjectives, modal adverbs, modal auxiliaries, and modal lexical verbs. This descriptive-analytic study aims to determine grammatical category and syntactic position of "͡tʃəmɑn" in Kalhori Kurdish, using Cinque's spec-based approach (2004). One of the researchers' linguistic intuition, as the native speaker of Kalhori Kurdish, was helpful in providing and analyzing the relevant data. Based on facts such as "its optional presence in the sentences", "not receiving negative prefixes", "not occurring with subjunctive mood", along with "its placement necessarily after evaluative adverbs", it was revealed that "͡tʃəmɑn" belongs to the category of adverbs. By assuming that there is an epistemic modality projection above the tense phrase projection, the specifier of epistemic modality projection was shown to be the syntactic position of "͡tʃəmɑn" in this language. Finally we have argued that Cinque's specbased approach provides an adequate framework for specifying grammatical status and explaining syntactic behavior of this linguistic element in Kalhori Kurdish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

What does 'Smith knows that it might be raining' mean? Expressivism here faces a challenge, as its basic forms entail a pernicious type of transparency, according to which 'Smith knows that it might be raining' is equivalent to 'it is consistent with everything that Smith knows that it is raining' or 'Smith doesn't know that it isn't raining'. Pernicious transparency has direct counterexamples and undermines vanilla principles of epistemic logic, such as that knowledge entails true belief and that something can be true without one knowing it might be. I re-frame the challenge in precise terms and propose a novel expressivist formal semantics that meets it by exploiting (i) the topic-sensitivity and fragmentation of knowledge and belief states and (ii) the apparent context-sensitivity of epistemic modality. The resulting form of assertibility semantics advances the state of the art for state-based bilateral semantics by combining attitude reports with context-sensitive modal claims, while evading various objectionable features. In appendices, I compare the proposed system to Beddor and Goldstein's 'safety semantics' and discuss its analysis of a modal Gettier case due to Moss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SOME SCHOLARS HAVE SUGGESTED THAT EVIDENTIALITY SIGNALS NOT ONLY THE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT AN ASSERTED EVENT, BUT ALSO THE SPEAKER'S POSITION OR BELIEF ABOUT THE CERTAINTY OF THE EVENT'S OCCURRENCE (CHAFE, 1986; DELANCEY, 2001; PALMER 2001). THIS HAS LED TO A NUMBER OF CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE STATUS OF EVIDENTIALITY AND ITS OVERLAP WITH VARIOUS CATEGORIES IN THE GRAMMATICAL AND/OR SEMANTIC DOMAIN. THE PRESENT ARTICLE AIMS TO SUMMARIZE THE MAIN THEORIES EXISTING SO FAR ON THESE ISSUES AND, AT THE SAME TIME, TRIES TO PRESENT OUR POSITIONING. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is based on the use of valer (better, as its English translation) as a tertiopersonal verb introduced by the quantifier más (more, as its English translation) used in comparative structures in which the verb acts as main clause of subject subordinate clauses in the subjunctive or infinitive: Más vale/valdría que estudies/ estudiaras/estudiar (You’d better study/ It would be better if you studied/ You had better study/ It would be better to study). In the first part of the article there is a description of the syntax and semantics of this pan-Hispanic structure and some specialized pragmatic functions. Likewise, information is given on some units of a communicative type (taggers, phraseological units) in whose organizational structure includes some form of the verb valer, especially in the third person singular of the present indicative tense. In the second part of the study, three forms, two modal indicators and a connector, are reported, which have been classified as más vale. In a previous article it was explained that the use of más vale (que + indicativo [that + indicative]) in current Spanish has a geographic variation that is limited to Navarre (Spain) and, apparently, to Argentina as well. However, the meaning that más vale has in each of these geographical areas is different. In the first case it works as a categorical locution that shares the semantic features of the pattern menos mal (less bad). Meanwhile, the other categorical locution, on which this study will focus its attention, is an epistemic categorical adverb that would be integrated in the paradigm of statement reinforcers, among which we find por supuesto, claro, desde luego, evidentemente, etc (of course/ sure/ certainly/ obviously). Based on these facts, in the current study the following objectives are pursued: a) based on the information of several corpus, especially the macro corpus Spanish Web 2018 (esTenTen18), it is intended to offer an approach to the local distribution of the epistemic categorical adverb más vale; b) secondly, bearing in mind descriptions of other statement reinforcers in Spanish, the macro syntax and the communicative performance of this disjunctive conjunctions will be discussed; c) finally, after mentioning the presence of más vale as a rephrasing connector, some reflections on the use of the three más vale mentioned in the article are sketched, following the trail of studies that have shown the semantic shift from comparison to modality and rephrasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We focus on the grammatical expression of four major groups of meanings related to knowledge: I. Evidentiality: grammatical expression of information source; II. Egophoricity: grammatical expression of access to knowledge; III. Mirativity: grammatical expression of expectation of knowledge; and IV. Epistemic modality: grammatical expression of attitude to knowledge. The four groups of categories interact. Some develop overtones of the others. Epistemic-directed evidentials have additional meanings typical of epistemic modalities, while egophoricity-directed evidentials combine some reference to access to knowledge by speaker and addressee. Over the past thirty years, new evidential choices have evolved among the Tariana – whose language has five evidential terms in an egophoricity-directed system – to reflect new ways of acquiring information, including radio, television, phone, and internet. Evidentials stand apart from other means of knowledge-related categories as tokens of language ecology corroborated by their sensitivity to the changing social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidential markers have the function of indicating the source of information or evidence on which a statement is based. The aim of the present paper is to identify and disentangle the different evidential and epistemic meanings of the evidential adverb apparently through the lens of its translations into Swedish and other languages (German and French) in parallel corpora. The empirical findings from the translations show that apparently can cover many types of evidence and degrees of epistemic commitment. The evidential and epistemic modal meanings of apparently are separate but related to each other. The correspondences show that apparently has the evidential meanings inferential justification and hearsay (reportive justification). As shown by the correspondences, apparently can also have epistemic modal meanings indicating partial epistemic support. The correspondences of apparently as a seem-type verb used as a catenative have a hedging or downtoning function. The correspondences show that apparently can also situate an event in the domain of unreal or 'what is apparent rather than real'. In terms of epistemic modality apparently has the meaning of neutral support where it represents epistemic meanings that can be characterized as completely uncertain or complete ignorance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi is the property of Turkbilig/Turkoloji Arastirmalari Dergisi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

According to a prominent account of epistemic possibility endorsed by John Hawthorne and Jason Stanley ("H-S Account"), a proposition q is epistemically possible for a subject just in case what the subject knows doesn't obviously entail not-q. I argue that H-S Account is false by its own lights by first showing that H-S Account entails a different account of epistemic possibility--q is epistemically possible for a subject just in case not-q is not obvious to that subject ("Obvious Account")--and then showing that H-S Account is false on the basis of Obvious Account. Obvious Account is good news for fallibilists. H-S Account is in tension with fallibilism, which requires that fallibilist adherents of H-S Account do extra work to relieve the tension. Obvious Account, however, does not require any of this work; it is straightforwardly compatible with fallibilism. Obvious Account also has implications for the truth of concessive knowledge attributions (CKAs)--statements of the form: 'I know p, but possibly q', where q obviously entails not-p. Obvious Account allows some CKAs to be true, whereas H-S Account does not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Статья посвящена описанию способов структурирования аргументативных высказываний в функции опровержения в аудиовизуальных медиа-текстах, а также доли участия модальных единиц в этом процессе. Целью исследования было выявление взаимодействия модальных единиц, относимых к различным зонам понятийного поля модальности — алетической, эпистемической, деонтической и оценочной, в рамках каждого из шести блоков аргумента по модели С. Тулмина, а также рассмотрение возможного соотношения такого рода модального функционального усиления приводимой аргументации с жанровой спецификой медиа-текстов. Результаты сравнения использования модальных единиц в связи с каждым содержательным блоком контраргументации позволяют говорить о преимущественном влиянии того или иного типа модальности в каждом случае и степени детерминированности такого соотношения форматом медиа-текста.

The article presents a corpus-based study that aims at establishing how modality is used in climate change-related discourse by King Charles III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the UK). The study involved a corpus of speeches on the topic of climate change delivered by King Charles III from 2005 to 2023. The corpus was analysed in the computer software AntConc (Anthony) in order to compute the frequency of the occurrence of the central modal verbs. Thereafter, they were analysed qualitatively to establish the types of modality associated with them. The analysis revealed that climate change-related discourse by King Charles III was marked by a high frequency of the occurrence of the modal verbs will and can. Their frequency, pragmatic roles, and association with the different types of modality are further discussed in the article.

This study deals with the grammaticalization of ġādi – i.e., the active participle form of a movement verb meaning 'to go/leave/depart in the morning' – in Moroccan Arabic, of which the relevant literature has evidenced its uses as a future marker, describing this case as an instance of the common path 'go (to)' > future. In the light of fresh data, we first review the already documented uses of ġādi as a future marker, and, secondly, present an original preliminary study of its emerging modal values. Finally, by analyzing the correlation between the future values and the modal values of ġādi, we focus on some issues related to its grammaticalization, including the importance of taking into account certain semantic features of the source lexeme so far underestimated, and of considering the co(n)text within which the whole grammaticalization takes place. Ultimately, we argue that a secondary grammaticalization towards epistemic modality is in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modifying and hedging one's claims appropriately is an important characteristic of academic writing. This study focuses on the three main English modal verbs used to express "epistemic possibility" to avoid making strong statements, viz., may, might, and could. The purpose of this corpus-based study is to explore modal verb usage by Japanese EFL undergraduate students and consider pedagogical implications of our findings. Our analysis suggests that the Japanese students' use of these modal verbs, especially could, has a tendency to be informal and insufficiently academic. While the Japanese students use could very frequently, they do not use it sufficiently in the sense of "epistemic possibility", and some of their use is inappropriate not just in academic English but in English more generally. The observed high frequency of could may be related to topics and may also be due to the influence of L1. We discuss different factors that may explain the findings, based mainly on the overview of factors impacting on EFL learners' use of academic English offered by Gilquin and Paquot (2008). Too chatty: Learner academic writing and register variation. English Text Construction 1(1). 41–61), suggest several additions to this overview, and discuss implications for the instruction of these modal verbs in academic writing and in order to improve relevant teaching materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I review Ninan's Hundred Tickets case pertaining to quantification into epistemic modal contexts, and his counterpart theoretic way to address it (Ninan, Philos Rev, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-6973010). Ninan's solution employs a 'counterpart relation' parameter intended to reflect how the domain of quantification is thought of in a context. This approach theoretically rules out the possibility of contexts where different ways of thinking about the domain can be deployed through different quantificational noun phrases. I bring out the case of the multiply de re modal statement Any ticket in photo #2 might be any ticket in photo #1 to challenge Ninan's approach. I propose a different approach adapting a more complex 'counterpart relation' parameter due to Rabern (Inquiry, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2018.1470568). I attempt to flesh it out by relating it to a finer grained notion of epistemic possibility involving assignments to discourse referents. My approach can account for the aforementioned multiply de re statement, as well as address the Hundred Tickets case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous psychological experiments have shown that predictive inference processing under different textual constraints is modulated by the directionality function of epistemic modality (EM) certainty within the context. Nevertheless, recent neuroscientific studies have not presented positive evidence for such a function during text reading. Consequently, the current study deposited Chinese EMs "也许" (possibly) and "一定" (surely) into a predictive inference context to examine whether a directionality of EM certainty influences the processing of predictive inference via the ERP technique. Two independent variables, namely textual constraint and EM certainty, were manipulated, and 36 participants were recruited. The results revealed that, in the anticipatory stage of predictive inference processing while under a weak textual constraint, low certainty evoked a larger N400 (300–500 ms) in the fronto-central and centro-parietal regions, indicating the augmentation of cognitive loads in calculating the possibility of representations of the forthcoming information. Meanwhile, high certainty elicited a right fronto-central late positive component (LPC) (500–700 ms) associated with semantically congruent but lexically unpredicted words. In the integration stage, low certainty resulted in larger right fronto-central and centro-frontal N400 (300–500 ms) effects in the weak textual constraint condition, associated with the facilitation of lexical-semantic retrieval or pre-activation, and high certainty successively elicited right fronto-central and centro-parietal LPC (500–700 ms) effects, associated respectively with lexical unpredictability and reanalysis of the sentence meaning. The results support the directionality function of EM certainty and reveal the complete neural processing of predictive inferences with high and low certainties under different textual constraint conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic authorship analysis is based on two assumptions: that every individual has a unique idiolect, and that features characteristic of that idiolect will recur with a relatively stable frequency. Yet, a speaker's language can change with age, affective states, according to audience, or genre. Thus, studies on authorship analysis should adopt the theory that while some linguistic parameters of an idiolect can remain stable, others can change depending on various circumstances. This investigation, which takes a constructional and functional-based approach to discourse-level phenomena in idiolectal stability, analyzes cross-genre data produced by nine Mexican participants throughout a twelve-year time span. This study contributes to a greater understanding of the linguistic elements that survive genre effects and are potentially useful in both investigative and evidential forensic linguistic work. We provide a detailed description of linguistic features, their specific values, and context-dependent interpretation, keeping in mind the context of expert linguistic testimony, with its preference for methods which "employ linguistically motivated analyses in combination with quantitative tools" (Solan & Tiersma, 2004, p.463). Our findings show that idiolectal style tends to remain stable across genres and communication modes in epistemic modality constructions. Epistemic markers —specifically, markers indicating low commitment by the speaker (e.g., no sé 'I don't know') or expressing indirectness when introducing the illocutionary force (e.g., la verdad [es que] 'the truth [is that]')— display idiolectal stability, as these markers seem to be the most effective in terms of allowing speakers to strategically manifest the extent of their knowledge regarding what is said. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of students to edit scientific papers is still low, especially in mastering the use of hedge (fencing devices) and boosters (strengthening devices). Hedges and boosters are forms of expression of the author's attitude towards propositional content through epistemic modalities. This study aims to describe hedges and boosters in student scientific articles within the framework of a pragmatic metadiscourse. A qualitative descriptive approach was used in this study. The data used is in the form of editing words, sentences, and paragraphs in scientific articles editing courses. The source of this research data is a scientific article by PGRI Adi Buana University Surabaya students in 2022. Data collection techniques use documentation techniques and recording techniques. Data analysis techniques to identify hedges and word lists of boosters using the AntConc application built by Lawrence Anthony. Data that has been obtained from the AntConc application found the frequency of hedges and boosters in scientific articles. The results of this study showed that the use of modal verb hedges in the first position was 214 frequencies, followed by 59 adverbs of hedges, and verb hedges were 3 frequencies, while the use of booster in the first position was 202 frequencies, followed by adverbs booster of 63 frequencies, and booster verbs of 6 frequencies. This study shows that students ability to tendency to (1) use epistemic modalities in modal verbs, (2) tend to use more capital verbs that mean certainty and possibility, and (3) tend to use adverbs to mean epistemic modalities.

The article presents the results of the empirical study aimed at revealing epistemic modality realization in utterances with the verb would in English publicistic texts of analytical political articles. The relevance of the research is determined by the fact that discursive characteristics of modal syntagms with epistemic meaning in speech act are one of the least studied aspects of text modality. The basis of the research is the idea of epistemic modality being different from «root» modality expressed by the «material» meaning of the verb. Epistemic modality is expressed in lexico-syntactic mode which implies its study in terms of speech act syntagmatics. The results of the analysis demonstrate low frequency of the verb would as a lexical means. At the same time instances of its functioning in syntagms as a lexico-syntactic means of expressing modality are numerous. Discursive realization of the verb would is characterized by the category of polarity which is reflected in the opposition of the expected and the real. Illocutionary markers of the opposition are syntagms which contain lexical units with epistemic meaning or modal verbs with functions contrastive to those of the verb would. The main rhetorical model of speech acts organization is symmetry backed up by syntactically, lexically and phonologically similar text units. This principle of text organization is most clearly manifested in parallel word-combinations with the verbs would, «could», «should», and paronymic attraction.

The early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of pressure to scientists due to the novel nature of the coronavirus. As experts in the field, they were expected to produce only reliable information. Owing to the limited data available at the time, there were many uncertainties surrounding the virus. However, studies that looked into how the uncertainties were navigated are scarce. This corpus-based study investigates this issue using the system value of modal operators by Halliday and Matthiessen (2014), along with Dong et al.’s (2020) classification of COVID-19 research themes to explore levels of scientific researchers’ certainty in presenting information about coronavirus. Specifically, their choices of modal auxiliaries as epistemic devices are analysed. Results demonstrate that researchers mainly conduct studies on epidemiology with the lowest degree of certainty by utilising modals such as may, could and might. Furthermore, while some of the propositions expressed do display researchers’ assumptions of possibilities, they however, are presented with insufficient evidence. These findings help to untangle scientific researchers’ expressions of uncertainty and certainty through their use of epistemic devices and contribute to a better understanding of their intentions in conveying vital information.

Настоящая статья посвящена выявлению и классификации средств, реализующих пропозициональное содержание «сомнение» в русском разговорном дискурсе. Данная работа выполнена в рамках когнитивной лингвистики, а ее актуальность обусловлена тем, что изучение пропозиций и пропозициональных установок позволяет понять, как существует человек в языке, какими пропозициональными моделями он оперирует в речемыслительной деятельности, и как соотносятся системы знания с такими моделями. Реализация пропозиционального содержания «сомнение» рассматривается на материале Корпуса звучащей речи русского языка; применяется метод категоризации для определения основных концептуальных признаков сомнения и его репрезентации в русской языковой картине мира. Выстраивается номинативное поле для выявления значений, которые может содержать данное понятие. Приводится классификация средств, реализующих пропозициональное содержание сомнения в рассматриваемом дискурсе, а также статистика, описывающая наиболее частотные из средств.

The paper emphasizes the pragmatic and discursive extensions of a special verbal structure – at its origin, a Future Tense form – known in Romanian linguistics as presumptive mood (hereinafter: PRESUMPT). In terms of evidentiality, the PRESUMPT has two types of meanings: an inferential meaning, expressing an inference-based supposition, and also a reportative meaning, when the utterer does not take responsibility for the truthfulness of information from another source. These significances are very subtle and closely related to their context of use. That is why, sometimes, it is very difficult to distinguish one value from another. Therefore, Romanian PRESUMPT deploys in discourse pragmatic enrichments depending on the syntactic-enunciative structure it is inserted in or on some other parameters, such as: speaker’s epistemic stance, genre of discourse, intersubjectivity, and extends its core meaning of evidentiality through a range of discursive dimensions. Considering this situation, our approach outlines that a complex rhetorical strategy is involved in such contexts, where the PRESUMPT actualizes in fact only its prototypical feature [+placement in a subsequent relation (“ultériorité” – see Bres 2012. Conditionnel et ultériorité dans le passé: De la subjectivité à l’objectivité. In SHS Web of Conferences, Volume 1 (3ème Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française), 1719–1730.)], exclusively marking the relation of subsequence of the hypothesis or of the quoted speech act (in counter-argumentative frames) compared to a previously mentioned state of facts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses evidentials and their behaviour in interrogative sentences, based on novel data from Sm’algyax (Tsimshianic, British Columbia/Alaska). Typically, evidentials in declarative sentences receive a Speaker-anchored orientation (“According to my evidence, p”), and in interrogative sentences they receive an Addressee-anchored orientation (“According to your evidence, Q?”). This shift from Speaker to Addressee in questions is referred to as Interrogative Flip, which has been argued to be an obligatory process in canonical questions (Korotkova, Natasha. 2016. Heterogeneity and universality in the evidential domain. UCLA Doctoral dissertation). I discuss a particular evidential sn “Conjectural”, which exhibits variable interrogative flip in questions. The anchor of sn may shift to the Addressee, or it may result in a “Conjectural Question” reading, which I suggest involves a particular orientation of sn to neither the Speaker nor the Addressee. Adopting a simple modal analysis for evidentials, and a pragmatic approach to interrogative flip (Garrett, Edward John. 2001. Evidentiality and assertion in Tibetan. UCLA Doctoral dissertation; Korotkova, Natasha. 2016. Heterogeneity and universality in the evidential domain. UCLA Doctoral dissertation), I suggest that the variable interrogative flip behaviour falls out from the pragmatics of (non-)canonical questions (Farkas, Donka F. 2022. Non-intrusive questions as a special type of non-canonical questions. Journal of Semantics 39(2). 295–337). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is twofold: First, we compare the modal be going to-VP construction in English with the qu-VP 'go-VP', VP-qu 'VP-go', and qu-VP-qu 'go-VP-go' constructions in Chinese and propose that neither qu 'go' nor lai 'come' in Chinese has been grammaticalized to a modal auxiliary, as has occurred in the be going to construction in English: as Sweetser (1990) shows, in the history of grammaticalization, epistemic modality develops out of deontic modality, and this applies to the English be going to construction (Bybee (2015)); in Chinese, however, no evidence has been found to show that the verb qu 'go' has been grammaticalized to a modal auxiliary with the root modal meaning. While certain epistemic meanings are found in verb-verb compounds such as kan lai 'look come', and kan qu 'look go', we analyze this limited set of V--V compounds as instances of lexical rather than grammatical constructionalization (Traugott and Trousdale (2014)). Second, we discuss the qu in the VP-qu construction and the second qu in the qu-VP-qu construction and argue that these collocations have taken a small-step toward grammaticalization to forming semi-lexical verb of motion, a kind of light verb (Cardinalletti and Giusti (2001)). Drawing on a current theory of syntax, we demonstrate how these differ from purely lexical verbs of motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents four experiments that investigate the meaning of English and Italian statements containing the epistemic necessity auxiliary verb must/dovere, a topic of long-standing debate in the philosophical and linguistics literature. Our findings show that the endorsement of such statements in a given scenario depends on the participants' subjective assessment about whether they are convinced that the conclusion suggested by the scenario is true, independently from their objective assessment of the conclusion's likelihood. We interpret these findings as suggesting that English and Italian speakers use epistemic necessity verbs to communicate neither conclusions judged to be necessary (contrary to the prediction of the standard modal logical view) nor conclusions judged to be highly probable (contrary to the prediction of recent analyses using probabilistic models) but conclusions whose truth they believe in (as predicted by the analysis of epistemic must as an inferential evidential). We suggest that this evidential meaning of epistemic must/dovere might have arisen in everyday conversation from a reiterated hyperbolic use of the words with their original meaning as epistemic necessity verbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In a recent paper, Ippolito and Farkas (Linguist Philos, 45(4):943–984, 2022b) (I &F) question the premise that Italian future is epistemic necessity; in this brief response we want to show that there is no empirical motivation for abandoning it once we employ a more flexible framework of modality such as the one advanced in Giannakidou and Mari (Linguist Philos 41(6): 623–664, 2018) (G &M) which posits a ranking meta-evaluation in the modal structure that explains the empirical objections raised by I &F. We show that the core of the account in I &F shares the main ingredients with G &M and that, unlike what I &F propose, Italian future is not pure credence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets forth a quantitative analysis of expressions of epistemicity, a category covering the expression of commitment to the information transmitted, in a corpus of 25 threads extracted from British discussion forums. Epistemicity is divided into three categories: epistemic modality, evidentiality and factivity, each divided into subcategories. The results are analysed in contrast to comparable corpora of newspaper opinion articles and political speeches. The analysis uncovers significant differences in the expression of epistemicity in the three genres, in terms of both frequency and distribution across categories, the subcategory ‘cognitive attitude’ being a case in point. Epistemicity in the discussion forums is also proved to display features of orality and routinisation.

Expressing Veracity Reserve in the Secret Service Records of the Polish People’s Republic and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria (on the Example of the CHS Bolek and CHS Sabina Files) The analysis of the language of the security service employees in the Polish People’s Republic and the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, made on the basis of the CHS “Bolek” and the CHS “Sabina” files, showed that there is a certain feature that appears extremely often in the examined files, even though its occurrence in administrative and legal texts should be pretty sporadic. It is a very high frequency of using forms that express the veracity reserve. This shows how much the authors of the notes wanted to emphasise their own reserve to the truthfulness of the content provided by the confidential human sources (CHS). Wyrażanie rezerwy prawdziwościowej w aktach tajnych służb Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej i Ludowej Republiki Bułgarii (na przykładzie akt TW Bolka i TW Sabiny) Analiza języka służb bezpieczeństwa Polskiej Republiki Ludowej i Ludowej Republiki Bułgarii przeprowadzona na podstawie tzw. teczek TW Bolek i TW Sabina wykazała, że istnieje pewna cecha, która pojawia się w obydwu dokumentach niezwykle często, mimo że w tekstach administracyjnych i prawnych jej występowanie powinno być sporadyczne. Tą cechą jest duża częstotliwość występowania form wyrażających rezerwę prawdziwościową. Pokazuje to, jak bardzo autorzy notatek chcieli podkreślić swoją rezerwę co do prawdziwości treści przekazywanych przez poufne źródła osobowe.

Gradable Epistemic Modals (GEMs) such as certain or likely have been analyzed to have the semantics of gradable adjectives, which constrain their epistemic modality. This squib analyzes the modal use of the sentential particle qad in Standard Arabic which has the following puzzling behavior: particle qad gives rise to the certainty/likelihood modality meaning only when it is composed with the tense expression of its propositional complement. Modal qad then manifests itself as an extreme, non-gradable modal with no lexically encoded but grammatically derived scale meaning. A probabilistic semantics is proposed to derive the truth conditions of the epistemic modal meaning of qad based on a monotonic, probabilistic time-world branching model. The analysis assigns maximum degree of likelihood to qad in the past tense which triggers certainty. It also assigns a minimum degree of likelihoods to qad in the present tense which triggers possibility.

The concept and term polovedlejší věta ('semi-subordinate clause') is theoretically anchored in the formal-semantic level description of the language system. This description has been methodologically inspired by the distinctive features of the Prague Linguistic Circle phonology. Based on three features (subordinator, parenthesis, commenting), the semi-subordinate clause, by which the speaker comments on another clause, is delimited within this descriptive framework. Semi-subordinate clauses are unambiguously identifiable using a test of reversed relationship of clauses, cf. Jak vidím, jste soukromý detektiv 'As I see, you are a private detective' → Vidím, že jste soukromý detektiv 'I (can) see that you are a private detective.' The main section of the article is formed by a classification of semi-subordinate clauses in several parts. The first part is based on the classification according to subordinators: the centre of the system of semi-subordinate clauses is formed by clauses introduced by the relative pronominal adverb jak. Clauses with the relative consequential pronoun což and clauses with the relative introducing pronoun co are on the periphery. Clauses with conjunctions (jestli and its variants, and pokud and aby) lie between the centre and the periph ery. The second part differentiates between attitude and stylization clauses. In the conclusion, the term semisubordinate clause, reflecting a specific semi-category, is explained, and defended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Chinese, epistemic modality expressions include adverbs, auxiliary verbs, and sentence-final particles. This study focuses on the co-occurrence of various degrees of epistemic modality expressions and discusses the effect of their co-occurrence on the likelihood of sentences. First, we collected data on co-occurrence cases of various expressions from a large-scale corpus and analyzed the characteristics of the distribution of these co-occurrence patterns. Second, we examined how modal adverbs and sentence-final particles of different scales of modality affect the likelihood of sentences when they co-occur. We observed that lower certainty expressions precede higher ones, following a hierarchy of Modpossibility > Modprobability > Modcertainty, regardless of their categories. Moreover, the sentence-final particle 吧ba diminishes the likelihood of a proposition, while the sentence-final particle （是）...的 (shi)...de strengthens it. The findings in this study contribute to a deeper understanding of epistemic modality in Chinese and offer novel resources for the acquisition of the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assume a central thesis about modal auxiliaries due to Angelika Kratzer, the modal base presupposition: natural language expressions that contain a modal component in their meaning, including all English modal auxiliaries and epistemic modal auxiliaries (EMA)s in particular, presuppose a modal base, a function that draws from context a relevant set of propositions which contribute to a premise-semantics for the modal. Accepting this thesis for EMAs leaves open (at least) the following two questions about the meaning of English EMAs like must and might: (i) What constraints, if any, are there on the character of the premise set for an EMA? And (ii) what is the nature of the relationship between premises and conclusion that is required for truth of the EMA statement? I argue for at least a partial answer to (i), with a hypothesis about constraints on the modal base for an EMA: EMAs, unlike some other types of modals, are indexical: They are anchored to an agent-in-a-situation whose doxastic state is currently under discussion in the context of utterance. Realized in a Kratzerian semantics, indexicality sheds new light on a number of outstanding puzzles, including the widely observed variability of anchoring of EMAs, the ways in which EMAs differ from so-called root modals, Yalcin's (Mind 116:983–1026, 2007) puzzle (a version of Moore's paradox for epistemic modals embedded under attitudes), how to explain the apparent weakness of necessity EMAs, and problems with second order belief and disagreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the means of expressing positive epistemic judgement in Spanish and Italian: modals in their epistemic interpretation, epistemic adverb + indicative/subjunctive, with particular attention to the verbs creer/credere and their possible combination with the subjunctive. The constructions are analysed through the prism of cognitive grammar, specifically Langacker's theory of grounding. It is argued that the different types of epistemic judgement are analogous to nominal grounding elements (demonstrative pronouns, the definite article and relative quantifiers). The subjunctive after epistemic adverbs and verbs (such as tal vez or credere) is seen as the verbal counterpart of the relative quantifier some. Analyses suggest that this analogy helps to define the semantic difference between similar structures with the indicative and to resolve questions concerning the function of the subjunctive in epistemic contexts, such as the degree of uncertainty or the speaker's attitude towards the propositional content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides data from a regional dialect of Persian, Hamedanian Persian, where a verb is grammaticalized to be used as epistemic modality marker, frequently used in interrogatives. The verb didan, objectively means 'to see', but subjectivized in many instances to mean 'understand'. However, in this dialect, bini, originally the subjunctive second person singular form of the verb didan 'to see', is used as epistemic marker. It is used in content and polar questions, where uncertainty is a common feature. Our fieldwork data show that the verb didan is used rarely to mean 'to see' and it extended to mark epistemic modality, used as probability marker. This modal marker is only used in questions, which share the stance of uncertainty with epistemic markers. The various features of this grammaticalization path are discussed and an explanation based on egophoricity is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese epistemic modality can be expressed through by linguistic markers, such as adverb markers indicate the gradient or level of the speaker’s assumptions about a specific phenomenon. This study aims to investigate the epistemic modality of Japanese -hazu da and its Indonesian equivalent. This study utilized descriptive and qualitative methods, and data were obtained from various novels and Shonagon corpus. The findings of the present study are the adverbs and grammatical components that appear with modal auxiliary verbs, resulting in different epistemic gradations, notably uncertainty in the lowest rank, expectation/reasonable prediction, agreement/consent, disaffirmation, and strong negation, as well as strong affirmation in the highest rank. The Indonesia equivalent derived from this modality are ‘mungkin’, ‘tentunya’, ‘pastinya’, ‘kalau tidak salah’, and ‘mana mungkin’. The speaker’s logical reasoning and assumption supported by the contextual aspect and grammatical items in sentences.

The question of how knowledge is phrased, qualified and negotiated among speakers has been debated in linguistics, language typology, pragmatics, conversation analysis, and interactional linguistics. The editorial to the virtual special issue starts by providing an overview of the field of epistemicity and of the study of epistemic and evidential markers in talk-in-interaction. It then focuses on the relationship of those markers with the expression and negotiation of disagreement. Three main avenues of research are highlighted: (i) How do evidential and epistemic markers contribute to the modulation of disagreeing actions, (ii) how do they contribute to the formation of such disagreeing actions, and (iii) how do they vary depending on structural and relational characteristics of discourse genres and situation types? The editorial closes with an outline of the virtual special issue, including a summary of all contributions. • The epistemics of overt disagreements differ from those of affiliative actions. • Epistemic and evidential markers are used to hedge or boost disagreeing actions. • Epistemic and evidential markers interact with dialogism to express disagreement. • Epistemic and evidential disagreeing constructions are subject to genre constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern Greek displays two variants of the word min; one corresponds to a negative marker, and the other corresponds to an epistemic modal. We focus on the latter and provide, for the first time to our knowledge, experimental evidence on its exact interpretation, showing that (i) non-negative min is incompatible with the overt realization of polar propositional alternatives {p,¬p}, (ii) it conveys medium speaker certainty with respect to the expressed proposition p, and (iii) it encodes speaker bias in favor of p. Our findings support the novel generalization that non-negative min is uniformly interpreted as conveying that the speaker is neither unbiased nor negatively biased (as suggested by the previous literature on the topic), but positively biased with respect to a proposition p. We argue that non-negative min is a biased epistemic modal that needs to be licensed by an external non-veridical operator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thinking together in primary classrooms has received much scholarly attention in recent years, with a focus on educational dialogue at the forefront of studies concerned with identifying what constitutes effective language for learning. Whilst the expression of explicit reasoning is often discussed, less attention has been given to the role that provisionality or vague language plays in supporting the articulation of 'thinking aloud in action'. In this study, we draw on data which comprised recorded lessons of primary-aged children (8–10 years old) in whole class and small peer-group learning contexts. Using linguistic ethnography we examine the data for patterns of specific vocabulary associated with reasoning and provisional or vague language. We then identify episodes in the transcripts where the language co-occurs. Tracking two children's contributions, we are able to note the differences in their articulation of ideas in the different learning contexts of whole class and small group. We conclude that not only is thinking aloud complex, fluid and provisional, but that 'epistemic modality' supports reasoning by allowing a tempering of proposed ideas and by appealing to listeners by referencing shared experiences. The small group or larger whole class contexts change this relationship, though not necessarily as expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Estonian polysemous words ehk, äkki and järsku have different meanings and uses, but all three have in common the function as an epistemic modal particle. Ehk, that is used also as a conjunction, has probably always functioned as a particle in Estonian. Based on the corpus data, äkki ('suddenly', 'perhaps') has developed into a modal particle during the 20th century. Its synonym järsku ('suddenly') also finds some uses as an epistemic particle, but its pragmaticalization is still in its early stages. As a developing particle, järsku copies the functions that äkki has developed step by step. The use of ehk is mostly subjective (expression of the speaker's assessment of the content of the sentence). In the case of particles äkki and järsku, intersubjectivity (mirativity, various interrogative and directive functions and their softening) is dominating. Different particles have different register preferences. The old and wellestablished particle ehk appears more in written registers, in both web and printed texts. Developing particles äkki and järsku spread primarily through spoken and online communication. At the same time, some types of text (forums, internet commentaries, tabloid journalism) stand out for their distinctive uses of modal particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper presents the results of a corpus-based pilot study aiming to investigate whether and to what extent epistemicity and evidentiality contribute to the degree of assertiveness of discourse on Twitter. The analysis was conducted on 900 tweets in English, Italian, and Spanish, published between May and June 2020 after the killing of George Floyd in the USA. We explore the epistemic constructions employed by users to evaluate the object of discourse (racism, discrimination), and their use of evidentials for marking the source of information of their statements. The results show that epistemic markers are not frequent in the corpora, but that in most cases they display high commitment towards the truth of the users’ propositions. As for evidentiality, its presence is even lower, especially in the English dataset. These findings suggest that controversial debates on Twitter favour the adoption of assertive and inferential strategies.

This paper provides an analysis of the ‘frustrative’ marker séna7 in St’át’imcets (Lillooet Salish), and compares it to similar elements cross-linguistically. Séna7 appears in a range of discourse contexts, including when events have an unexpected outcome, fail to continue, or fail to take place optimally. We argue that séna7 felicitously applies to a proposition p only if there is a salient true proposition q and the speaker did not expect p and q to both be true. Séna7 encodes epistemic modality, refers only to the speaker’s epistemic state (ignoring the common ground), and has no effect on at-issue truth conditions (séna7(p) entails p). We show that séna7 provides a diagnostic for distinguishing between entailments and implicatures in the language, and a clear diagnostic for the distinction between futures and prospective aspects. We compare séna7 with similar elements in Tohono O’odham, Kimaragang and Tagalog. We argue that séna7 and the Kimaragang frustrative can be captured by the same analysis once independent features of their tense/aspect systems are taken into account. Following Kroeger (2017. Frustration, culmination and inertia in Kimaragang grammar. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 2(1). 56. 1–29), but pace Copley and Harley (2014. Eliminating causative entailments with the force-theoretic framework: The case of the Tohono O’odham frustrative cem. In Bridget Copley & Fabienne Martin (eds.), Causation in grammatical structures (Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 52), 120–151. Oxford: Oxford University Press), we argue that frustratives should not be unified with non-culminating accomplishments, and can be analyzed without appealing to causality or efficacy.