Hypothetical questions in everyday Italian conversations.

Abstract

Simulation is an important cognitive resource involved in many mental processes. In this paper, we focus our attention on hypothetical questions (HQs) which are “communicative tools” used by speakers to encourage the activation of that resource, i.e., to invite their interlocutors to imagine a hypothetical scenario and to answer one or more related questions. While their functions have been broadly investigated in institutional settings, little has been written about such questions regarding everyday talk, and no work has been conducted specifically on the Italian language. This paper aims to fill this gap by analysing the linguistic designs, the epistemic stances conveyed, and the pragmatic functions accomplished by a set of HQs taken from a corpus of ordinary Italian conversations. The analysis reveals that the linguistic design of HQs is complex, in the sense that they can be made up of different types of hypothetical and interrogative components; the epistemic stances conveyed are numerous, in the sense that their hypothetical and interrogative components can come from different epistemic positions; and unlike HQs used in institutional settings, their pragmatic functions are multiple, ranging from finding out the interlocutor's opinion, communicating rhetorically the questioners’ point of view, asking for advice, asking for permission, making proposals.