Abstract
AbstractThis article provides an introduction for the collection of methodologically oriented papers comprising this Special Issue. We define the concept of epistemicity as used in descriptive linguistics and discuss notions related to it – some well-established, some more recent – such as evidentiality, egophoricity, epistemic authority and engagement. We give a preliminary overview of the different types of epistemic marking attested in the languages of the world and discuss the recent developments in the field of epistemic research focussing on methodologies for investigating epistemic marking. In the second part of the paper, we focus on the more practical side of epistemic fieldwork; the types of data that can be used in documenting linguistic expressions of epistemicity and best practices for data collection. We discuss the experimental methods that are used in the description of epistemic systems, both those developed for this particular purpose and those adapted from other types of linguistic research. We provide a critical evaluation of those materials and stimuli and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, we introduce the contributions to the Special Issue, discussing the languages studied by the authors of the contributions and the fieldwork methods they used in their research.
Highlights
The notion of epistemicity in linguistics is related to how knowledge is encoded in language and grammar
Epistemicity in language is commonly exemplified by evidentiality and epistemic modality (Boye 2012; see Palmer 2001), which are linguistic categories that signal the speaker’s estimation of certainty and the speaker’s access to information, respectively (e.g. Plungian 2010)
The discussion of such issues is necessary if we aim to establish a common, theoretically informed starting point for formulating hypotheses related to epistemic marking, which in turn is required for choosing appropriate methods and tools for data collection
Summary
The notion of epistemicity in linguistics is related to how knowledge is encoded in language and grammar. Epistemicity in language is commonly exemplified by evidentiality and epistemic modality (Boye 2012; see Palmer 2001), which are linguistic categories that signal the speaker’s estimation of certainty (possibility/necessity) and the speaker’s access to information, respectively (e.g. Plungian 2010) Their use in discourse is to a large degree influenced by how knowledge is distributed between speaker and addressee, or even, in some cases, with respect to an entire speech community (Bergqvist 2017). The speaker’s active involvement in an event can be used as a motivation for claiming knowledge, but involvement can be claimed based on being affected by the outcome of an event or having an attitude towards it (see Bergqvist and Knuchel 2017) Another factor to consider is whether the knowledge is exclusive or shared with others, and if so, with whom (interlocutor, members of the speech community, unspecified). The aim of this paper is to evaluate and discuss different ways of investigating these distinct grammatical categories and the perceptual, cognitive and social processes that they reflect
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