Abstract
This paper discusses the means of epistemic modality used in Russian political discourse. Russian political leaders most often use epistemic modal adverbs and mental state predicates in their speeches for hedging purposes. Modal particles and modal expressions are employed more often than predicatively used adjectives, modal auxiliaries are never used due to the peculiarities of the Russian language. Most commonly used words expressing epistemic modality in Russian belong to the group of modal adverbs. Due to the structure of Russian, groups of particles and modal expressions conveying epistemic modality are analysed. The study reveals that Russian politicians use words with epistemic meanings mainly to convince the listener that the information is reliable, and rarely to mitigate the content of the proposition or to reduce the author’s responsibility for what is being claimed. The cognitive processes help to recognize the ideas encoded in epistemic utterances. Those processes are based on the shared knowledge and understanding of the context.
Highlights
Modality enables speakers to express their attitude to the content of speech
This article endeavours to discuss the means of epistemic modality used in contemporary Russian political discourse, using mainly quantitative methods of analysis
Epistemic modality helps to monitor the audience’s apprehension of truth, allowing them to undertake a certain degree of personal responsibility and to estimate the degree of validity of the information shared with other participants in the political discourse (Nuyts 2001)
Summary
Modality enables speakers to express their attitude to the content of speech. It makes it possible for speakers to correlate the information conveyed. Epistemic modality is a useful means for speakers to express beliefs, assumptions, doubts or certainties as well as to conceal or hedge. It is employed to state the speaker’s relativity of assumptions of the proposition and his/her tentativeness and noncommitting to the truth-value of the proposition. The speeches of politicians are woven out of such modes of knowing such as possibility, probability, or inferred certainty. The issue of the epistemic modality is significant and has been under constant examination in recent research. This article endeavours to discuss the means of epistemic modality used in contemporary Russian political discourse, using mainly quantitative methods of analysis
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