Pragmatic effects of intersubjective evidentiality

Abstract

Abstract I aim here to analyze the semantic and pragmatic functions of the negative question oukh horâis? ‘don’t you see?’ in the context of dialogic interactions in Classical Greek. In light of recent studies on the intersubjective impact of evidential strategies, especially, though not exclusively, on their use in interrogative contexts, I propose to interpret oukh horâis? as a non-canonical, assertive question with an evidential intersubjective value, primarily encompassing the domain of visual evidentiality but also allowing the expression of inferential evidentiality. It is shown that the oukh horâis? strategy enables the speaker to (i) engage the hearer by guiding their focus to a visual source of information which is relevant to the construction of their interaction, (ii) make the hearer responsible, and (iii) share responsibility, ultimately with an agreement-seeking function. The analysis is corpus-based and investigates the occurrences of oukh horâis? in all the plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Furthermore, it examines the occurrences of the non-negative question horâis? ‘do you see?’ for comparative purposes.