Processing epistemic modality: Some consequences for modeling language production

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute (from a linguistic angle) to the issue of the nature and structure of the cognitive systems involved in language production, and specifically to how linguistic structures and processes relate to conceptual structures and processes in it, by means of an empirical analysis of (some aspects of) the linguistic behavior of epistemic modal expression forms and by considering its implications for the question of the status of ‘qualificational categories’ such as epistemic modality in language processing, and specifically in language production. The paper will focus more particularly on (the theoretical implications of) the effect of the structure of information in actual discourse situations on the use of the major epistemic expression types in Dutch (sentence adverbs, predicative adjectives, mental state predicates, and modal auxiliaries) and the (complex) relationship of this factor with the syntactic organization of these expressions.