Epistemic Modality Research Articles

The indexical character of epistemic modality

The indexical character of epistemic modality

Hebrew copulative perception verbs

Abstract Copulative perception verbs such as English sound have received scant attention relative to other perception verbs, especially in non-European languages. In Hebrew, these verbs can take both adjectival and adverbial complements, a fact which sets Hebrew apart from previously studied languages, and which has heretofore been overlooked. This article investigates the usage of Hebrew copulative perception verbs with adverbial complements, with adjectival complements, and in impersonal constructions. A large-scale corpus study and a preference experiment reveal that each of these three constructions has a different interpretation. With adverbial complements, the verbs have an “attributary” meaning, attributing properties to perceptual impressions of objects. The complement slot in these cases is restricted to subjective multidimensional properties, which previous accounts of the attributary meaning fail to predict, motivating a novel analysis in terms of dimension selection. With adjectival complements, as well as in impersonal constructions, the verbs have a parenthetical meaning, taking and modifying a proposition argument. The two constructions are not equivalent, however. With adjectival complements, the verbs encode evidential but not epistemic information, and vice versa in impersonal constructions, reinforcing the need to maintain a distinction between the classes of evidentials and epistemic modals.

Статус глагола mögen и его грамматической формы möchte в немецком языке

The aim of the research is to identify the semantic changes in the modal verb ‘mögen’ and its subjunctive form ‘möchte’ in German. The paper clarifies the status of the modal verb ‘mögen’ in diachrony and synchrony, explains the participation of ‘mögen’ and its form ‘möchte’ in the process of grammaticalization. The modal verb ‘mögen’ is considered from the perspective of its frequency in oral and written speech at various stages of the development of the German language and the identification of its modal meanings. The acquired modal meanings make it possible to speak about the expression of the category of modality by the verb ‘mögen’, namely the expression of volitive and epistemic modality. As linguistic analysis shows, the verb ‘mögen’ in its volitive meaning, used in the form of the subjunctive mood ‘möchte’, has a close meaning with the verb ‘wollen’ in the German language. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the substantiation of the linguistic status of the modal verb ‘mögen’ and its form ‘möchte’ in German as grammatical precedent units. As a result, it has been proved that the verb form ‘möchte’ should not be considered as a notional verb different from ‘mögen’.

David L. Mathewson. Voice and Mood: A Linguistic Approach

David L. Mathewson. <i>Voice and Mood: A Linguistic Approach</i>

Technical optimism theoretical limits

This work reveals a part of the technical optimism theoretical limits. The aim of the study is to represent the technical optimism as a modification of a spontaneous value mindset and to reveal the main theoretical limits of it. In this regard, the main categories of the technical optimism are described as a phenomenon (engineering as the wheal a priori, assertion of the engineering orientation to obtain benefits, technical reality acceptance), the technology axiological neutrality is identified and substantiated. The essence of the technical singularity is revealed as one of the options for describing the limit of the scientific and technological progress, and as one of the main modern optimistic technology concepts. The basic aspects of the epistemic and existential modalities of the technical optimism are revealed, that allows to see the basis of the technical reality axiological thematization. The main research methods are idiographic and nomothetic methods. The study is novel in that it identifies the technical optimism modalities.

Epistemic Modality through the Use of Adjectives in George W. Bush in Selected Speeches: Urging Countries around the World to Join the War in Iraq

This study provides a detailed analysis of George W. Bush's speeches during the Iraq War, with a focus on his use of epistemic modal adjectives to influence the international community's support for the war. The study draws on a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the epistemic modality in six of Bush's speeches, including The State of the Union Speeches and The War Speeches. By utilizing Biber et al.'s (1999, p.5-6) categories of epistemic modality, the study categorizes the adjectives into "Certainty" and "Likelihood" and examines their underlying functions in persuading the public about the Iraq War. The findings highlight that the adjectives served five distinct functions, namely "assertion," "assumption," "conviction," "hedging," and "likelihood/possibility," which were strategically employed by Bush to promote his policy and agenda towards the Iraqi government. The study emphasizes the crucial role of epistemic modality in political speeches and its potential impact on shaping public opinion.

The Expressions of Epistemic Modality in English and Vietnamese: A Contrastive on “thấy” and “nghĩ” in Vietnamese and Mental Verbs in English

Epistemic modality is described as the speaker's judgment, assessing the degree of the factual proposition, or the speaker's confidence or non-confidence in the truth value of the proposition. The paper focuses on the expression of “thấy”, “nghĩ” predicates in Vietnamese and compares with mental verbs in English. To achieve the research objectives, the paper uses descriptive, statistical and comparative methods to clarify modality in general and epistemic modality in particular. The paper initially contributes to clarifying the definition, category, and identification of epistemic modality in terms of grammar and vocabulary. Next, the paper points out the similarities and differences in the expression of epistemic modality in English and Vietnamese. The results show that the nature of vocabulary and syntax basically exists value of factuality and non-factuality. The most important feature of epistemic modality is subjectivity and objectivity. The speaker "I/Tôi" clearly expresses or implies commitment for what is said. Understanding and applying modality in general and epistemic modality in particular will help learners acquire language and culture better in the process of communication and translation.

Can the reference of a use of “That” change? Assessing non-standard approaches to the semantics of demonstratives

The debate over the semantics of demonstratives is in a stalemate between those positions attributing some referential significance to a speaker's referential intentions and those not doing so. The latter approach is supported by cases driving the non-intentional intuition in which the speakers mistakenly point at objects other than the ones they intend to refer to. The intentionalists, such as Martin Montminy, reply that once we think of potential extensions of such cases in which the speaker explains to the hearer what her referential intention was, it is the intentionalist intuition that prevails. In this paper, I develop a semantics for demonstratives whose task is to accommodate both of these seemingly contradictory intuitions within the general non-intentionalist framework. The proposed idea is that the reference of a use of a demonstrative can change over time, as the discourse develops. This idea is handled formally by the addition of a parameter of the index of evaluation that represents the referentially relevant aspects of the state of the discourse. Also, I provide reasons for preferring my view over two rival positions: one by Palle Leth, and one that I adjust to the demands of the semantics of demonstratives from the theory that Kai von Fintel and Anthony Gillies offer for epistemic modals, and from Laura Delgado's polyreferentialism for proper names.

The Syntax of the Epistemic Modal kaan in Jordanian Arabic

The goal of this study is to investigate the syntax of the epistemic modal item kaan in Jordanian Arabic (JA). It was pointed out that kaan is a deductive epistemic modal marker that expresses probability based on sensory fact/s. We have argued that this kaan is an epistemic modal adverb heading Epistemic Modal Phrase (MepP) in the left periphery, above TP. That kaan precedes existential fii, sentential negation, and a topicalized item as well as a focused item empirically supports the hypothesis that kaan resides in the left-periphery. In order to explain lack of agreement affixes on kaan along the lines of the minimalist approach (Chomsky 2000, 2001), we have assumed that kaan does not carry semantically uninterpretable features and lexically unvalued features that need to be checked. Finally, it was found that epistemic kaan may not occur in non-declarative sentences. This exclusion was explained in light of the truth conditions that non-declarative clauses lack. Keywords: Modal, Epistemic Modal, Left-Periphery, Syntax, Jordanian Arabic.

The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing

The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing

A contrastive analysis of modality between english and behdini-kurdish

The current study intends to conduct a comparative analysis of modality in English and Behdini-Kurdish. Modality is a linguistic category pertaining to expressing possibility and necessity, among other meanings. The paper’s central problem is that Behdini-Kurdish learners face difficulty in comprehending the notion of modality in English, precisely of modal auxiliary verbs. The primary goals of this investigation are to define epistemic and deontic modalities in the two languages in order to illustrate the similarities and dissimilarities between them. The results reveal that modals in English are predominantly grammatical auxiliaries. In contrast, in Kurdish, they are mainly lexical items, many of which are used to represent a single English modal auxiliary. The findings of the study are summarized in a number of conclusions.

Modalitas Epistemik -Hazu Da dan Padanannya dalam Bahasa Indonesia

Japanese epistemic modality can be expressed through by linguistic markers, such as adverb markers indicate the gradient or level of the speaker’s assumptions about a specific phenomenon. This study aims to investigate the epistemic modality of Japanese -hazu da and its Indonesian equivalent. This study utilized descriptive and qualitative methods, and data were obtained from various novels and Shonagon corpus. The findings of the present study are the adverbs and grammatical components that appear with modal auxiliary verbs, resulting in different epistemic gradations, notably uncertainty in the lowest rank, expectation/reasonable prediction, agreement/consent, disaffirmation, and strong negation, as well as strong affirmation in the highest rank. The Indonesia equivalent derived from this modality are ‘mungkin’, ‘tentunya’, ‘pastinya’, ‘kalau tidak salah’, and ‘mana mungkin’. The speaker’s logical reasoning and assumption supported by the contextual aspect and grammatical items in sentences.

Certainty and Uncertainty in the Abstract Section of Mechanical Engineering Research Articles

The study of epistemic modality in research articles (RAs) has been found in many papers. However, the investigation of epistemic modality in the abstract section of RAs viewed from Systemic Functional Linguistics is rarely conducted, especially in mechanical engineering RAs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the roles of epistemic modality in the abstract section of mechanical engineering RAs. A number of 50 abstracts were collected from Scopus Q-1 journal of mechanical engineering entitled “International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture” in the period of 2016-2020. The data were analyzed using the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework focusing on epistemic modality markers in terms of orientation and values. The results reveal that the writers of mechanical engineering RAs tend to use epistemic modality markers as objective implicit and explicit orientation only since there is no subjective implicit or explicit orientation found in the data. Furthermore, the findings also show that the writers apply epistemic modality markers mostly with low values instead of median or high values. These results may be used to improve the academic writing ability of mechanical engineering writers, especially in writing abstract sections.

MEANS OF EXPRESSING EPISTEMIC MODALITY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The article is devoted to the analysis of the nomenclature of means of expressing epistemic modality in the English language. At the functional-semantic level, the semantics of epistemic assessment is reflected in the values of units of the morphological, lexical, and syntactic levels of language, capable of performing the following semantic functions at the level of utterance: the degree of confidence of the speaker, the degree of validity of judgment, subjectivity, and unreality. Since the combined common function of all means of expressing epistemic evaluation is to reflect the speaker’s incomplete epistemic commitment based on his insufficient epistemic guarantees, the degree of confidence and the degree of justification act as the basic semantic functions of epistemic evaluation. The first reflects the epistemic commitment that the speaker accepts, and the second — his epistemic guarantees. Depending on the quality of epistemic guarantees, the validity can be high, medium, low, or actually absent in the semantics of the indicator. Validity is related to the speaker’s knowledge about the situation and, in particular, the degree of validity directly depends on the source of information about the situation. Modal values of morphological indicators of epistemic evaluation include epistemic necessity and epistemic possibility and reflect the degree of invalidity of the proposition from the point of view of the speaker. In evaluative statements, epistemic necessity and epistemic possibility are reinterpreted as evaluative values of certainty and uncertainty, respectively; that is, the modal component of the value of such indicators is preserved, but at the communicative and pragmatic level, their modal value comes to the fore, reflecting the degree of confidence of the speaker.

Seem and Appear and Their Norwegian Verbal Counterparts: A Cross-Register Contrastive Study

ABSTRACT Verbs such as seem and appear combine features of evidential meaning with epistemic modality. This study takes a corpus-based, contrastive view of such verbs in Norwegian and English. It investigates the frequencies, patterns and meanings of seem, appear and their Norwegian correspondences virke, synes and se ut in English fiction and academic prose. Both similarities and differences are found across languages and registers. Appear and synes are clearly more frequent in academic prose and can therefore be characterised as more formal. Of all the verbs investigated, seem has the greatest syntactic flexibility. The Norwegian verbs show more syntactic variation across lexemes than the English verbs do. The English verbs are arguably more grammaticalised in their evidential meanings: they occur more regularly with catenative function, and are also complemented directly by NPs and nominal clauses rather than by PPs and adverbial clauses, which is often the pattern of the Norwegian verbs.

Modality of possibility and necessity in Russian Sign Language

The article discusses manual and non-manual means used to express the modal meanings of possibility and necessity in Russian Sign Language (RSL). It is shown that due to the combination of manual signs, non-manual markers, and means of non-concatenative morphology (in particular, manner of movement), RSL is able to express subtle shades of modal semantics. RSL also clearly distinguishes between semantic domains of subject-oriented modality and epistemic modality: the first one is obligatorily expressed by manual signs while the second one is obligatorily marked by non-manuals. The article also discusses the origin of manual markers of possibility and necessity in RSL: some of them are native signs, in which the modal meaning is mainly expressed by the visual metaphor “from image to meaning”, typical for sign languages, while others are lexicalized borrowings from spoken Russian or have been derived from gestures used by hearing people. It is also shown that in the division of the sematic area of modality, RSL differs both from the surrounding spoken Russian language and a number of sign languages.

Communication and pragmatic peculiarities of esoteric forecasts in mass media discourse of the Russo-Ukrainian war

The subject of the study is esoteric projections as one of the ways to create a verbal pattern of the future. The study is based on the text and video content containing esoteric forecasts, fortune telling and predictions about the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor’s military. Today Ukrainians suffer from the Russian military’s criminal actions and information warfare organized by the authorities and propagandists of the Russian Federation, they feel permanent stress and are very sensitive to esoteric content that creates an illusion of understanding of the situation, provokes wrong conclusions and actions, which can result in dangerous situations for the citizens. Thus, Ukraine has a serious problem of differentiating between high-quality and manipulative forecasts, which makes urgent the study of its communication and pragmatic peculiarities, verification of the forecasts, and dissemination of information about forecasting content quality. The aim of the study is to accentuate and explore esoteric forecasting as a special type of verbal modeling of the future, which has different communication purposes, specific intentionally organized non-verbal context of the messages about the future and means of linguistic impact on the recipient, as opposed to the scientific and naive empirical forecasting. The results of this study showed a manipulative nature of the esoteric forecasts — in most cases, they are aimed at attracting an audience to the media channels with corresponding content and forming a social and political opinion beneficial to the sponsors of such content, or required evaluation of the events in Ukraine and other countries. From the linguistic point of view, esoteric forecasts are typically characterized by imperative constructions with the explicitly realized epistemic modality of reality expressed by the modes of faith, knowledge, and belief. This is a distinct feature of the forecasts based on analysis, whereas scientific and naive empirical forecasting is characterized by the author’s uncertainty about the forecasting content, which they demonstrate using constructions with hypothetic epistemic modality and lexical means that convey uncertainty and hesitation. This study is novel as linguistic and extralingual means of expression of esoteric forecasts under the conditions of the Russo-Ukrainian War were analysed for the first time. It is worth studying scientific and empirical forecasts and determine the nature of their influence on the media content consumers in the future.

An Alternative Semantic Analysis of the Particle ʃikil in Jordanian Arabic

This paper revisits the semantics of the marker ʃikil in Jordanian Arabic (henceforth, JA) which has been analyzed as indirect evidential in previous literature (Al-Malahmeh 2013; Jarrah &amp; Alshamari 2017, and others). The paper argues that ʃikil is a propositional-level rather than an illocutionary-level operator and therefore ʃikil is amenable to a modal analysis. The paper also provides evidence that epistemic modality system in JA can be finer-grained in terms of the propositions construed in the modal base as either logical reasoning-based or observable evidence-based. Such intriguing feature has been overlooked in possible world semantics (Kratzer 1991, 2012) but slightly reformed in the modal analysis advocated for ʃikil in this paper where the modal base is argued to construe a presupposition restricting the propositions in the modal base to observable evidence only. Cross-linguistically, the findings of the current paper lend further support to the unfolding literature that asserts the affinity and the heterogeneity of evidentiality and epistemic modality. At the same time, it poses serious challenge to the seminal works in evidentiality such as those of Aikhenvald (2004) and De-Haan (1999, 2004) who claimed that evidentiality is a homogenous category.&#x0D;

Markers of epistemic and evidential modality In the educated speech of Caracas

Markers of epistemic and evidential modality In the educated speech of Caracas

Определение интенсиональных значений, реализуемых в научном тексте на уровне ментальных перформативов и ассертивных речевых актов

The aim of the research is to identify intensional meanings realised in a scientific text at the level of mental performatives and assertive speech acts and to determine the theoretical significance of the notion of “intensionality”. Scientific novelty of the research lies in developing an algorithm for identifying intensional meanings in a scientific text, as well as in studying the implementation of intensional meanings at the level of mental performatives and assertive speech acts. As a result, it has been proved that in a scientific text, the intensional meaning is expressed via utterances with mental performatives in which an intellectual impact on reality is realised. In addition, the intensional meaning is expressed in the illocutionary power of assertive speech acts (in a message, statement or when informing the addressee of the utterance). In addition to the illocutionary power of assertive speech acts, their intensionality is realised in the epistemic modality of assertive speech acts, which conveys the author’s knowledge, faith or trust in what is reported in the scientific text. As a result, it has been proved that the expression of intensional meanings depends on the study of the meaning of linguistic units in various aspects, in which the role of the speaker occupies the central place.