Epistemic Verbs Research Articles

Manner expressions in Finnish and Estonian: their use in quotative constructions and beyond

Abstract In this study, we look at manner demonstratives (such as ‘so’ and similative prepositions such as ‘like’) in complex sentences of two Finnic languages: Finnish and Estonian. We expand previous accounts of these manner expressions (MEs) in quotative constructions and investigate their use with epistemic (‘know’, ‘guess’) and perceptive (‘see’, ‘hear’, ‘feel’) verbs in non-standard written communications. In addition to the results from two Finnic languages, in the discussion of this article, we pay attention to the similarities found in the use of MEs with these verbs in Finno-Ugric languages spoken in Russia. The results show that MEs contribute to the expression of epistemic processes and perception in both languages. Manner demonstratives are used as endophoric markers pointing at demonstrations and descriptions of the event perceived. Co-occurring with the epistemic verb ‘know’, manner demonstratives induce a non-factive construal and cancel the presupposition that the speaker considers the proposition to be true. With inherently subjective verbs like ‘understand’ and in some contexts with perceptive verbs like ‘see, seem’, and ‘feel’, they indicate the subjective interpretation of the event. The reportative function is observed with the auditory perceptive verbs ‘hear’ and ‘be heard’, where the manner demonstratives highlight the reporter’s uncertainty or indicate the verbatim rendering of the report. Furthermore, they can express the speaker’s wishful thinking while co-occurring with a visual perceptive verb ‘see’. In turn, similative markers are used in reportative function as already established quotatives and mark reports as approximately reproduced or typical for the event described. Co-occurring with perceptive verbs, they can express the speaker’s doubt or mark propositions as counterfactual.

EPISTEMIC ADVERBS AS MEANS OF EXPRESSING THE CREDIBILITY OF THE CONTENTS (IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

The interest in the study of the category of epistemic modality is associated with the allocation of their new classification and consideration of the means of their linguistic objectification. Among the little-studied problems are linguistic means of expressing epistemic modality of credibility, actualizing the denotative correlation with parts of speech and receiving an equivalent representation of their lexical meaning. The article deals with the semantic analysis of epistemic adverbs in the framework of logical analysis. The aim of the article is to study the semantics of epistemic adverbs in terms of the realization of the credibility of the contents in English. These lexemes are considered in the contexts of their functioning. The scientific innovativeness of the article is at the heart that this article examines the correlation of epistemic adverbs and verbs of mental activity: know, think, suppose, doubt, etc. The objectives of the study are to describe the classification of epistemic adverbs according to the degree of expression of credibility of the contents; to analyze epistemic adverbs of credibility of the contents in the texts of fiction; to identify the correlation of epistemic adverbs and verbs of mental activity: know, think, suppose, doubt, etc. The contexts where epistemic adverbs function in texts of fiction are identified and described. The article argues that epistemic adverbs have a denotative correlation with mental verbs and receive an equivalent representation of their lexical meaning. The author concludes that according to the contexts of their functioning, their lexical meanings inherent in epistemic verbs, namely mental verbs, are manifested.

The diachronic path of achar in Portuguese: from a propositional to an epistemic verb

Abstract In this article I investigate the diachronic path of the Portuguese verb achar ‘to find/consider’, from a main propositional verb (in the sense of Traugott 1989), in earlier stages of the language, to a verb with epistemic reading, which is the default interpretation in Contemporary European Portuguese (CEP). Based on a sample corpus of texts comprehended between the 13th and the 17th century, I have concluded that the epistemic reading of achar was incipient until the 16th century, despite the existence of a few examples in the 13th century. This grammaticalization process seems to be recent in the language since epistemic readings remain infrequent until the 17th century and I did not find parenthetical uses in the corpus. Nevertheless, data under analysis allowed me to identify two possible syntactic contexts that may have favoured the semantic change: complement clauses and transitive-predicative constructions. The evolution of achar ‘to find/consider’ seems to follow the pattern of semantic change proposed by Traugott (1989) and Traugott/Dasher (2002) under the notion of subjectification, with achar starting with an objective meaning and later acquiring an epistemic reading, following the assumption that meanings tend to become centered in the subjective belief or attitude of the speaker.

Culturally constituted universals: Evidential basis of belief matters.

Differences in the sequence with which children pass the tasks in Wellman and Liu's (2004) theory of mind (ToM) battery is increasingly bringing into question the universal and cultural specifics of children's developing understanding of others' minds. Children from China, Iran, and Turkey pass the knowledge access (KA) task of the battery earlier than they pass the diverse beliefs (DB) task (e.g., Selcuk etal., 2018). This pattern is the reverse of what has been documented with children from Australia and the US (e.g., Peterson etal., 2005). This paper presents three studies with Turkish samples that explore the possible reasons for developmental sequence and performance differences in the ToM battery. Study 1 investigated Turkish-speaking adults' judgments of appropriateness for different epistemic verbs as used in the DB and false belief (FB) tasks. Study 2 investigated whether adults' performance (i.e., accuracy, reaction time) on FB tasks were affected by culturally preferred uses of these verbs. Collectively these studies showed that adults found different epistemic language ("guess," "think," and the Turkish-specific "falsely think") to be appropriate for different belief-based tasks. However, there was no difference in adults' performance based on epistemic language. In Study 3, Turkish-speaking preschoolers' performance in belief-related tasks based on variations in epistemic language and epistemic features (i.e., presence of evidence) was investigated. Among five modifications, Turkish children benefited only from a modification that involved the manipulation of the epistemological basis for ambiguous beliefs (i.e., visual evidence for belief). RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Turkish adults find different epistemic language ("guess," "think," and the Turkish-specific "falsely-think") to be appropriate for different belief-based tasks (diverse and false belief tasks). Turkish adults' performance on false belief (FB) tasks is not affected by epistemic language. Turkish children perform better in diverse beliefs (DB) task if an epistemological basis for ambiguous beliefs (i.e., visual evidence for either belief) is provided.

ЕПІСТЕМІЧНІСТЬ СЛІВ НА ПОЗНАЧЕННЯ ВПЕВНЕНОСТІ / НЕВПЕВНЕНОСТІ

The article explores epistemic nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that convey different levels of confidence/uncertainty. The material of the study was a selection of fiction texts of modern English literature for 1 million words. The epistemic nature of words used to indicate certainty / uncertainty is studied. Epistemicity is defined as the property of words to manifest epistemic properties and is calculated as the ratio of the number of epistemic words (EW) to the total number of words for indicating certainty / uncertainty in the selection according to the formula Eep÷Et*100%, where Eep is the number of epistemic uses of the word, Et is the total number of uses of this word in the selection. The place of EWs in utterances was considered and EWs were separated from non-epistemic ones. Epistemic verbs, adjectives, and nouns occur in affirmative, negative, and interrogative object-determining utterances before the subordinate part of the statement. Epistemic verbs in interjections and epistemic adverbs occur in any part of the utterance, marking it epistemically. EW are not considered in the past and future tenses and in phrases with personal pronouns other than I, we in positive utterances and you in questions. We also study epistemic adjectives and nouns in impersonal expressions. EW cannot be adjectives of adjacent words, discursive markers, and adverbs of action. The analysis of 28 epistemic verbs showed that for verbs, epistemicity ranges from 0‒95%, and the most used epistemic verbs are think, seem, know, see. For 21 epistemic adjectives, epistemicity ranges from 0‒75%, and the most used epistemic adjectives are sure, impossible / not possible, certain, possible. Adverbs show the highest level of epistemicity (50‒100%), and among the 25 epistemic adverbs maybe, really, probably, kind of, sort of, perhaps are used most often. Nouns show the lowest epistemicity in the range of 0‒50%, and among 17 epistemic nouns, fact, feeling, doubt, idea, chance are most often used.

Functional categories of hedges: A diachronic study of Russian research article abstracts

The interactional nature of academic discourse has been analyzed in linguistics literature from different perspectives. However, these studies have been predominantly conducted on English materials. Little is known of how interactional metadiscourse elements are used in Russian academic prose and what diachronic changes in metadiscourse have occurred in the last decade. Building on previous research that suggests cross-linguistic, cross-cultural and diachronic differences in the use of hedges in academic prose, this paper explores functional categories of hedges used in Russian research article abstracts from a diachronic perspective. The main focus is on quantitative and qualitative variations in the functional realization of hedging, since it may be expected that it could change over time. The study was conducted on a corpus of 112 linguistics research article abstracts published in four Russian journals in two periods (2008-2014 and 2015-2021). To investigate hedging devices and their functional categories, this study employed quantitative and qualitative analyses. The quantitative analysis indicated that in the first period (2008-2014) hedging was most frequently realized through modals, reporting verbs, and quantifiers. In the second time span (2015-2021), reporting verbs, epistemic verbs, and adjectives of probability were among the most frequent functional categories of hedging. Overall, the distribution of functional categories of hedging changed in the second period when hedging was realized through a variety of lexical means belonging to different functional categories. In terms of the functions of hedging, the difference was also striking. In the first time span, hedges were employed to diminish an authorial presence in the text, while in the second one authors hedged to point toward possible methodological limitations and to signal inaccuracies of research results. Despite some data limitations, this study could be seen as a starting point for future research of metadiscourse in Russian-language academic prose from cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural or diachronic perspective.

Grammatical and Lexical Variation of Standard Tibetan Between the Region of Lhasa and the Tibetan Diaspora

In this paper, I deal with differences between the variants spoken in Lhasa and in the Tibetan diaspora. Although they are very similar, one can find various minor differences in the grammar and numerous differences in the lexicon of these two variants of Standard spoken Tibetan. Dissimilarities in the grammar can be illustrated by the use of different variants of case particles or by different verb stems of a verb. Another example of geographical alterations of Standard Tibetan is epistemic verb endings. Certain epistemic types are common for Lhasa and the diaspora, but other types are only used in Lhasa Tibetan and are rare in Diaspora Tibetan, or vice versa.
 The paper will further examine lexical dissimilarities between the two variants. These are especially owed to the fact that spoken Tibetan has a large number of loanwords from Chinese and English. Many words used in everyday speech in Lhasa and Central Tibet have been borrowed from Chinese whereas the Diaspora variant mainly employs loanwords from English. Nonetheless, the two variants also contrast in the use of words of the Tibetan origin, such as personal pronouns, nouns or verbs. These lexical dissimilarities are in the centre of attention of this paper.

THEORETICAL PREMISES FOR THE STUDY OF EPISTEMIC I-POSITION IN DIALOGICAL DISCOURSE

The given article is devoted to highlighting theoretical premises for the study of epistemic I-position in English dialogical discourse. Since communication is one of the main features of people's social organization, the study of epistemic self-position in dialogical discourse is a relevant task of modern sociolinguistics. The epistemic self-position reflects the subject's knowledge of the world, his worldview, his points of view and his beliefs. It refers to the speaker's knowledge of the subject of speech, the degree of confidence in expression. Modern corpus-oriented studies of discourse are performed in three directions, namely, textual (study of the choice of language units, meanings and models in texts); critical (combination of critical discourse analysis and system functional linguistics); contextual (taking into account situational factors of communication, involvement of the theory of speech acts and pragmatics). Due to the explanatory inflexibility of the existing electronic corpora of the English language, that is the impossibility of a complete analysis of the presented contexts, our own corpus of texts was created to study the epistemic position of a subject in English dialogic discourse. We have singled out and framed the contexts of the use of epistemic verbs (such as, know, think, seem, believe, understand, suppose, guess, expect, hope). The selected contexts of the use of epistemic verbs in artistic dialogic discourse will be analyzed in semantic and pragmatic aspects, namely - the meaning of the studied epistemic markers, such as reliability, faith, confidence, etc., and their pragmatic usage to express strategies and tactics of I-concept. The perspective of this study is a detailed analysis of the semantic and pragmatic features of epistemic markers in artistic discourse.

ФУНКЦІОНУВАННЯ ЕПІСТЕМІЧНОГО ДІЄСЛОВА TO KNOW У ТВОРАХ Д. Г. ЛОУРЕНСА

The given article is devoted to highlighting the functions of the epistemic verb to know as a marker of the self-position of the subject in the artistic dialogic discourse on the material of the works by D.H. Lawrence. The epistemic self-position reflects the subject’s knowledge of the world, his worldview, his points of view and his beliefs. It refers to the speaker’s knowledge of the subject of speech, the degree of confidence in expression. Modern corpus-oriented studies of discourse are performed in three directions, namely, textual (study of the choice of language units, meanings and models in texts); critical (combination of critical discourse analysis and system functional linguistics); contextual (taking into account situational factors of communication, involvement of the theory of speech acts and pragmatics). Due to the explanatory inflexibility of the existing electronic corpora of the English language, that is the impossibility of a complete analysis of the presented contexts, our own corpus of texts was created to study the epistemic position of a subject in English dialogic discourse. It has been illustrated by the example of the works by David Herbert Lawrence, one of the key English writers of the early twentieth century. We have singled out and framed the contexts of the use of epistemic verbs (such as, know, think, seem, believe, understand, suppose, guess, expect, hope). The selected contexts of the use of epistemic verbs in artistic dialogic discourse will be analyzed in semantic and pragmatic aspects, namely – the meaning of the studied epistemic markers, such as reliability, faith, confidence, etc., and their pragmatic usage to express strategies and tactics of I-concept. The perspective of this study is a detailed analysis of the semantic and pragmatic features of epistemic markers in artistic discourse.

Self-mention and uncertain communication in theBritish Medical Journal(1840–2007): The decrease of subjectivity uncertainty markers

AbstractThe communication of a scientific finding as certain or uncertain largely determines whether that information will be translated into practice. In this study, a corpus of 80 articles published in theBritish Medical Journalfor over 167 years (1840–2007) is analysed by focusing on three categories of uncertainty markers, which explicitly reveal a writer’s subjectivity: (1) I/we epistemic verbs; (2) I/we modal verbs; and (3) epistemic non-verbs conveying personal opinions. The quantitative analysis shows their progressive decrease over time, which can be due to several variables, including the evolution of medical knowledge and practice, changes in medical research and within the scientific community, and more stringent guidelines for the scientific writing (regarding types of articles, their structure and rhetorical style).

Epistemic constructions in L2 Norwegian: a usage-based longitudinal study of formulaic and productive patterns

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the development of epistemic verb–argument constructions in L2 Norwegian in four learners from a usage-based perspective. Usage-based theories hold that language learning is a gradual process of schematization. Recent research has pointed out that adult L2 learning may start out from both lexically specific and productive patterns, but also that formulaic language and semi-fixed patterns can persist for a long time in an L2. The aim of the present study is to trace how the schematization process unfolds in dense longitudinal data collected from learners in their second semester of intense Norwegian language studies, and to explore the interaction between formulaic and productive patterns in this period of language learning. The analyses show that the learners in general employ a limited repertoire of epistemic verbs, mainlytro‘think’ andvite‘know’. The level of productivity oftroandviteconstructions varies across the learners: while one learner shows increasingly productive use of constructions with both verbs, other learners rely on semi-fixed construction patterns. A general conclusion is thus that formulaic and semi-fixed patterns are not restricted to initial phases of L2 learning and should be an object of attention at all levels of L2 competence.

Stance complement clauses controlled by verbs in academic research papers

Abstract This paper explores stance complement clauses in the genre of academic discourse, analysing stance complement clauses controlled by verbs in economics research articles written in English by non-native writers. Following Biber’s taxonomy (2006) of common lexico-grammatical features used for stance analyses, the results of the study show that epistemic verbs of certainty and likelihood are an important means of communicating knowledge in this genre and thus, form an inseparable part of academic research writing. Moreover, the study seeks to analyse the contrast between stance to-infinitives and stance that-clauses in the studied corpus. While stance that-clauses relate mainly to the category of certainty; on the contrary, stance to-infinitive clauses are consciously or subconsciously chosen to lessen the risk of a face-threatening act and typically refer to writers’ sensory experience (e.g. verbs such as seem, appear, etc.). The findings suggest that research papers from the field of economics demonstrate a clear preference for factive verbs over non-factive verbs.

Revisiting the epistemic gap: It’s not the thought that counts

ABSTRACT This paper revisits the longstanding observation that children produce modal verbs (e.g., must, could) with their root meanings (e.g., abilities, obligations) by age 2, typically a year or more earlier than with their epistemic meanings (e.g., inferences). Established explanations for this “Epistemic Gap” argue that epistemic language production is delayed because small children can only reason about root meanings. However, root and epistemic uses of modal verbs also differ syntactically and in input representation. We present a corpus study on 17 English-learning children and their input, exploring early productions with both epistemic modal verbs and grammatically simpler and more frequent epistemic adverbs (e.g., maybe, probably). Results show that children use remarkably adult-like epistemic adverb sentences from even before age 2, when they are only producing modal verbs with root meanings. The Epistemic Gap is not well explained by general conceptual advancements. Instead, our data suggest input attestation and ease of form-to-meaning mapping may influence early child epistemic language. These findings are furthermore consistent with cross-linguistic differences in the timing of first epistemic uses of modal verbs, and with recent advancements in our understanding of infant and toddler modal reasoning abilities.

Epistemic lexical verbs in English-language economics articles by Polish and Anglophone authors

The study investigates cross-cultural variation in the use of epistemic lexical verbs (ELVs) in English research articles on economics written by Polish and Anglophone scholars. Two corpora of articles published in Polish and international journals are explored to analyze the frequency, prominence, distribution and phraseological behaviour of selected ELVs across the introductory, concluding and main body parts of the collected texts. The results demonstrate that Anglophone writers use more ELVs than their Polish counterparts, though both groups prefer judgement over evidential verbs and most frequently use ELVs in the combined Results and Discussion section. Cross-cultural differences are observed in the choice of the specific ELVs, their frequency rates and the recurrent phraseology in the distinct rhetorical sections. These results may have implications for novice writers aspiring to understand the motivations behind the specific rhetorical choices contributing to the effective announcement of new knowledge claims in English-language economics articles.

A Study on the Interpersonal Functions of Hedges in Academic Discourses

Based on Hyland’s classification of hedges and Halliday’s theory of interpersonal functions, this study selected 30 research articles (RA) from Language Learning and English for Specific Purposes. This study employed software Antconc and manual checking to identify and tag hedges, investigating the distribution and interpersonal functions of hedges in the RAs. The main findings are: (1) Regarding the overall distribution, modal verbs are used most frequently, followed by epistemic adverbs, epistemic adjectives and epistemic verbs, and epistemic nouns are the least frequently used; (2) Hedges are most frequently used in the section of results and discussion. It is also found that hedges have the interpersonal functions of involving readers, coordinating the relationship between the author and the reader, highlighting the author’s stance and constructing the academic discourse groups.

Knowledge and identity construction in medical weblogs: A study of epistemic predicates

Following the discourse-based, interactional approaches to modality and identity, and recognizing that knowledge is social, relative and contextual, this paper aims to explore epistemic predicates in a corpus of Polish medical weblogs run by healthcare practitioners. The focus is put on the role of epistemic predicates in identity work performed by the bloggers and their audience. The study reveals the variety of the usage patterns of epistemic verbs, the diversity of the roles which healthcare practitioners act out in their blogs and the numerous purposes for which they engage in blogging. To construct their professional identity, healthcare practitioners draw on discursive strategies of distancing-mitigation, legitimization and self-disclosure. In this way, they position themselves as expert specialists who follow their professional ethos, as researchers who extend their knowledge and advice givers who are willing to share knowledge with their non-specialist audience and to educate their patients. They authenticate their expertise through references to their own medical practice and experience. The bloggers also aim to minimize the distance between their readers and engage in conversation with them. In response, the audience actively participates in the co-construction of knowledge and experience-sharing, and contributes to community building.

Improving the Use of Language Hedges in Academic Writing through Reading Journal Articles

In the arena of English for academic purposes, many nonnative speakers of English in different contexts find it difficult to perform well, because academic genre is alien to them. Current study was based on improving writing skills with a special focus on writing of language hedges in argumentative essays through reading journal articles. The study focused on the two research questions; 1.) Is there a significant improvement in using language hedges in academic writing through reading journal articles? 2.) What are the perceptions of students in reading journal articles to improve academic writing? Methodology of the study was based on quasi experimental and longitudinal design. Mixed method was utilized in collection of data. Participants of the study were 32 first year undergraduates of an English Language Teaching degree programme of a vocational technological university in Sri Lanka. Quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire and intervention through reading journal articles. Qualitative data was collected by interviewing 12 selected participants of the study. Two subject expertise evaluators and AntConc (2019), SPSS (23), MS Excel (Office 365) and thematic analysis were used to analyse data. Findings of the study reveal that there is a significant improvement in using language hedges by reading journal articles in the five categories of language hedges concerned; epistemic hedges, lexical hedges, lexical verbs, modal verbs and possibility hedges according to the descending order of the usage and the rate of improvement. Further, it can be concluded that pleasure and conscious reading of journal articles provide both cognitive and affective insights for novice academic writers of English. Two major implications for further research were drawn; to study the effect of language hedges in the culture of first language affects the usage of language hedges among undergraduates, and to study on the other stance features and engagement features in academic writing among the undergraduates in the Sri Lankan context.

ЕПІСТЕМІЧНА МОДАЛЬНІСТЬ «РУСЬКОМОВНИХ» ДИСКУРСИВНИХ ПРАКТИК РАННЬОМОДЕРНОГО ЧАСУ

The article analyzes the influence of epistemic modality on the change of discourse practices in Ukraine in the early Modern period. It explores discourse practices of the 16th and 17th centuries in their dynamic state applying the principles of ‘cultural knowledge’ (the term introduced by M. Foucalt). The paper discusses the common and distinctive features of realizing epistemic modality in polemical and homiletic discourses. The author argues that they are new discourse practices, which appeared as a result of compelling social needs arising in the 16th and 17th centuries, while the functions of the literary language of the time, the Ruthenian language, enhanced. The study shows that in the discourse practices, religious notions were conceived through demonstrating epistemic states of the author / readers that reveal the subjectivity / intersubjectivity in conception, interpretation, and understanding the postulates of faith. The paper proves that epistemic modality is interlinked with certainty, evidentiality, and inferentiality. The article focuses on the epistemic verbs знати (to know), відати (to be aware), розуміти (to understand) which explicate the epistemic modus of the author in these discourse practices and perform phatic and persuasive functions. Thus, the paper considers discursive features of the phraseological unit дати знати (let sb know), signaling the transition from a quotation to an inference, an explication of the message of the preacher. The study also presents grammatical modifications of the phraseological unit: the past tense forms (давал/дал знати), the impersonal form -но (давано знати), participle (даючи знати). The author establishes the link between the epistemic вѣдат with indirect evidentiality and certainty. The author also shows the dominant of the epistemic verb розумѣти in the discourse of the polemists and preachers of the early Modern period.

MODAL VERBS TO EXPRESS CONFIDENCE / UNCERTAINTY

The article deals with the concepts of modality and the way it influences utterances in a fictional discourse. The confidence / uncertainty of the utterances with epistemic modal verbs (must, have to / have got to, might, may, could, should, ought to, would, will) was analyzed and ranked on the probability scale of Renooij S. and Witteman C. It was found that must, have to, modified with epistemic words will and would and hypothetic will belong to “probable” (85%) part of the scale, should, ought to, and hypothetic would belong to “fifty-fifty” (50%) part of the scale, might, may, could belong to “uncertain” (25%) part of the scale, might not, may not, could not, would not, should not belong to “improbable” (15%) part of the scale, can’t, will not belong to “impossible” (0%) part of the scale.The article also analyzed modality strength and degree of modal verbs and direction of uncertainty of utterances with modal verbs. An important point discovered in the research is that other epistemic words that co-occur with epistemic modal verbs influence their direction of uncertainty, strength and degree of modality. The influence of epistemic words on modal verbs with a strong deontic component and futurality component was studied. The article also studies the structural composition of utterances with different modal verbs. It’s discovered that should, ought to, could are often followed by existential propositions and may, could are followed by contradictory propositions.

CORRIGENDUM

The article entitled “Author Stance in Academic Writing: A Corpus-Based Study on Epistemic Verbs”, written and submitted by Reyhan Ağçam, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, published in The Journal of Teaching English for Specific and Academic Purposes (Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 9-20, https://doi.org/10.22190/JTESAP1501009A), was to have information stating it was produced from the doctoral dissertation entitled “A Corpus-Based Study on Author Stance in Academic English”, submitted to Çukurova University, Turkey.Link to the corrected article: https://doi.org/10.22190/JTESAP1501009A