Cognitive-pragmatic aspects of epistemic responsibility attribution
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu09.2024.113Abstract
The article deals with epistemic responsibility from the perspective of a reader/listener. Viewed as a type of speaker commitment, epistemic responsibility is defined as responsibility for the reliability of what is reported. It is assumed to be verbalized through epistemic modals and evidentials. The relevance of the study is due to a high frequency of the term “commitment”, mainly in studies on the speech act theory, modality and evidentiality, combined with the insufficient theoretical development of the notion. The novelty of the study lies in the identification and description of cognitive and pragmatic features of epistemic responsibility attribution based on an experiment. Objectives of the research included assessing the perception of evidential-epistemic markers as epistemic responsibility indicators by native speakers of Russian, identifying communicative interaction aspects that influence epistemic responsibility attribution, as well as experimental verification of the epistemic responsibility model developed in our earlier studies. The analysis was carried out using a questionnaire designed specifically for this experiment. Respondents were students of non-linguistic areas of training (35 subjects). The study showed that Russian speakers perceive evidential-epistemic markers as epistemic responsibility indicators, and epistemic responsibility attribution is influenced by communication ethics and conventions. The findings proved the validity of the epistemic responsibility model under test. The research also yielded an improved interpretation of the epistemic responsibility concept, which can be considered, on the one hand, as the speaker’s mental state and, on the other hand, as a linguistic image of this state, determined by communication rules and the speaker’s intentions.
Keywords:
commitment attribution, epistemic responsibility attribution, speaker commitment, evidentiality, epistemic modality
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Литература
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Carretero, Zamorano-Mansilla 2014 — Carretero M., Zamorano-Mansilla J. R. Annotating English adverbials for the categories of epistemic modality and evidentiality. In: English Modality: Core, Periphery and Evidentiality. Marín-Arrese J. I., Carretero M., Arús Hita J., van der Auwera J. (eds). Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2014. P. 317–356.
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Chepurnaya 2019 — Chepurnaya A. Marking epistemic responsibility in English media discourse. Australian Journal of Linguistics. 2019, 39 (4): 511–524.
Coltier et al. 2009 — Coltier D., Dendale P., De Brabanter P. La notion de prise en charge: Mise en perspective. Langue française. 2009, 162 (2): 3–27.
Cornillie 2018 — Cornillie B. On speaker commitment and speaker involvement. Evidence from evidentials in Spanish talk-in-interaction. Journal of Pragmatics. 2018, (128): 161–170.
Cornillie, Delbecque 2008 — Cornillie B., Delbecque N. Speaker commitment: Back to the speaker. Evidence from Spanish alternations. Belgian Journal of Linguistics. 2008, (22): 37–62.
De Brabanter 2018 — De Brabanter P. Pragmatic and semantic commitment when using quotative markers, with application to French dire and genre. Journal of Pragmatics. 2018, (128): 137–147.
De Brabanter, Dendale 2008 — De Brabanter P., Dendale P. Commitment: The term and the notions. Belgian Journal of Linguistics. 2008, (22): 1–14.
Deschamps 2008 — Deschamps K. Legal norms as objects of (non-)commitment. Belgian Journal of Linguistics. 2008, (22): 83–100.
Gunlogson 2008 — Gunlogson C. A question of commitment. Belgian Journal of Linguistics. 2008, (22): 101–136.
Hamblin 1970 — Hamblin C. L. Fallacies. London: Methuen, 1970.
Hamblin 1971 — Hamblin C. L. Mathematical models of dialogue. Theoria. 1971, (37): 130–155.
Katriel, Dascal 1989 — Katriel T., Dascal M. Speaker’s commitment and involvement in discourse. In: From
Sign to Text: A Semiotic View of Communication. Tobin Y. (ed.). Amsterdam; Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1989. P. 275–295.
Kissine 2008 — Kissine M. Assertoric commitments. Belgian Journal of Linguistics. 2008, (22): 155–177.
Kornblith 1983 — Kornblith H. Justified belief and epistemically responsible action. Philosophical Review. 1983, 92 (1): 33–48.
Lansari 2008 — Lansari L. Commitment: A parameter for the contrastive analysis of be going to and aller + inf. Belgian Journal of Linguistics. 2008, (22): 179–196.
Lyons 1977 — Lyons J. Semantics. In 2 vols. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
Lyons 1995 — Lyons J. Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Morency et al. 2008 — Morency P., Oswald S., de Saussure L. Explicitness, implicitness and commitment attribution: A cognitive pragmatic approach. Belgian Journal of Linguistics. 2008, (22): 197–219.
Nølke et al. 2004 — Nølke H., Fløttum K., Norén C. ScaPoLine. La théorie scandinave de la polyphonie linguistique. Paris: Kimé, 2004.
Palmer 2001 — Palmer F. R. Mood and Modality. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Ricci, Rossari 2018 — Ricci C., Rossari C. Commitment phenomena through the study of evidential markers in Romance languages. Journal of Pragmatics. 2018, (128): 98–101.
Searle 1976 — Searle J. R. A classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society. 1976, 5 (1): 1–23. van Dijk 1988 — van Dijk T. A. News as Discourse. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988.
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