The epistemic and evidential use of Spanish modal adverbs and verbs of cognitive attitude

  • This article deals with Spanish modal adverbs and verbs of cognitive attitude (Capelli 2007) and their epistemic and/or evidential use. The article is based upon the hypothesis that the study of the use of these linguistic devices has to be highly context-sensitive, as it is not always (only) the sentence level that has to be looked at if one wants to find out whether a certain adverb or verb of cognitive attitude is used evidentially or epistemically. In this article, therefore, the context is used to determine which meaning aspects of an element are encoded and which are contributed by the context. The data were retrieved from the daily newspaper El País. Nevertheless, the present study is not a quantitative one, but rather a qualitative study. My corpus analysis indicates that it is not possible to differentiate between the linguistic categories of evidentiality and epistemic modality in every case, although it indeed is possible in the vast majority of cases. In verbs of cognitive attitude, evidentiality and epistemic modalityThis article deals with Spanish modal adverbs and verbs of cognitive attitude (Capelli 2007) and their epistemic and/or evidential use. The article is based upon the hypothesis that the study of the use of these linguistic devices has to be highly context-sensitive, as it is not always (only) the sentence level that has to be looked at if one wants to find out whether a certain adverb or verb of cognitive attitude is used evidentially or epistemically. In this article, therefore, the context is used to determine which meaning aspects of an element are encoded and which are contributed by the context. The data were retrieved from the daily newspaper El País. Nevertheless, the present study is not a quantitative one, but rather a qualitative study. My corpus analysis indicates that it is not possible to differentiate between the linguistic categories of evidentiality and epistemic modality in every case, although it indeed is possible in the vast majority of cases. In verbs of cognitive attitude, evidentiality and epistemic modality seem to be two interwoven categories, while concerning modal adverbs it is usually possible to separate the categories and to distinguish between the different subtypes of evidentiality such as visual evidence, hearsay and inference.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author details:Anja HennemannORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-93929
ISSN:1866-8380
Title of parent work (German):Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe
Publication series (Volume number):Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe (107)
Publication type:Postprint
Language:English
Date of first publication:2016/08/02
Publication year:2012
Publishing institution:Universität Potsdam
Release date:2016/08/02
Tag:Spanish modal adverbs; Spanish verbs of cognitive attitude; context sensitivity; epistemic modality; evidentiality
Issue:107
Number of pages:38
Source:Folia Linguistica, 46 (2012), 1, S. 133–170 DOI 10.1515/flin.2012.5
Organizational units:Philosophische Fakultät / Institut für Romanistik
DDC classification:4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache
Peer review:Referiert
Publishing method:Open Access
License (German):License LogoKeine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz
External remark:Bibliographieeintrag der Originalveröffentlichung/Quelle
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