Epistemic Meaning: A Crosslinguistic and Functional-Cognitive Study

Kasper Boye

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2012

Epistemic Meaning

A Crosslinguistic and Functional-Cognitive Study

Kasper Boye

Volume 43 in the series Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [EALT]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110219036

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book is intended to contribute to the clarification of the linguistic research area covered by the terms modal, evidential and epistemic. It sets out to demonstrate that on cross-linguistic grounds a hitherto overlooked epistemic meaning domain must be given due recognition in linguistic theory, on a par with domains such as time and number. The relevant domain is coherent, but at the same time complex in that it consists of two subdomains: one which comprises degree-of-certainty meanings, and one which comprises information-source meanings.

The book offers three arguments for giving recognition to such a meaning domain. The first argument concerns the clustering of linguistic expressions with epistemic meaning into morphosyntactically delimited systems of elements. The second argument has to do with the variation pertaining to the coding of epistemic meanings, as highlighted in a semantic map of epistemic expressions. The third argument turns upon the scope properties of epistemic meanings and the morphosyntactic reflections of these properties.

Finally, the book proposes a unified cognitive analysis of epistemic meaning in terms of which it attempts to account for the properties of the epistemic meaning domain as well as of individual epistemic meanings.

Author / Editor information

Kasper Boye, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Reviews

"Boye’s work is a valuable addition to the literature on epistemic meaning - he is very clear about his thesis and goals and is careful to show how each is demonstrated and met."
Robert Earl LaBarge in: Linguist List 24.1827

"This excellent book is an enormous step forward toward a comprehensive theory of propositional marking and of epistemicity. For these fields, it sets standards of clarity and succinctness of argumentation. Therefore, its natural place is among the standard books on these subject matters."
Björn Wiemer in: Studies in Language 37:2

Supplementary Materials

Contents

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Acknowledgements Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	v
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
List of figures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xii
List of tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiv
List of abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
1. Preliminaries Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Epistemic systems Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
3. A semantic map of epistemic expressions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
4. Epistemic meaning and scope Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
5. A functional-cognitive analysis of epistemic meaning and the proposition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	276
6. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	322
Language index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	361
Subject index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	366

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Research Libraries, Scholars and Advanced Students interested in Modality, Evidentiality, Typology (esp. Semantic Mapping, and Universals Pertaining to Ordering of Linguistic Markers), and Cognitive Linguistics.
Pages
- Front matter: 17
- Main content: 373
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 19
- Tables: 15
Keywords: Modality; Evidentiality; Language Typology

eBook

Published: July 30, 2012
ISBN: 9783110219036

Hardcover

Published: July 16, 2012
ISBN: 9783110204384