Article published in:
Evidentiality and the Semantics-Pragmatics InterfaceEdited by Bert Cornillie and Juana I. Marín-Arrese
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 29] 2015
► pp. 19–40
Hearer-oriented processes of strength assignment
a pragmatic model of commitment
This relevance-based account of commitment borrows from studies on epistemic
vigilance and focuses on the hearer’s perspective. It suggests that commitment
determines the strength of the contextual assumptions derived from
utterance interpretation.
In this contribution, I distinguish four kinds of commitment: speaker
commitment, communicated commitment, attributed commitment and hearer
commitment. The last two kinds of commitment are influenced by three
main factors which will be considered in turn: linguistic markers, the hearer’s
appraisal of the speaker and the salience of the communicated assumption in
his cognitive environment. These claims translate into four experimentally testable
predictions.
This proposal echoes the current debate concerned with epistemic evaluation
of information and aims to account for individuals’ commitment in terms
of the relative strength of stored assumptions in their cognitive environment.
Keywords: epistemic modality, commitment, relevance theory, evidentiality, epistemic vigilance
Published online: 24 March 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.29.01bou
https://doi.org/10.1075/bjl.29.01bou
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Macagno, Fabrizio & Douglas Walton
Macagno, Fabrizio & Douglas Walton
Ricci, Claudia & Corinne Rossari
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