Epistemic Stance in English Conversation
A description of its interactional functions, with a focus on I think
This book is the first corpus-based description of epistemic stance in conversational American English. It argues for epistemic stance as a pragmatic rather than semantic notion: showing commitment to the status of information is an emergent interactive activity, rooted in the interaction between conversational co-participants. The first major part of the book establishes the highly regular and routinized nature of such stance marking in the data. The second part offers a micro-analysis of I think, the prototypical stance marker, in its sequential and activity contexts. Adopting the methodology of conversation analysis and paying serious attention to the manifold prosodic cues attendant in the speakers’ utterances, the study offers novel situated interpretations of I think. The author also argues for intonation units as a unit of social interaction and makes observations about the grammaticization patterns of the most frequent epistemic markers, notably the status of I think as a discourse marker.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 115] 2003. xii, 213 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 21 October 2008
Published online on 21 October 2008
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
-
Acknowledgements | p. v
-
List of tables | p. xi
-
1. Introduction | pp. 1–16
-
2. Expression of epistemic stance: Preliminaries | pp. 17–28
-
3. The intonation unit as analytical unit | pp. 29–34
-
4. Routinization of stance marking at the linguistic and interactional level | pp. 35–103
-
5. Stance-taking as an interactive activity: The case of I think | pp. 105–182
-
6. Concluding remarks | pp. 183–187
-
-
Appendix | pp. 199–200
-
Name index | pp. 201–203
-
Subject index | pp. 205–207
“ESEC is to be considered a welcome contribution to the literature on epistemic modality. Its main merit lies in the exploration of issues which have received scant attention, such as prosody, sequentiality and routinization. In all probability, ESEC will prove to be a seminal work [...]”
Marta Carretero, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in the Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 38 (2006)
“The book is clearly written, well argued with the right amount of data presented. It should appeal to a range of functional linguists, linguistically minded conversation analysts, and those interested in the linguistic expression of perspective.”
Ilana Mushin, University of Queensland, Australia
Cited by (258)
Cited by 258 other publications
Biri, Ylva
2024. Chapter 2. Personal conviction against general knowledge. In Self- and Other-Reference in Social Contexts [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 342], ► pp. 14 ff.
Caponetto, Laura & Neri Marsili
Choi, Jinsook
Gablasova, Dana, Luke Harding, Vaclav Brezina & Jamie Dunlea
2024. Expressions of epistemic stance in computer-mediated L2 speaking assessment. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 10:1 ► pp. 183 ff.
Hiltunen, Turo & Turo Vartiainen
2024. A corpus-pragmatic analysis of linguistic democratisation in the British Hansard. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 25:2 ► pp. 245 ff.
Jia, Qi
2024. 对既存并列项的觉察与选择. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 15:1 ► pp. 51 ff.
Kim, Mary Shin & Jaehyun Jo
Marmorstein, Michal
Stein, Fabíola & Helen Melander Bowden
Tolvanen, Eveliina
2024. ‘I think’ in Swedish L1 and L2 group interactions. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 34:4 ► pp. 615 ff.
van der Meij, Sofie, Myrte Gosen & Annerose Willemsen
Birnie-Smith, Jessica
Birnie‐Smith, Jessica
Bongelli, Ramona, Andrzej Zuczkowski & Ilaria Riccioni
Brandt, Silke, Stephanie Hargreaves & Anna Theakston
COATS, STEVEN
Dahm, Maria R. & Carmel Crock
2023. Chapter 14. The pragmatics of diagnostic uncertainty. In A Pragmatic Agenda for Healthcare [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 338], ► pp. 330 ff.
Hu, Jian
Inbar, Anna & Yael Maschler
Kabatnik, Susanne
Lee, Don
Martínez Vázquez, Montserrat
2023. Chapter 10. A constructional analysis of digo yo in peninsular Spanish. In Constructions in Spanish [Constructional Approaches to Language, 34], ► pp. 255 ff.
Mojedano Batel, Andrea, Amparo Soler Bonafont & Krzysztof Kredens
Monfaredi, Elham
Napoli, Vittorio
2023. Chapter 8. “There is no doubt, you must be right!”. In Pragmatics and Translation [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 337], ► pp. 173 ff.
Nikolaienko, Valeriia
OXBURY, ROSAMUND, MATTHEW HUNT & JENNY CHESHIRE
Polak-Yitzhaki, Hilla & Yael Maschler
Pyykönen, Maria
2023. Exploring patterns of lexical variation in the use of epistemic stance markers in written L2 English across task types and levels of proficiency. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 9:2 ► pp. 215 ff.
Sierra, Sylvia
Trnavac, Radoslava & Maite Taboada
West, Marion
Alvanoudi, Angeliki
2022. Polar answers and epistemic stance in Greek conversation. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 32:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
DeCoursey, Christina
Dooly, Melinda & Vincenza Tudini
Freitag, Raquel Meister Ko., Paloma Batista Cardoso & Julian Tejada
2022. Linguistic and paralinguistic constraints on the function of(eu) acho queas DM in Brazilian Portuguese. Pragmatics & Cognition 29:2 ► pp. 324 ff.
Grieser, Jessica A.
Hamann, Magnus & Jørgen Feldbæk Nielsen
Henderson, Elle Felicity
Herder, Anke, Jan Berenst, Kees de Glopper & Tom Koole
Hosoda, Yuri & David Aline
Hou, Lynn
Kizu, Mika, Eiko Gyogi & Patrick Dougherty
Lovrits, Veronika
McKeown, Jamie
Nguyen, Hanh thi, Ann Tai Choe & Cristiane Vicentini
PEKAREK DOEHLER, SIMONA & SØREN W. ESKILDSEN
Riccioni, Ilaria, Andrzej Zuczkowski, Roberto Burro, Ramona Bongelli & Claudia Felser
Shchemeleva, Irina
Shubko, Viktoriia
Sterie, Anca-Cristina, Ralf J. Jox & Eve Rubli Truchard
van Burgsteden, Lotte & Hedwig te Molder
Vincze, Laura & Isabella Poggi
Watkins, Jessica & Merredith Portsmore
Wingard, Leah
Xu, Fang & Rongping Cao
Yu, Jianping, Jilin Fu, Tana Bai & Xueping Xu
Yue, Yan & Canzhong Wu
Angot, Juliette & Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen
2021. Chapter 5. The meaning and functions of French je pense (que). In Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface [Studies in Language Companion Series, 219], ► pp. 128 ff.
Chang, Miao-Hsia & Ún-giân Iûnn
2021. A corpus-based study of directives in Taiwanese Southern Min. Concentric. Studies in Linguistics 47:2 ► pp. 300 ff.
Frank-Job, Barbara
Heritage, John & Chase Wesley Raymond
Jaakola, Minna
Leclercq, Pascale
Lindström, Liina, Maarja-Liisa Pilvik & Helen Plado
Lovrits, Veronika & Julia de Bres
Matalon, Nadav
2021. Chapter 6. The Camel Humps prosodic pattern. In Building Categories in Interaction [Studies in Language Companion Series, 220], ► pp. 155 ff.
Mushin, Ilana & Simona Pekarek Doehler
Pouromid, Sajjad
Raymond, Chase Wesley, Rebecca Clift & John Heritage
Raymond, Chase Wesley, Jeffrey D. Robinson, Barbara A. Fox, Sandra A. Thompson & Kristella Montiegel
Siromaa, Maarit & Mirka Rauniomaa
Skogmyr Marian, Klara, Sofie Henricson & Marie Nelson
Stoenica, Ioana-Maria & Sophia Fiedler
Welink, Lisanne S., Tessa C. van Charldorp, Laura Di Colandrea, Marie‐Louise L. Bartelink, Peter Pype, Roger A.M.J. Damoiseaux & Esther de Groot
Wildner, Nikolaus
Anderson, Rebecca J, Patrick C Stone, Joseph T S Low & Steven Bloch
Deppermann, Arnulf & Silke Reineke
2020. Practices of indexing discrepant assumptions with Germanich dachte(‘I thought’) in talk-in-interaction. Functions of Language 27:2 ► pp. 113 ff.
Diaz, Maria Angela, Ken Lau & Chia-Yen Lin
2020. Pragmatic functions ofI thinkin computer-mediated, cross-cultural communication between Taiwanese and Japanese undergraduate students. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 30:4 ► pp. 509 ff.
Endo, Tomoko & Daisuke Yokomori
2020. Chapter 8. Self-addressed questions as fixed expressions for epistemic stance marking in Japanese conversation. In Fixed Expressions [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 315], ► pp. 203 ff.
Jacquin, Jérôme, F. Neveu, B. Harmegnies, L. Hriba, S. Prévost & A. Steuckardt
Keevallik, Leelo & Ann Weatherall
2020. Chapter 2. ‘I understand’-initiated formulations of the other. In Fixed Expressions [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 315], ► pp. 11 ff.
Laury, Ritva & Marja-Liisa Helasvuo
2020. Chapter 3. The emergence and routinization of complex syntactic patterns formed with ajatella ‘think’ and tietää ‘know’ in Finnish talk-in-interaction. In Emergent Syntax for Conversation [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 32], ► pp. 55 ff.
Laury, Ritva, Marja-Liisa Helasvuo & Janica Rauma
2020. Chapter 6. When an expression becomes fixed. In Fixed Expressions [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 315], ► pp. 133 ff.
Lee, Youra & Seok-Hoon You
Lee, Youra & Seok-Hoon You
Li, Jing, Lei Lei & Le Cheng
Long, Haiping, Bernd Heine & Francesco-Alessio Ursini
Omero, Paolo, Massimiliano Valotto, Riccardo Bellana, Ramona Bongelli, Ilaria Riccioni, Andrzej Zuczkowski & Carlo Tasso
Pekarek Doehler, Simona, Yael Maschler, Leelo Keevallik & Jan Lindström
2020. Chapter 1. Complex syntax-in-interaction. In Emergent Syntax for Conversation [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 32], ► pp. 1 ff.
Romero, Sergio
Schrauf, Robert W., Patria López De Victoria & Brett Diaz
Siegel, Aki
Stoenica, Ioana-Maria & Simona Pekarek Doehler
2020. Chapter 11. Relative-clause increments and the management of reference. In Emergent Syntax for Conversation [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 32], ► pp. 303 ff.
Wang, Qian
Wang, Wei & Hongyin Tao
2020. Chapter 6. From matrix clause to turn expansion. In Emergent Syntax for Conversation [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 32], ► pp. 151 ff.
Wilton, Antje
Wilton, Antje
Antaki, Charles & Joseph Webb
Evaldsson, Ann-Carita & Johanna Svahn
Gupta, Ayush, Chandra Turpen, Thomas Philip & Andrew Elby
Gut, Ulrike & Foluke Olayinka Unuabonah
2019. Chapter 2.2. The use of stance markers in West African Englishes. In Corpus Linguistics and African Englishes [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 88], ► pp. 206 ff.
Halverson, Colin Michael Egenberger
Kraut, Joshua
Li, Shushu & Ni-Eng Lim
2019. “不会 VP 吧”在互动会话中的求证行为和反期待推测. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 10:2 ► pp. 241 ff.
Nuyts, Jan & Karolien Janssens
Stickle, Trini & Anja Wanner
Stone, Lynda D. & Tabitha Hart
Woodhams, Jay M.
Zadunaisky Ehrlich, Sara
Zhou, Yan
2019. What are speakers doing when they pretend to be uncertain?. Chinese Language and Discourse. An International and Interdisciplinary Journal 10:2 ► pp. 187 ff.
Amorocho, Simone
Brook, Marisa
Brook, Marisa
Cabedo Nebot, Adrián & Carolina Figueras Bates
2018. Chapter 1. Evidentiality in discourse. In Perspectives on Evidentiality in Spanish [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 290], ► pp. 1 ff.
Conlin, Luke D. & Rachel E. Scherr
Dehé, Nicole
Figueras Bates, Carolina
González, Montserrat
2018. Chapter 7. ‘No sé’. In Perspectives on Evidentiality in Spanish [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 290], ► pp. 147 ff.
MOLENCKI, RAFAŁ
Mutta, Maarit & Marjut Johansson
Piittinen, Sari
Ranger, Graham
2018. Chapter 8. ‘I think’. In Tense, Aspect, Modality, and Evidentiality [Studies in Language Companion Series, 197], ► pp. 165 ff.
Ranger, Graham
Sabet, Peyman G.P. & Grace Q. Zhang
Simaki, Vasiliki, Carita Paradis & Andreas Kerren
Simaki, Vasiliki, Carita Paradis & Andreas Kerren
Smoliak, Olga, Amanda Le Couteur & Christopher Quinn‐Nilas
Watkins, Jessica, David Hammer, Jennifer Radoff, Lama Z. Jaber & Anna M. Phillips
Øygardslia, Kristine
Deshors, Sandra C.
Flinkfeldt, Marie
Heller, Vivien
Jacquin, Jérôme
Jehoul, Annelies, Geert Brône & Kurt Feyaerts
Kashyap, Abhishek Kumar & Foong Ha Yap
Maschler, Yael
2017. Chapter 1. The emergence of Hebrew loydea / loydat (‘I dunno masc/fem’) from interaction. In Pragmatic Markers, Discourse Markers and Modal Particles [Studies in Language Companion Series, 186], ► pp. 37 ff.
Mikesell, Lisa, Galina B. Bolden, Jenny Mandelbaum, Jeffrey D. Robinson, Tanya Romaniuk, Alexa Bolaños-Carpio, Darcey Searles, Wan Wei, Stephen M. DiDomenico & Beth Angell
Mutta, Maarit
Riou, Marine, Stephen Ball, Teresa A Williams, Austin Whiteside, Kay L O’Halloran, Janet Bray, Gavin D Perkins, Peter Cameron, Daniel M Fatovich, Madoka Inoue, Paul Bailey, Deon Brink, Karen Smith, Phillip Della & Judith Finn
Rozumko, Agata
Sakita, Tomoko I.
Kaltenböck, Gunther, Evelien Keizer & Arne Lohmann
2016. Extra-clausal constituents. In Outside the Clause [Studies in Language Companion Series, 178], ► pp. 1 ff.
Kim, Younhee & Rita Elaine Silver
Põldvere, Nele, Matteo Fuoli & Carita Paradis
Solem, Marit Skarbø
Weatherall, Ann & Leelo Keevallik
Zhang, Grace
2016. Elastic language in TV discussion discourse. International Journal of Chinese Linguistics 3:2 ► pp. 245 ff.
Zhang, Grace Q. & Peyman G. P. Sabet
Almeida, Francisco Alonso
Cornillie, Bert
Cornillie, Bert & Barbara De Cock
2015. Ways of encoding attention to the interlocutor in contemporary spoken Spanish. Spanish in Context 12:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Cornillie, Bert & Pedro Gras
Davidse, Kristin, Liesbet Heyvaert & An Laffut
Drake, Veronika
Drake, Veronika
2021. Alternative questions and their responses in English interaction. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 31:1 ► pp. 62 ff.
Gablasova, Dana & Vaclav Brezina
Gales, Tammy
Haßler, Gerda
Helasvuo, Marja-Liisa & Tuomas Huumo
2015. Canonical and non-canonical subjects in constructions. In Subjects in Constructions – Canonical and Non-Canonical [Constructional Approaches to Language, 16], ► pp. 1 ff.
Kozubíková Šandová, Jana
Laury, Ritva & Tsuyoshi Ono
2015. The limits of grammar: Clause combining in Finnish and Japanese conversation. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) ► pp. 561 ff.
Lee, Jieun
2015. Evaluation of court interpreting. Interpreting. International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting 17:2 ► pp. 167 ff.
Maschler, Yael & Deborah Schiffrin
Mayes, Patricia
Millar, Sharon
2015. Chapter 3. Under fire. In Discourse, Politics and Women as Global Leaders [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 63], ► pp. 67 ff.
Miller, Paul K. & Tom Grimwood
Moriya, Tetsuharu & Kaoru Horie
2015. The Neg-Raising Phenomenon as a product of grammaticalization. In New Directions in Grammaticalization Research [Studies in Language Companion Series, 166], ► pp. 121 ff.
Rodríguez Louro, Celeste
2015. The evolution of epistemic marking in West Australian English. In Grammatical Change in English World-Wide [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 67], ► pp. 205 ff.
Aarsand, Liselott
Biber, Douglas & Shelley Staples
2014. Exploring the prosody of stance. In Spoken Corpora and Linguistic Studies [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 61], ► pp. 271 ff.
Clifton, Jonathan
Debras, Camille
Fele, Giolo
2014. Requesting help with null or limited knowledge. In Communicating Certainty and Uncertainty in Medical, Supportive and Scientific Contexts [Dialogue Studies, 25], ► pp. 139 ff.
Fele, Giolo
Glynn, Dylan
2014. Techniques and tools. In Corpus Methods for Semantics [Human Cognitive Processing, 43], ► pp. 307 ff.
Iversen, Clara
Izumi, Hiroaki
Klein, Gabriella B., Koffi M. Dossou & Sergio Pasquandrea
2014. Embodying epistemicity. In Communicating Certainty and Uncertainty in Medical, Supportive and Scientific Contexts [Dialogue Studies, 25], ► pp. 223 ff.
López-Couso, María José & Belén Méndez-Naya
2014. On the origin of clausal parenthetical constructions: Epistemic/evidential parentheticals withseem
and impersonalthink. In Diachronic Corpus Pragmatics [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 243], ► pp. 189 ff.
López-Couso, María José & Belén Méndez-Naya
Park, Innhwa
Parton, Katharine
Pietrandrea, Paola, Sylvain Kahane, Anne Lacheret-Dujour & Frédéric Sabio
2014. The notion of sentence and other discourse units in corpus annotation. In Spoken Corpora and Linguistic Studies [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 61], ► pp. 331 ff.
Pishwa, Hanna
2014. Powerless language: Hedges as cues for interpersonal functions. In The Expression of Inequality in Interaction [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 248], ► pp. 165 ff.
Pishwa, Hanna
Steel, Emma J., Jan Hodgson, Lesley Stirling & Susan M. White
Szczyrbak, Magdalena
Szczyrbak, Magdalena
Szczyrbak, Magdalena
Szczyrbak, Magdalena
Szczyrbak, Magdalena
Tottie, Gunnel
Yap, Foong Ha & Winnie Oi-Wan Chor
2014. Epistemic, evidential and attitudinal markers in clause-medial position in Cantonese. In Modes of Modality [Studies in Language Companion Series, 149], ► pp. 219 ff.
Markee, Numa & Silvia Kunitz
RODRÍGUEZ LOURO, CELESTE & THOMAS HARRIS
SCHLEEF, ERIK & MICHAEL RAMSAMMY
Schneider, Stefan
2013. Parenthetische Teilsätze in mittelfranzösischen Texten des 14. und 15. JahrhundertsEine erste Version dieses Aufsatzes wurde im September 2011 in Berlin im Rahmen der SektionZwischen Satz und Text: Diskursmarker und Informationsstruktur in romanischer Diachroniedes 32. Romanistentages vorgetragen. Ich danke den Sektionsteilnehmern für ihre Anmerkungen und Anregungen. Martin Hummel und Ulrich Wandruszka, denen ich an dieser Stelle ebenfalls danken möchte, haben weitere Versionen des Textes gelesen und kommentiert.. zrph 129:4 ► pp. 867 ff.
Sert, Olcay & Steve Walsh
Chindamo, Massimo, Jens Allwood & Elisabeth Ahlsen
Dancygier, Barbara
Dancygier, Barbara
Debras, Camille & Alan Cienki
SahlstrÖm, Fritjof
Steensig, Jakob
Steensig, Jakob
Cook, Haruko Minegishi
Friess, Erin
Kirkham, Sam
van Dijk, Teun A. & Encarna Atienza
Vandepitte, Sonia, Liselotte Vandenbussche & Brecht Algoet
Weatherall, Ann
Wilkinson, Sue & Ann Weatherall
Damari, Rebecca Rubin
Manns, Howard
2010. Review of Englebretson (2007): Stancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction. Studies in Language 34:3 ► pp. 707 ff.
Myers, Greg
STIVERS, TANYA & MAKOTO HAYASHI
VAN BOGAERT, JULIE
BABEL, ANNA M.
Kahane, Sylvain & Paola Pietrandrea
Pizziconi, Barbara
Zhou, Jiehan, Changrong Yu & Jukka Riekki
Carretero, Marta
Carretero, Marta
Fetzer, Anita
Fetzer, Anita
Kasper, Gabriele
LEMPERT, MICHAEL
Lempert, Michael
Maschler, Yael & Roi Estlein
Sivenkova, Maria
TANAKA, HIROKO
Clift, Rebecca
Clift, Rebecca
Smith, Benjamin
Helasvuo, Marja-Liisa
Helasvuo, Marja-Liisa
2015. Searching for motivations for grammatical patternings. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) ► pp. 453 ff.
Helasvuo, Marja-Liisa
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
[no author supplied]
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General