On the origins of the
epistemic, evidential, and subjectivity meanings in the mental state
predicates

This paper aims to contribute to the debates about the nature of the speaker-related meanings of the mental state predicates, on the basis of a diachronic corpus study into the semantic evolution of five such verbs in Dutch. The analyses show that each of these verbs develops its own spe-cific profile in terms of a limited set of clearly distinguishable speaker-related meanings, viz. epistemic modality, evidentiality, and ‘subjectivi-ty’. Each of these meanings is moreover characterized by a distinctive di-achronic path. The study thus also demonstrates the independent status of ‘subjectivity’ as a meaning category.

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Markers of epistemic modality and their origins

Studies in Language ◽

10.1075/sl.19065.eng ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-44

Author(s):

Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen

Keyword(s):

Sign Language ◽

Mental State ◽

Epistemic Uncertainty ◽

Epistemic Modality ◽

Visual Modality ◽

Sign Languages ◽

Epistemic Modal ◽

Modal Particles ◽

Word Forms ◽

Japanese Sign Language

Abstract Native deaf signers express epistemic modality by different means: mental-state words, clause-internal particles, signs indicating hypothesis, and nonmanually. The data for this study come from two unrelated sign languages, Danish Sign Language and Japanese Sign Language. In dialogues the signers use both calques of majority-language words and signs that appear to have emerged in the sign languages only. Based on the multifunctionality of some word forms, the origin of the epistemic modal particles may be traced back to tags, interjections, and lexical signs, a route motivated by interaction and also found in unrelated spoken languages. Furthermore, in both sign languages, the first-person pronoun can be used, without a verb, as an epistemic “anchor” of a proposition, a construction that seems specific to languages in the gestural-visual modality. Another modality-specific feature is the possibility of transferring the expression of a marker of epistemic uncertainty from one articulator to another.

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Figure, image, reputation of politicians in the language and the actual political discourse (a corpus research experience)

Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski ◽

10.31648/pw.6515 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 357-371

Author(s):

Olga Severskaya ◽

Levon Saakyan

Keyword(s):

Political Discourse ◽

Political Process ◽

Russian Language ◽

Research Experience ◽

Corpus Study ◽

Political Journalism ◽

Discursive Strategy ◽

Semantic Evolution ◽

The Russian Language ◽

National Corpus

The purpose of the article is to show the evolution of the concepts of “figure”, “image” and “reputation” in the Russian language in the last fifty years, to analyze their use in modern political discourse. The corpus study on the material of modern political journalism, showed that “image”, the emotionally affecting perception of a person, does not always coincide with the “figure” as the type or character associated with the speaker. Content-analysis of the use of lexemes imidzh, obraz, reputatsiya showed that in the semantic plan they influenced each other, becoming synonyms in various meanings. The semantic evolution of the word imidzh went from an impression of appearance to stereotypical ideas that can be appreciated by society. The “figure”, judging by the Russian National Corpus data, today looks more like a “role” in a film or a play, responding to the theatricalization of the political process. An analysis of the speeches of the president, the prime minister of the country, regional rulers, deputies, and opposition leaders reveals the “masks” of the Grate-Powerman and Patriot, People’s Chosen, Ordinary Man, Strong Man (Powerful Hand), Debater, Distressor, and some others, used as an element of a discursive strategy.

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Parentheticals revisited: The case of Dutch denken

Folia Linguistica ◽

10.1515/flih-2019-0019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 (2) ◽

pp. 475-508

Author(s):

Jan Nuyts ◽

Karolien Janssens

Keyword(s):

Mental State ◽

Word Order ◽

Alternative Hypothesis ◽

Corpus Study

Abstract This paper presents an investigation into the diachrony of the parenthetical uses of the mental state verb denken ‘think’ in Dutch. It reviews the literature on the emergence of parentheticals, which predominantly focuses on English. Supported by a systematic diachronic corpus study, it argues that the facts of Dutch (in particular: its word order properties, which are quite different from those in English) are not obviously in line with the most important traditional views (including the well know hypothesis that the parentheticals are the result of a reduction of the full complementing use of the relevant verbs). Instead, the data offer arguments for an alternative hypothesis: the parentheticals may originate in a combination of two main clauses, of the kind present in direct quote expressions (as in I thought: Oh no, he is doing it again).

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STYLE DYNAMICS OF THE RUSSIAN WRITTEN SPEECH OF THE 19TH CENTURY: A CORPUS STUDY

Computational Linguistics and Intellectual Technologies ◽

10.28995/2075-7182-2020-19-48-61 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

A. N. Baranov ◽

◽

D. O. Dobrovol’skij ◽

Keyword(s):

19Th Century ◽

Epistemic Modality ◽

Discursive Practice ◽

Social Significance ◽

Written Discourse ◽

Corpus Study ◽

Artistic Style ◽

Starting Point ◽

The 19Th Century ◽

National Corpus

The starting point of the present paper is the hypothesis that the distribution of discursive words characterizes the trends in the development of the writing style of the 19th century. The paper presents and discusses the results of an experiment based on the data of the Russian National Corpus on the frequency of using discursive words with the semantics of epistemic modality, such as konechno, razumeetsya (both roughly meaning ‘of course’), po-vidimomu ‘apparently’, kak kazhetsya, kazalos’ by (both ≈ ‘it would seem’), naverno ≈ ‘as it were’, veroyatno ‘probably’, pozhaluy ≈ ‘maybe’, deystvitel’no ‘really’, etc. We show that the frequency of this group of expressions increases in the second half of the 19th century. A similar trend is also observed for some syntactic constructions with the same semantics: (ya) dumayu, chto… ‘(I) think that...’; (ya) schitayu, chto… ‘(I) believe that...’; (mne) kazhetsya, chto… ‘it seems to me that’. The revealed regularity is considered as a discursive practice in changing the style of fiction, which consisted in expanding the modus part of the utterance as compared to the earlier period. The discursive practice of expanding the modus was inherent only to a group of innovative writers (first of all, F. M. Dostoevsky, M. E. SaltykovShchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, I. A. Goncharov, A. F. Pisemsky, P. I. MelnikovPechersky, N. S. Leskov, and I. S. Turgenev), who, however, due to their talent, social significance, and the number of published texts, had a significant impact on the language of fiction. The task of studying the dynamics of artistic style is to identify and describe a set of discursive practices that establish written discourse as such.

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Sex Hormones, Mood, Mental State and Memory

Journal of Neuroendocrinology ◽

10.1046/j.1365-2826.2000.012006475.x ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 475-475

Keyword(s):

Sex Hormones ◽

Mental State

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Mini-Mental-State

Zeitschrift für Gerontopsychologie & -psychiatrie ◽

10.1024/1011-6877.22.1.11 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 11-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Andreas Kaiser ◽

Renate Gusner-Pfeiffer ◽

Hermann Griessenberger ◽

Bernhard Iglseder

Keyword(s):

Mental State ◽

Mini Mental State Examination ◽

Oder Nicht ◽

State Examination

Im folgenden Artikel werden fünf verschiedene Versionen der Mini-Mental-State-Examination dargestellt, die alle auf der Grundlage des Originals von Folstein erstellt wurden, sich jedoch deutlich voneinander unterscheiden und zu unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen kommen, unabhängig davon, ob das Screening von erfahrenen Untersuchern durchgeführt wird oder nicht. Besonders auffällig ist, dass Frauen die Aufgaben «Wort rückwärts» hoch signifikant besser lösten als das «Reihenrechnen». An Hand von Beispielen werden Punkteunterschiede aufgezeigt.

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Zur Anwendung der CES-D bei älteren Menschen: Dimensionsstruktur und Meßartefakte

Diagnostica ◽

10.1026//0012-1924.46.1.29 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 29-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Herbert Matschinger ◽

Astrid Schork ◽

Steffi G. Riedel-Heller ◽

Matthias C. Angermeyer

Keyword(s):

Mental State ◽

Latent Class ◽

Mini Mental State Examination ◽

Depression Scale ◽

Epidemiological Studies ◽

Partial Credit ◽

Examination Score ◽

State Examination

Zusammenfassung. Beim Einsatz der Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) stellt sich das Problem der Dimensionalität des Instruments, dessen Lösung durch die Konfundierung eines Teilkonstruktes (“Wohlbefinden”) mit Besonderheiten der Itemformulierung Schwierigkeiten bereitet, da Antwortartefakte zu erwarten sind. Dimensionsstruktur und Eignung der CES-D zur Erfassung der Depression bei älteren Menschen wurden an einer Stichprobe von 663 über 75-jährigen Teilnehmern der “Leipziger Langzeitstudie in der Altenbevölkerung” untersucht. Da sich die Annahme der Gültigkeit eines partial-credit-Rasch-Modells sowohl für die Gesamtstichprobe als auch für eine Teilpopulation als zu restriktiv erwies, wurde ein 3- bzw. 4-Klassen-latent-class-Modell für geordnete Kategorien berechnet und die 4-Klassen-Lösung als den Daten angemessen interpretiert: Drei Klassen zeigten sich im Sinne des Konstrukts “Depression” geordnet, eine Klasse enthielt jene Respondenten, deren Antwortmuster auf ein Antwortartefakt hinwiesen. In dieser Befragtenklasse wird der Depressionsgrad offensichtlich überschätzt. Zusammenhänge mit Alter und Mini-Mental-State-Examination-Score werden dargestellt. Nach unseren Ergebnissen muß die CES-D in einer Altenbevölkerung mit Vorsicht eingesetzt werden, der Summenscore sollte nicht verwendet werden.

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