The impact of pragmalinguistic support on video-conferenced collaborative suggestion-giving task

This study explored the impact of pragmalinguistic support on L2 users’ suggestion-giving task performance. Data came from 12 pairs of L2 users in a Zoom-mediated university course. They collaboratively wrote suggestions for improvement in their peers’ lesson plans using Office 365. Six pairs received pragmalinguistic support, while the others wrote their suggestions on their own. Audio-recorded pair discussions were coded qualitatively, and the written suggestions were analyzed in terms of linguistic and pragmatic characteristics. The results showed that pragmalinguistic support encouraged the participants to engage more in language-related and task-related episodes. Also, their suggestions contained more diverse lexical downgraders and conventional suggestion-giving expressions. By contrast, those who wrote suggestions without pragmalinguistic support engaged more in pragmatic-related episodes, relying extensively on epistemic modal verbs (e.g., would). The findings indicate that pragmalinguistic support may help L2 users to better attend to task content and language, producing lexically and pragmatically richer output.

Reflexões sobre a intensificação de adjetivos modais epistémicos por 'muito' e 'bem' em Português Europeu

Our research aims to investigate the semantic differences between muito (much/very) and bem (well), as degree modifiers, when applied to modal adjectives. These adjectives, contrary to the qualificative ones, predicate over situations and not individuals. Although these intensifiers, that is, muito and bem, are in some ways similar to each other, they also have several differences, as observed by Quadros Gomes (2011). Previous work (Horn, 1989; Oliveira, 1988; 2000; 2013; Ferreira, 2013; Cantante, 2018; 2020, e.o.) has shown that modal adjectives, like qualificative adjectives, are gradable and, therefore, ordered along a scale. Taking into consideration this similarity between these two types of adjectives, and, also, the differences between muito and bem, the present work aims to explore the scalar behaviour of epistemic modal adjectives, particularly when intensified by these degree modifiers. While investigating the adjectives possível (possible), provável (probable), necessário (necessary) and certo (certain) (the latter being the only adjective located on the top of the scale), this research allowed us to find that, apart from certo, which did not accept to be modified by muito, both these adverbs act by moving the adjectives to higher points of the scale. However, it is not evident, contrary to Quadros Gomes’ claims (2011), that bem has the capacity to put these adjectives on the top of the scale, therefore closing it. It is also important to acknowledge that, although bem moves the adjectives to higher points of the scale – even higher than the movement promoted by muito – this adverb, when modifying modal adjectives, seems to contain a second component to its meaning, which involves a modal evaluation, responsible for emphasizing the degree of certainty of the speaker regarding the situation described in the utterance.

Constraining the identification of epistemic judges across different syntactic categories

As observed at various occasions, the usage of epistemic adverbs in information seeking questions is by far more restricted than the usage of epistemic adjectives. Starting from Lyons (1977) this contrast was motivated assuming that different types of epistemic operators come with different semantics and scope positions in the utterance, namely objective vs. subjective epistemic modality. However it is not possible to define clear classes of objective epistemic modal operators in terms of clear diagnostics. It will be shown here that the contrast of acceptability is more accurately explained in terms of locality and binding properties of the variable for the attitude holder rendering the epistemic judgement. If locally bound, epistemic modal operators can be embedded, if not, they are subject to much stricter conditions in order to be interpretable.

Formalizing Statistical Beliefs in Hypothesis Testing Using Program Logic

We propose a new approach to formally describing the requirement for statistical inference and checking whether the statistical method is appropriately used in a program. Specifically, we define belief Hoare logic (BHL) for formalizing and reasoning about the statistical beliefs acquired via hypothesis testing. This logic is equipped with axiom schemas for hypothesis tests and rules for multiple tests that can be instantiated to a variety of concrete tests. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to introduce a program logic with epistemic modal operators that can specify the preconditions for hypothesis tests to be applied appropriately.

Realizations of deonticity in Lithuanian: The case of particles

The present paper focuses on non-epistemic modal particles in contemporary Lithuanian that have received far less attention in the literature than epistemic particles. Based on authentic data drawn from the Corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language, the study aims to disclose the formal and functional features of the particles tegu(l), te and lai in spoken discourse and fiction. The study has shown that the particles under investigation occur in hortative constructions where they express the speaker’s desire to get a third person or the addressee to carry out some action. Although tegu(l), te and lai share a number of functions (e.g. hortatives, negative or positive performative optatives), functional extension is more typical of tegu(l) than of te and lai. The formal features of the particles (their co-occurrence with indicative or subjunctive forms) provide evidence for their functional variation.

A Conflict Tolerant Logic of Explicit Evidence

Standard epistemic modal logic is unable to adequately deal with the FrauchigerRenner paradox in quantum physics. We introduce a novel justification logic CTJ, in which the paradox can be formalized without leading to an inconsistency. Still CTJ is strong enough to model traditional epistemic reasoning. Our logic tolerates two different pieces of evidence such that one piece justifies a proposition and the other piece justifies the negation of that proposition. However, our logic disallows one piece of evidence to justify both a proposition and its negation. We present syntax and semantics for CTJ and discuss its basic properties. Then we give an example of epistemic reasoning in CTJ that illustrates how the different principles of CTJ interact. We continue with the formalization of the Frauchiger–Renner thought experiment and discuss it in detail. Further, we add a trust axiom to CTJ and again discuss epistemic reasoning and the paradox in this extended setting.

‘Have’ in English and Romance

This paper compares and contrasts the forms and usage of the verb ‘have’ in different varieties of English and Romance. ‘Have’ may serve as a verb of possession, a perfect auxiliary, a deontic modal, and a presentative in both English and Romance. However, its English uses as an epistemic modal, as a dynamic light verb, and as a causative have no counterparts in Romance, whilst the ‘double perfect’ of many Romance varieties is absent from English. Although restricted to certain varieties, parallels may be noted between English and some Romance languages (dissociation of auxiliary and possessive ‘have’; progressive loss of past participle agreement and of the competing auxiliary ‘be’ in the perfect; apparent ‘aoristic drift’). The paper concludes by discussing the significance of the data for the distinction between main verbs and auxiliaries; the status of ‘have’, particularly as a verb of possession; and the nature of grammaticalization.

Between commitment and certainty

In accord with Verhagen’s (1996) insights regarding epistemic uses of the predicator promise (e.g., Tomorrow promises to be a fine day), this paper identifies another type of these epistemic uses. It focuses on constructional cues in complex-clause utterances of the form I promise X: whether or not the subject of the embedded clause X is congruent with ‘I’ in the main clause and whether the tense of X is past or non-past. It investigates how it is used epistemically, especially in its colloquial uses; how the constructional cues (the kind of subject and the tense information) influence its construal; and how the different conceptual structures underlying the construals of the commissive and the epistemic modal senses of the construction can be modeled within Mental-spaces theory. It also discusses that the conceptual structures may be differently reified cross-linguistically briefing on the Korean constructs yaksokha- ‘(I) promise’ and cangtamha- ‘(I) assure’.