The epistemological treatment of information and the interpersonal distribution of belief in language : German Modal Particles and the typological challenge

Pierre-Yves Modicom (1)

1 CeLiSo - Centre de Linguistique en Sorbonne

The present chapter contains a discussion of the links between the different domains of the epistemological treatment of information in speech and discourse. It is based on a confrontation of concepts coined by Guentchéva & Landaburu (2007) with a set of German modal particles. According to Guentchéva & Landaburu, Theory of Mind is part of a wider domain of “epistemological treatment of information” together with mirativity and evidentiality. The concepts created by typologists are used to describe the distribution of modal functions between a few German modal particles examined in pairs. Both components of each pair have the same value in terms of Theory of Mind. The analysis makes the case for an internalist, monosemantic description of the meaning of those particles. Their different values in context are postulated to be inferable from the combination of their core meanings with other syntactic and illocutionary parameters. It is finally shown that the complex meaning of German modal particles is best accounted for in a triangular framework including Theory of Mind, mirativity, and evidentiality as the permanent parameters followed by the speaker to track the distribution of knowledge between herself and the hearer.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Pierre-Yves Modicom. The epistemological treatment of information and the interpersonal distribution of belief in language : German Modal Particles and the typological challenge. W Abraham, E Leiss. Modality and Theory of Mind elements across languages, Berlin etc. : De Gruyter (Trends in Linguistics – Studies, 2012, 9783110270198. ⟨10.1515/9783110271072.361⟩. ⟨hal-02860122⟩