Search
Submit an article RU
Slovo.ru: Baltic accent

2025 Vol. 16 №2

Back to the list Download the article
ENG
Сохранить XML для: JATS (вып.)
RUS
Сохранить XML для: JATS (вып.)
Demyankov V.Z.

Pragmatics of epistemic warrants of the real, the possible and the probable in discourse

DOI
10.5922/2225-5346-2025-2-1
Pages
13-27
pragmatics vs. semantics pragmaticism possible — world semantics episte­mic modality epistemic warrant epistemic default epistemic maneuvering toggle word

Abstract

The ‘pragmatics of language’ is a set of pragmatic means of a particular language, the meanings of which not only change the world, but also themselves change in the framework of discourse. At the same time, ‘linguistic pragmatics’ is a branch of linguistics that examines linguistic units from the point of view of their use. The ‘pragmatic turn’ of the 1970s in lin­guistics meant an interest in using language as an action in which words acquire their ac­tual mea­nings, sometimes radically different from their non — contextual dictionary mea­nings. The study of the contribution that linguistic means of epistemic modality make to the mea­ning of discourse is a subject of epistemic pragmatics and has great applied potential. The article examines the lines of demarcation between linguistic semantics and pragmatics, as well as research directions in the field of epistemic pragmatics, including the use of epistemic modalities in the text. Strategies and tactics of manipulative influence on the audience play a crucial role in the presentation of epistemic warrants — guarantees that shape the epistemic credit history of communicants and may sometimes result in epistemic default. Some communicative techniques used in this process are analyzed: appeal to the guarantor of truth and reliability (authority), cognitive and communicative maneuvering, toggle words in media texts, etc.

Reference

Austin, J. L., 1962. How to do things with words: (The William James lectures delivered at Harvard University). Oxford.

Carlyle, Th., 1859. History of Friedrich II of Prussia: in 4 vols. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. Lon­don.

Cruse, A. A., 2006. Glossary of Semantics and Pragmatics. Edinburgh.

Declerck, R., 2011. The definition of epistemic modality. In: A. Patard and F. Bri­sard, eds. Cognitive Approaches to Tense, Aspect, and Epistemic Modality. Amsterdam; Phi­ladelphia, pp. 21—44, https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.29.05dec.

Demyankov, V. Z., 2022a. Semantic reduplication in statements about the pos­sib­le. Kognitivnye issledovaniya yazyka [Cognitive studies of language], 4 (51), pp. 39—43 (in Russ.).

Demyankov, V. Z., 2022b. ‘Probability’ and ‘Possibility’ in Creative Language Use: on Impossible Possibility in German Texts. RUDN Journal of Language Studies, Semiotics and Semantics, 13 (3), pp. 589—607, https://doi.org/10.22363/2313-2299- 2022-13-3-589-607 (in Russ.).

Grice, P., 1975. Logic and conversation. In: P. Cole and J. L. Morgan, eds. Speech acts. New York, pp. 41—58.

Hinrichs, U., 1989. Slawistik — Germanistik — Linguistik. In: N. Reiter, ed. Spre­chen und Hören: Akten des 23. Linguistischen Kolloquiums, Berlin 1988. Tübingen, pp. 3—13.

Hintikka, J. and Sandu, G., 1994. Metaphor and other kinds of nonliteral mea­ning. In: J. Hintikka, ed. Aspects of metaphor. Dordrecht, pp. 151—187.

James, W., 1907. Pragmatism: A new name for some old ways of thinking: Popular lec­tu­res on philosophy by William James. New York.

Kaindl, K., 1995. Die Oper als Textgestalt: Perspektiven einer interdisziplinären Über­setzungswissenschaft. Tübingen.

Kant, I., 2024. Anthropology in a pragmatic sense. In: N. A. Dmitrieva, A. G. Zha­voronkov, A. N. Kruglov and V. A. Chaly, eds. Sochineniya po antropologii, filosofii po­litiki i filosofii religii v trekh tomakh. T. 1: Sochineniya po antropologii [Essays on anthro­po­logy, philosophy of Politics and philosophy of religion in three volumes. Vol. 1: Essays on Anthropology]. Kaliningrad, pp. 162—396 (in Russ.).

Kecskes, I., 2014. Intercultural Pragmatics. Oxford.

Liedke, M. and Knapp-Potthoff, A., 1997. Einleitung. In: A. Knapp-Potthoff and M. Liedke, eds. Aspekte interkultureller Kommunikationsfähigkeit. München, pp. 7—16.

Lyons, J., 1977. Semantics. Cambridge.

Marx, K., 1981. Die Verhandlungen des 6. rheinischen Landtag. In: K. Marx and F. Engels, eds. Werke. Bd. 1. Berlin. S. 28—77.

Mey, J. L., 2009. Pragmatics: Overview. In: J. L. Mey, ed. Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics. Amsterdam, pp. 787—797.

Nerlich, B. and Clarke, D., 1996. Language, Action, And Context: The Early History of Pragmatics In Europe And America, 1780—1930. Amsterdam; Philadelphia.

Nuyts, J., 2001. Epistemic Modality, Language, and Conceptualization: a Cognitive—Pragmatic Perspective. Amsterdam; Philadelphia.

Peirce, Ch. S., 1878. How to make our ideas clear. Popular Science Monthly, 12 Jan., pp. 286—302.

Ransom, E. N., 1986. Complementation: Its meanings and forms. Amsterdam; Phila­del­phia.

Scheller-Boltz, D., 2017. The Discourse of Gender Identity in Contemporary Russia: an Introduction with a Case Study in Russian Gender Linguistics. Hildesheim; Zürich; N. Y.

Stepanov, Yu. S., 1985. V trekhmernom prostranstve yazyka: Semioticheskie problemy lingvistiki, filosofii, iskusstva [In the three-dimensional space of language: Semiotic problems of linguistics, philosophy, art]. Moscow (in Russ.).

Weigand, E., 1996. Words and their role in language use. In: E. Weigand and F. Hundsnurscher, eds. Lexical structures and language use: Proceedings of the Interna­tio­nal Conference on lexicology and lexical semantics, Münster, September 13—15, 1994. Tü­bin­gen, pp. 151—167.