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Title:A monosemic account of modality in speech act theory
Authors:ID Šetar, Niko (Author)
ID Jurančič, Klementina Penelope (Mentor) More about this mentor... New window
Files:.pdf MAG_Setar_Niko_2020.pdf (355,48 KB)
MD5: A8CBC73CF7B5D72BF93E4C421E9EFB04
PID: 20.500.12556/dkum/8fca31f6-ff04-49f3-9089-6c4b3d7a2137
 
Language:English
Work type:Master's thesis/paper
Typology:2.09 - Master's Thesis
Organization:FF - Faculty of Arts
Abstract:Connection between modality in the English language and pragmatics is a matter of extensive debate as it often seems there is no concrete way of establishing a sensible correlation between modality that an utterance contains and its pragmatic function, which is due to numerous issues pertaining to different accounts of both modality and speech act theory. Traditional view of modality splits modal verbs into three categories: epistemic, deontic and dynamic (also known as simple root modality). The problem with this view is that there is no way of determining whether a certain modal verb is used in epistemic, deontic, or dynamic sense as most modals can serve any of the three functions, therefore explaining modality within this framework is highly ambiguous even when relying on broader context of the utterance containing a certain modal. Traditional view of speech acts, on the other hand, divides them into locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary speech acts. Yet it would seem that all modalities pertain only to illocutionary speech acts, as they are the ones that express speaker's intentions, which are most heavily influenced by modality. The connection between traditionalist accounts is therefore quite impossible. A more contemporary view splits speech acts into assertive, commissive, constative, directive and imperative speech acts, while we may consider locution, illocution and perlocution to be aspects of these speech acts, rather than separate categories. In these case, different modalities may be connected to different speech acts, but the ambiguity that traditional view of modality contains persists into any attempt to draw the connection between modality and speech act. Therefore, an alternative account of modality is required. Two well-known such accounts are polysemic and monosemic views of modality. Polysemic views claim that every lexeme (in our case, a modal verb) may possess several semantic meanings, while monosemic views maintain that every lexeme can be defined in the sense of a single meaning. Reviewing polysemic accounts shows that their reliance on multiple meanings and definitions for every lexeme leads to similar ambiguities as the traditional view of modality, and can therefore not be used in our efforts. Monosemic views, however, differ greatly from one another. While some accounts have been shown to be inadequate, Groefsema’s 1995 account serves the required purpose. The author defines each modal verb in the sense of the proposition expressed by the modal and an additional minimal set of propositions that supports the use of that particular modal. Kissine (2013) similarly defines speech acts, thus a correlation between modal verbs and speech acts may be established. Finally, we attempt to show that each modal verb with a particular minimal set of supporting propositions can only feature in one type of speech act, thus also defining the speech act within which it is contained.
Keywords:Pragmatics, modality, speech acts, epistemic, deontic, dynamic, assertives, commissives, constatives, directives, imperatives, polysemy, monosemy
Place of publishing:Maribor
Publisher:[N. Šetar]
Year of publishing:2020
PID:20.500.12556/DKUM-77264 New window
UDC:81\'42:81\'33(043.2)
COBISS.SI-ID:28509699 New window
NUK URN:URN:SI:UM:DK:EE9XVEYA
Publication date in DKUM:16.09.2020
Views:1390
Downloads:133
Metadata:XML DC-XML DC-RDF
Categories:FF
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Licences

License:CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Link:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Description:The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.
Licensing start date:24.08.2020

Secondary language

Language:Slovenian
Title:Monosemijski pristop k modalnosti v teoriji govornih dejanj
Abstract:Povezava med modalnostjo v angleškem jeziku in pragmatiko je stvar obsežne debate, saj se pogosto zdi, da ne obstaja konkreten način vzpostavitve smiselne povezave med modalnostjo, ki jo neka izjava vsebuje, in pragmatično funkcijo te izjave, kar je rezultat mnogih težav, ki pestijo različne teoretične opise tako modalnosti kot teorije govornih dejanj. Tradicionalni opis modalnosti deli modalne glagole v tri kategorije: epistemske, deontične in dinamične (znane tudi kot modalnosti enostavnega korena). Epistemska modalnost se nanaša na modalne glagole, ki izražajo verjetje, prepričanje, znanje ali verjetnost. Deontična se nanaša na tiste modalne glagole, ki govorijo o dolžnosti, kar zaobjema dovoljenja, prepovedi, obveze, itd. Dinamična, oziroma modalnost enostavnega korena pa je tista, ki opisuje zmožnosti. Problem pri tem opisu je, da ni mogoče določiti, kdaj je nek modalni glagol uporabljen v epistemskem, deontičnem ali dinamičnem smislu, saj lahko večina modalnih glagolov zavzema katerokoli izmed teh funkcij. Zaradi tega je razlaganje modalnosti s tem pristopom zelo dvoumno, tudi takrat, kadar se zanašamo na širši kontekst izjave, ki vsebuje modalni glagol. Po drugi strani tradicionalni opis govornih dejanj slednja deli na lokucijska, ilokucijska in perlokucijska govorna dejanja. Lokucija zaobjema samo neposredno dostopen, eksplicitno izražen pomen neke izjave, ilokucija izraža namen govorca in pomen izjave, kot ga dojema govorec, perlokucija pa se nanaša na izid in posledice izjave, neodvisno od namena ali dobesedne vsebine izjave. Zdi pa se, da se vse modalnosti nanašajo samo na ilokucijska govorna dejanja, saj ta izražajo namen govorca, na katerega pa modalnost najbolj vpliva. Povezava med tradicionalnima opisoma je tako domala nemogoča. Sodobnejši opis deli govorna dejanja na trdilna, komisivna, konstativna, direktivna in imperativna. Pri tem se da lokucijo, ilokucijo in perlokucijo razlagati kot aspekte teh govornih dejanj, ne pa kot ločene kategorije. V tem primeru je mogoče različne modalnosti povezati z različnimi govornimi dejanji, a se dvoumnost, ki jo vsebuje tradicionalni opis modalnosti pojavlja tudi pri nadaljnjih poskusih povezovanja modalnosti in govornih dejanj. V iskanju rešitve je tako potreben drugačen opis modalnosti. Dva znana pristopa sta polisemijski in monosemijski opis modalnosti. Polisemijski opisi trdijo, da ima vsaka leksikalna enota (v našem primeru modalni glagol) več semantičnih pomenov, medtem ko monosemijski opisi zagovarjajo, da je moč vsako leksikalno enoto definirati enopomensko. Pregled polisemijskih opisov pokaže, da več možnih pomenov in definicij za vsako leksikalno enoto vodi do podobnih dvoumnosti kot tradicionalni opis modalnosti, zaradi česar jih v naše namene ne moremo uporabiti. Monosemijski opisi se drug od drugega zelo razlikujejo. Nekateri izmed njih so se iz različnih razlogov pokazali za nezadostne, medtem ko opis, ki ga ponudi Groefsema (1995) zadovoljuje naše potrebe. Avtorica vsak modalni glagol definira v smislu propozicije, ki jo modalnost izraža in dodatne minimalne množice propozicij, ki podpirajo ali upravičujejo rabo dane modalnosti. Kissine (2013) na podoben način definira govorna dejanja, kar nam omogoča vzpostavitev koherentne povezave med modalnimi glagoli in govornimi dejanji. Na koncu naloge poskusimo pokazati, da je lahko vsak modalni glagol s svojo minimalno množico propozicij vsebovan samo v eni vrsti govornega dejanja, s čemer tudi definira govorno dejanje, v katerem se nahaja.
Keywords:Pragmatika, modalnost, govorna dejanja, epistemsko, deontično, dinamično, trditve, komisivi, konstativi, direktivi, imperativi, polisemija, monosemija


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