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Proceedings/Recueil Des Communications Semantics and Linguistic Theory Année : 2016

Assertability conditions of epistemic (and fictional) attitudes and mood variation

Alda Mari

Résumé

Italian is a well-known exception to the cross-linguistic generalization according to which `belief' predicates are indicative selectors across languages. We newly propose that languages that select the subjunctive with epistemic predicates allow us to see a systematic polysemy between what we call an expressive-`belief' (featuring only a doxastic dimension) and an inquisitive-`belief' (featuring both a doxastic and an epistemic dimension conveying doxastic certainty (in the assertion) and epistemic uncertainty (in the presupposition)). We offer several previously unseen contrasts proving this distinction and offer a new analysis for mood choice cross-linguistically. We argue that the distinction between expressive and inquisitive attitudes is not an idiosyncrasy of non-factive epistemics. We provide novel data, showing that fictional predicates (dream, imagine) license the subjunctive. We explain the indicative/subjunctive alternation by again appealing to epistemic uncertainty and disentangling expressive from inquisitive-fictional meanings. We thus pave the way for a new typology of attitudes relying on this systematic polysemy and propose new criteria to explain mood distribution cross-linguistically.
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hal-03896764 , version 1 (13-12-2022)

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Alda Mari. Assertability conditions of epistemic (and fictional) attitudes and mood variation. Semantics and Linguistic Theory, 26, pp.61-81, 2016, ⟨10.3765/salt.v26i0.3782⟩. ⟨hal-03896764⟩
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