Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.29162/jez.2021.6

On the origins of the epistemic, evidential, and subjectivity meanings in the mental state predicates: The case of Dutch

Karolien Janssens
Jan Nuyts ; University of Antwerp

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the debates about the nature of the speaker-related meanings of the mental state predicates, on the basis of a diachronic corpus study into the semantic evolution of five such verbs in Dutch. The analyses show that each of these verbs develops its own spe-cific profile in terms of a limited set of clearly distinguishable speaker-related meanings, viz. epistemic modality, evidentiality, and ‘subjectivi-ty’. Each of these meanings is moreover characterized by a distinctive di-achronic path. The study thus also demonstrates the independent status of ‘subjectivity’ as a meaning category.

Keywords

mental state predicates; speaker-related meanings; diachrony; epistemic modality; evidentiality; subjectivity

Hrčak ID:

267449

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/267449

Publication date:

20.12.2021.

Article data in other languages: german

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