Inferential (deductive) and Assumptive matyt (presumably) in - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Inferential (deductive) and Assumptive matyt (‘presumably’) in Academic Discourse

Jolanta Šinkūnienė Vilnius University, department of English Philology jolanta2palmeris@gmail.com, www.jolantasinkuniene.wordpress.com

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Matyt: linguistic profile

■ → shortened form of PV MATYTI (‘see.INF’) ■ matyt modal. “turbūt, galbūt, greičiausiai” (DMLL) ■ modal word / particle ■ sentence initial or middle position ■ parenthetical ■ epistemic marker ( Usonienė, 2003; cf. Laigonaitė, 1967 ) ■ evidential (inferential) marker (Wiemer, 2007)

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Equivalents of matyt in EN

■ obviously, evidently, apparently, presumably, likely, seemingly (in LT-EN dictionaries) ■ seem, Ø, apparently, must (have), appears, obviously, guess, evidently, most likely, no doubt, quite possibly, probably, seemingly (Fiction ParaCorp LT↔EN, LT matyt→EN) ■ must (have), obviously, seem, evidently, perhaps, suppose, presumably, clearly, some, appear, may, probably, apparently, as if / though, look, clearly (Fiction ParaCorp LT↔EN, EN→LT matyt) ■ degree of probability expressed by matyt - from high or medium to low (Usonienė, 2006; 2007)

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Objectives of the pilot study

■ context → sources of evidence ■ range of encoded meanings ■ predominant: epistemic or evidential or epistential (Faller 2002:105) or ...?

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Data

Corpus Academicum Lithuanicum (CorALit)

■ Humanities (Architecture, Ethnology, Philosophy, Linguistics,

Literary Theory, History, Theology, etc.)

■ number of words: 2 119 826 ■ number of matyt cases: 311

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Analysis of the context

Types of judgment (Palmer, 2001:24):

■ speculative (uncertainty)

• John may be in his office.

■ deductive (inference from observable evidence)

• John must be in his office.

■ assumptive (inference from what is generally known)

• John’ll be in his office.

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Deductive matyt (1)

(1) Ji <knyga> įdomi tuo, kad ją galime laikyti knyga knygoje: viena – spausdintinė, kita – rankraštinė. Tai, matyt, lėmė pati knygos atspaudimo situacija (gal spaudos brokas?), nes joje kas antras lapas tuščias. (1a) The book is interesting in a sense that we can consider it a book within a book: one printed, another – manuscript. This must have been determined by the printing situation (maybe a print error?), because its every second page is empty. may have been, might have been, likely, most probably

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Deductive matyt (2)

(2) Antrasis karolis yra nuskeltas, apsilydęs (3:9 pav.; PMA

• p. – 5390), matyt, kilęs iš degintinio kapo. Mėlyno stiklo

rantyti karoliai yra dažnas radinys vėlyvojo geležies amžiaus Vakarų Lietuvos moterų kapuose. (2a) The second bead is spalled, partly melted, probably,

• riginated from cremation burial. Blue glass ribbed beads

are a frequent finding in late Iron age women graves in Western Lithuania. Possibly, perhaps, could have, presumably, must have

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Assumptive matyt

(3) Jiems labai sunku suvokti net tokius Vakarų visuomenėje besąlygiškai vykdomus reikalavimus, kaip punktualumas, tvarkingumas, duoto žodžio laikymasis, aukšta bet kurio darbo kokybė, netgi mandagumas ir pagarba kitam asmeniui. Dalis atvykusių, matyt, neturėjo ir normalios bendravimo su šeimos nariais patirties. Jiems dažniausiai nesuvokiamos ir tautinės savigarbos bei solidarumo sąvokos. (3a) They find it really difficult to comprehend punctuality, tidiness, keeping to one’s word, high quality of work, even politeness and respect - the concepts that are automatically followed in Western society. Part of the newcomers probably have never had experience of normal communication with the family members as well. They also frequently fail to understand the concepts of national self-respect and solidarity.

perhaps, may have, likely, quite possibly

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Hedging & matyt

■ Hedging refers to any linguistic means used to indicate either

a) a lack of complete commitment to the truth value of an accompanying proposition, or b) a desire not to express that commitment categorically. (Hyland, 1998:1) ■ Any utterance in which the speaker explicitly qualifies his commitment to the truth of the proposition expressed by the sentence he utters <…> is an epistemically modal or modalized utterance. (Lyons, 1977:797)

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Types of judgment

(4) Anksčiau išdėstyti faktai bei samprotavimai verčia atsargiai spėti, kad pirmiausia, matyt, bus atsiradęs frazeologinis junginys X, o jau vėliau – jo padailintieji ar išplėstiniai variantai. (4a) The facts and reasoning outlined earlier make us cautiously guess that a phraseological unit X must have appeared first, and only then its embellished and extended version.

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Epistemic modality vs evidentiality

The essential difference between these two types is <…> that with epistemic modality speakers express their judgments about the factual status of the proposition, whereas with evidential modality they indicate the evidence they have for its actual

• status. (Palmer, 2001:8)

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Evidential matyt

(5) (Gatvėje daug smulkių sudužusių stiklų). Matyt, čia tik ką įvyko avarija. (5a) (There is a lot of small pieces of broken glass on the street). Evidently, a car accident has just happened here. must have (2), obviously (2)

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Dimension of subjectivity

Speaker’s indication of knowing the evidence alone vs a larger group of people, hence personal vs shared

• responsibility. (Nuyts, 2001)

(6) Kuršių kalba išnyko, matyt, XVI–XVII amžiuje. Deja, nėra išlikę jokio kuršių kalbos paminklo, todėl apie šią kalbą būta įvairių nuomonių. (6a) Presumably the Curonian language disappeared in the 16th – 18th centuries. Unfortunately, there are no surviving records of this language, so there had been diverse opinions about it.

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References

■ Faller, M. T. 2002. Semantics and Pragmatics of Evidentials in Cuzco Quechua. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University. ■ Hyland, K. 1998. Hedging in Scientific Reasearch Articles. Philadelphia, Amsterdam: Benjamins. ■ Laigonaitė, A. 1967. Modalumo kategorija ir modaliniai žodžiai dabartinėje lietuvių kalboje. Vilnius. ■ Lyons, J. 1977. Semantics. Cambridge University Press. ■ Nuyts, J. 2001. Subjectivity as an evidential dimension in epistemic modal expressions. Journal of Pragmatics 33:383 - 400. ■ Palmer, F.R. 2001. Mood and Modality. Cambridge University Press. ■ Usonienė, A. 2003. Extension of Meaning: Verbs of Perception in English and Lithuanian. In Meaning Through Language Contrast: The Cambridge Papers. Vol. 1 (ed. by K. M. Jaszczolt, K. Turner). John Benjamins Publishing Co. 193-220 ■ Usonienė, A. 2006. Episteminio modalumo raiška. Darbai ir dienos, 97 – 108. ■ Usonienė, A. 2007. Degrees of Confidence and Modal Words in Lithuanian. Mokslo žurnalas Lietuvių kalba, (1). ■ Wiemer, B. 2007. Lexical markers of evidentiality in Lithuanian. Rivista di Linguistica 19:1, 173-208.