MEANS OF EXPRESSING EPISTEMIC MODALITY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the nomenclature of means of expressing epistemic modality in the English language. At the functional-semantic level, the semantics of epistemic assessment is reflected in the values of units of the morphological, lexical, and syntactic levels of language, capable of performing the following semantic functions at the level of utterance: the degree of confidence of the speaker, the degree of validity of judgment, subjectivity, and unreality. Since the combined common function of all means of expressing epistemic evaluation is to reflect the speaker’s incomplete epistemic commitment based on his insufficient epistemic guarantees, the degree of confidence and the degree of justification act as the basic semantic functions of epistemic evaluation. The first reflects the epistemic commitment that the speaker accepts, and the second — his epistemic guarantees. Depending on the quality of epistemic guarantees, the validity can be high, medium, low, or actually absent in the semantics of the indicator. Validity is related to the speaker’s knowledge about the situation and, in particular, the degree of validity directly depends on the source of information about the situation. Modal values of morphological indicators of epistemic evaluation include epistemic necessity and epistemic possibility and reflect the degree of invalidity of the proposition from the point of view of the speaker. In evaluative statements, epistemic necessity and epistemic possibility are reinterpreted as evaluative values of certainty and uncertainty, respectively; that is, the modal component of the value of such indicators is preserved, but at the communicative and pragmatic level, their modal value comes to the fore, reflecting the degree of confidence of the speaker.