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English verbs of cognitive attitude (e.g. know, think, believe, suppose,
guess, assume, doubt, etc.) are one of the means of giving voice to the
subject's epistemic-evidential stance. The interest aroused by these verbs
is not limited to their semantics: it also lies in their functions in
communication and, supposedly, in cognition.
The book investigates the semantic and pragmatic features of this class of
English verbs in the light of recent theories of dynamic meaning construal
and analyses the class as a good example of a complex dynamical system. The
individual verbs are seen as micro-systems embedded within the system and
occupying a rich semantic space in which epistemicity and evidentiality
interact in intricate ways.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Theoretical perspectives on meaning and communication
Chapter 2 - Previous research on verbs of cognitive attitude
Chapter 3 - Data and methodology
Chapter 4 - The dimensions of the complex dynamical system
Chapter 5 - The forms and principles of the organization
Chapter 6 - Corpus-based study of English verbs of cognitive attitude
Concluding remarks
Notes
References
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