Interpreting the experiencer of a discourse adjective

Discourse adjectives and some attitude adjectives are predicates that allow the overt expression of the conceptually necessary experiencer. Consider the data in (1) and (2).

There is a difference in the default interpretation of the experiencer of the discourse adjective clear in (1a) and the default interpretation of the experiencer of the attitude adjective shocking in (2a). I approximate the meaning of (1a) as the conjunction of (1b) and (1c). If it is clear that Briscoe is a detective, then it is clear to the discourse participants that Briscoe is a detective. The identity of the experiencer is resolved as the discourse participants. A cancellation test shows that trying to cancel this entailment results in the contradictory sentence in (3).

In contrast, the default interpretation of the attitude adjective shocking in (2a) is not easily resolved as the discourse participants. I approximate the meaning of (2a) as (2b). That is, if a speaker utters (2b), the most likely interpretation is that this emotional reaction is being attributed to the speaker only. Support for this might be taken from the fact that (2c) is marked. The markedness of this sentence has to do with the fact that the emotivity associated with shocking is something that is best discussed from a first or third person perspective. If the second person (you in 2c) is participating in a conversation, then she would be in the best position to comment on what she does or does not find shocking.

مواضيع ذات صلة

A case study of the semantics of clear - The framework – a version of Gunlogsons model of context update

Discourse adjectives are not factive

Preliminary observations about discourse adjectives

Discourse adjectives Introduction

Evaluatives in interrogatives

Prosody, scope, and pragmatic status

The fragment of grammar

On embedded evaluatives

Evaluative adverbs and dialogue - Modeling ancillary commitments

Evaluative adverbs and dialogue - Evaluatives as ancillary commitments

Evaluative adverbs and adjectives

The argument of evaluative adverbs