Linguistics and ignorance

Rhetorical functions of a ‘language of uncertainty’ in the mass media

“…An explicitly linguistic approach to ways of dealing with scientific uncertainty in communication and to the consequences these have in terms of scientific, political, media and social practices, discourses, discourse participants and processes as well as in relation to the concept of uncertainty itself has so far been the exception rather than the rule (Janich and Simmerling, 2015). Szarvas et al (2012) have undertaken initial attempts in computer linguistics to identify and classify uncertainty in texts in an automated way; this kind of automated search has been found to reach its limits rather quickly, however, especially where elements other than just individual lexemes or groups of words are to be considered.…”

“…An overall view of the broad range of linguistic options available for expressing uncertainty is presented, albeit with no claim to exhaustiveness, in Janich and Simmerling (2015): It is based on a number of qualitative hermeneutical studies and shows that at the syntactical level, the main indicators of uncertainty are tense, modality (subjunctive, conditional mood, modal verbs and words, questions) and expressions of negation. In addition, these are the linguistic resources by which various temporal and modal emphases are conveyed (e.g.…”

“…Such figures also include hyperbole and irony, even if they are less easy to identify by pointing to a specific word. (Janich and Simmerling, 2015: 134)…”

“…Against this background, then, the main focus of interest as linguists is not only in ‘how people […] name, describe and express judgments about ignorance and uncertainty’ but also ‘what significance in terms of subject matter and argumentation’ (Janich and Simmerling, 2015: 125) this has in communicative situations (for an example analysis, cf. Janich and Simmerling, 2013).…”