Stance as participant structure

Abstract

Jakobson (1957) bases the analysis of mood on a three-part structure that crucially involves two participant variables. Although the definition of evidentiality in Jakobson (1957) differs in some fundamental ways, it also allows for the explication of a participant structure inherent in evidential meanings. In this paper I argue that by exploring the interaction between these participant structures in multiple-perspective constructions and in reported speech, the framework proposed in Jakobson (1957) enables us to systematically examine phenomena that are typically assumed to arise in evidential expressions as pragmatic effects, particularly ‘commitment effects’ and evidential interpretations of modals. I propose that this approach present us with a principled account of stance meanings (Du Bois 2007), more particularly, of the semantic and pragmatic interaction between modal and evidential meanings, based on their semantic structure.