Verbalization of the Concept Doubt by Means of Epistemic Modality

Abstract

The article considers verbalization of the DOUBT concept by means of epistemic modality, namely epistemically marked words and phrases. The relevance of the study is due to the tendency to study epistemic modality (Palmer F., Halliday M.), epistemic words (Biber D., Wierzbicka A.), phrases of harmonious / disharmonious type (Aijmer K., Hoye L.) and intensifier words (Quirk R.). However, the verbalization of the DOUBT concept by these units has not yet been studied. The object of research is the ways of verbalization of the DOUBT concept by means of epistemic modality, and the subject of research is the meaning of epistemic words and phrases Adv + V / V + Adv, Modal V + Adv, Adv + Adj, Adj + N, where the main words are epistemically marked words, and adverbs and adjectives act as modifiers and intensifiers of meaning. Material of the research ‒ dictionary definitions of epistemic words, word combinations of epistemic words with adverbs-intensifiers in the Oxford Collocations Dictionary, modern English fiction from the 90s of the XX century until now. The research methodology consists in using component analysis of epistemic words to determine words with the “uncertain” seme, lexical-semantic analysis to distinguish verbalizing words of the DOUBT concept, in analyzing the compatibility of epistemic words with intensifier words and pragmatic analysis of epistemic words and phrases. The results of the study are the identification of the semantic features that are inherent in the words verbalizing the concept DOUBT and their grouping by semantic features. Studies of harmonic / disharmonious type phrases allow to refer to the phrases-verbalizers of the DOUBT concept those that contain units that express a weak force of modality (e.g. could possibly), and those whose meaning is modified by intensifier words in the direction of intensification of uncertainty (e.g. will possibly). In the phrases Adv + V / V + Adv, Adv + Adj, Adj + N the influence of the adverb of degree on the meaning of the phrase was traced. The compatibility of epistemic words to denote the DOUBT concept and epistemic words of confidence and probability with amplifiers, emphasizers and downtoners (Quirk R. terms) has been studied. It has been found that the use of epistemic words of confidence and probability with downtoners mitigates the confidence of such a phrase and contributes to its attribution (e.g. hardly believe) to the traditional verbalizers of the DOUBT concept.