Abstract
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Discourse Processes |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| Pages (from-to) | 655-669 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| ISSN | 0163-853X |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Fingerprint
Cite this
}
When Belief Ascriptions Are About More Than What Is on Someone Else's Mind. / Hansen, Mikkel; Petersen, Esben Nedenskov; Poulsen, Arne; Salès-Wuillemin, Edith.
In: Discourse Processes, Vol. 54, No. 8, 2017, p. 655-669.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - When Belief Ascriptions Are About More Than What Is on Someone Else's Mind
AU - Hansen, Mikkel
AU - Petersen, Esben Nedenskov
AU - Poulsen, Arne
AU - Salès-Wuillemin, Edith
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The third-person belief ascription, "Marie believes that the contract is in the cabinet," may engender two interpretations: (1) It neutrally describes what is on Marie's mind; (2) it offers indirect evidence about reality, committing the speaker to the cabinet as the most likely location. The circumstances which lead to the evidential interpretation are at present not well documented in the case of belief verbs. In the case of belief-dependent verbs with and without embedding clause syntax, e.g., "Marie says that the contract is in the archive," and, "Marie is looking for the contract in the archive," it has been claimed that they eschew the evidential interpretation altogether. We explored the influence of the pragmatic context on the third-person, present tense and first-person, past tense use of the verbs, believe, say, and look for. In three experiments that manipulated the discourse context, 258 adults rated written vignettes. Regardless of the verb and the tense, when presented in discourse contexts without prior shared knowledge of the location of the object in question, the belief ascription was interpreted as indirect evidence. The results illuminate the border area between semantics and pragmatics, particularly regarding evidential uses of belief and belief-dependent verbs.
AB - The third-person belief ascription, "Marie believes that the contract is in the cabinet," may engender two interpretations: (1) It neutrally describes what is on Marie's mind; (2) it offers indirect evidence about reality, committing the speaker to the cabinet as the most likely location. The circumstances which lead to the evidential interpretation are at present not well documented in the case of belief verbs. In the case of belief-dependent verbs with and without embedding clause syntax, e.g., "Marie says that the contract is in the archive," and, "Marie is looking for the contract in the archive," it has been claimed that they eschew the evidential interpretation altogether. We explored the influence of the pragmatic context on the third-person, present tense and first-person, past tense use of the verbs, believe, say, and look for. In three experiments that manipulated the discourse context, 258 adults rated written vignettes. Regardless of the verb and the tense, when presented in discourse contexts without prior shared knowledge of the location of the object in question, the belief ascription was interpreted as indirect evidence. The results illuminate the border area between semantics and pragmatics, particularly regarding evidential uses of belief and belief-dependent verbs.
U2 - 10.1080/0163853X.2016.1150042
DO - 10.1080/0163853X.2016.1150042
M3 - Journal article
VL - 54
SP - 655
EP - 669
JO - Discourse Processes
JF - Discourse Processes
SN - 0163-853X
IS - 8
ER -