Using corpora to track changing thought styles: evidentiality, epistemology, and Early Modern English and German scientific discourse

Whitt, Richard J.

Abstract

Most research on evidentiality has focused on classifying evidential systems synchronically; meanwhile, diachronic studies on evidentiality seem to have focused on the development of specific items into evidential markers with little regard to discourse context. This paper begins to fill this gap by presenting the results of a corpus-based study of evidential markers in Early Modern scientific discourse in English and German. The Early Modern period witnessed the transition from scholastic-based models of science to more empirical models of enquiry; this study demonstrates a decrease in the use of markers of mediated information and an increase in the use of markers of direct observation and inference accompanying these sociohistorical developments.

Citation

Whitt, R. J. (2017). Using corpora to track changing thought styles: evidentiality, epistemology, and Early Modern English and German scientific discourse. Kalbotyra, 69, https://doi.org/10.15388/Klbt.2016.10376

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 7, 2016
• Publication Date: Jan 30, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 1, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 1, 2017
• Journal: Kalbotyra
• Print ISSN: 2029-8315
• Electronic ISSN: 2029–8315
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 69
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.15388/Klbt.2016.10376
• Keywords: Evidentiality, Early Modern Period, Scientific Discourse, English, German
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/838705
• Publisher URL: http://www.zurnalai.vu.lt/kalbotyra/article/view/10376