Evidential strategies in receiver-directed talk: The case of English inferential adverbs

This study demonstrates that clearly and obviously are used to express inference, conjecture, assumption and self-evidence. The four notions can be organised on a cline, each showing a different degree of (inter)subjectivity, which is why this study argues that (inter)subjectification is responsible not only for their development from adverbs of manner into evidential adverbs (which is generally agreed on), but also for the different types of evidential meaning they express. It also argues that self-evidence is a post-evidential meaning of the two adverbs. This paper demonstrates that inferences, conjectures and assumptions function as strategies for eliciting a response from the addressee. Inferences and assumptions serve as prompts; conjectures have a challenging function. Inferences are...

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