Distinguishing semantic components of attitude verbs via the German modifier genau

Valerie Wurm

doi:10.5817/LB2020-1-3

Distinguishing semantic components of attitude verbs via the German modifier genau

Roč.68,č.1(2020)

Valerie Wurm

https://doi.org/10.5817/LB2020-1-3

Trvalý odkaz (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142811

PDF (angličtina)

Abstrakt

This paper presents novel data from German: certain attitude verbs such as wissen ('know') as well as all verbs of perception are compatible with the modifier genau ('exactly') which is usually associated with expressing precision. When modifying wissen in declarative embedding contexts, genau seems to convey that the relevant attitude holds to a specifically high degree which poses a problem for the classical semantic approach to wissen. On the traditional view, wissen is analyzed as a relation that evaluates a proposition w.r.t. a subject's belief worlds and requires that it holds in all of these worlds - i.e., it is an 'all-or-nothing' concept. Accordingly, any kind of strengthening of this relation should be impossible. Based on Lewis (1996), I will show that the modifier's semantic impact in the use described here can be explained as a manipulation of the set of possible worlds incompatible with the proposition that is known. Thus, I will argue that certain attitude verbs cannot only be sensitive to belief worlds but also to alternatives thereof.

Klíčová slova:
knowledge; attitude verbs; perception verbs; precision; alternatives

Stránky:
23–40

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