Modal meaning and illocutionary force: a corpus-based analysis of hedged performatives
Gunther kaltenböck
Ilse Depraetere
Abstract
This presentation offers an analysis of hedged performatives. Fraser (1976) introduced this label to refer to combinations of a (semi-)modal verb and a performative verb:
(1) I must advise you to remain quiet.
Research on hedged performatives has been mainly focussed on their use in German (see e.g. Greifeld 1981, Gloning 1997). We aim to complement the analysis with a corpus-based examination of hedged performatives (Fraser 1976) with must in American English. The dataset is derived from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) with additional spoken material from the Fisher Corpus.
A quantitative overview of the relative frequency and distribution of the items from the different categories identified by Fraser (acts of asserting, evaluating, reflecting speaker attitude, stipulating, requesting, suggesting, exercising authority and committing) results in a first set of adjustments to Fraser’s taxonomy. Corpus data, for instance, show that modals preferably combine with verbs from Fraser’s asserting category in terms of token frequency.
The main part of the paper offers a qualitative analysis and focuses on meaning effects of must combined with a performative verb. Fraser’s approach will be tested particularly on the basis of I must confess, I must admit and I must say, all of which are acts of asserting in Fraser’s taxonomy and have particularly high mutual information scores in COCA. The corpus data show that the semantics of the performative verb alone are not sufficient to capture the meaning of ‘hedged performatives’. Instead it is argued that Fraser’s analysis needs to be complemented by taking into account also (a) the position of the hedged performative in the clause, and (b) the context and content of the clause in which the hedged performative is embedded (positive or negative state of affairs). An analysis along these lines reveals different pragmatic profiles for I must confess, I must admit and I must say. One of the most striking findings is that, unlike Fraser claims, ‘hedged performatives’ with must do not always hedge. At times, they do quite the opposite, that is, they enhance the speaker’s commitment to the message communicated, as in the following example:
(3) well you've you've named a whole bunch of really funny comics i must say (Fisher_fe_03_11109)
Our corpus study also shows that an account of hedged modals in terms of implicated performative force (Fraser 1976: 195) needs to be reassessed.
Fraser, B. 1976. Hedged performatives, in P. Cole (ed.) 1974. Syntax and Semantics 3. Speech Acts. New York, NY : Academic Press. 187-210.
Gloning, T. 1997. Modalisierte Sprechakte mit Modalverben. Semantische, pragmatische und sprachgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, in G. Fritz and T. Gloning (eds.) Untersuchungen zur semantischen Entwicklungsgeschichte der Modalverben im Deutschen. Tübingen : Niemeyer. 307-437.
Greifeld, B. 1981. Modalverben in Sprechakten. Trier : LAUT.