I don't know as a Prepositioned Epistemic Hedge

Ann Weatherall

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Abstract

The present article reports on a study of a previously underexamined type of I don't know in everyday talk. The targets were all in first position and were syntactically complete utterances that were prepositioned or preliminary to a next thing within a turn. A core of 32 instances was drawn from a much larger collection of I don't knows taken from New Zealand, British, and American English corpora. The target I don't knows were preliminary to two broad categories of actions—first assessments and approximations. The findings suggest the target I don't knows function as a prepositioned hedge—a forward-looking stance marker displaying that the speaker is not fully committed to what follows in their turn of talk.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 317-337

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Research on Language and Social Interaction (Volume 44, Issue 4)

Publication milestones

Published - 07/11/2011

Publication status

Published - 07/11/2011

ISSN

0835-1813

External Publication IDs

handle.net: 10547/625730
Scopus: 84858789347

Access to documents

10.1080/08351813.2011.619310

Publication metrics

Metrics

Scopus

PlumX, opens in new tab

Captures

Mentions