Evidential propositions as situational scenarios

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the interpretation of evidential propositions using insights from the Lexical Constructional Model (LCM), including its recent classification of situational scenarios (cognitive models) into three sub-types: descriptive, attitudinal and regulatory. The aim is to show that processing the meaning of an evidential proposition can require profiling parts of all three types of situational scenarios– a process that is activated (at the lexical-constructional, discourse and implicational levels) by such cognitive operations as echoing , contrast and metonymy . This is consistent with the principles of Relevance according to which the contextual information required for interpreting the speaker’s explicit/implicit meaning (i.e., explicating/implicating it) is not limited to a particular knowledge type or source (encyclopaedic, socio-cultural, religious and so on). The study, thus, complements work on evidentiality by going beyond its features, markers and behaviour in discourse to focus on the interpretation of evidential propositions in connection with cognitive models and operations.