Hedging as a general-semiotic phenomenon
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2023-5-138-152
Abstract
Alexander Barulin’s most notable results have to do with the communicative aspects of the human protolanguage. This kind of research differs from the conventional reconstructions of proto-languages because it cannot rely on material traces left by ancient humans, and the linguistic structures properly speaking are hardly available. Thus, linguists cannot put forward a description of phonetic and grammatical systems of the languages of the first humans. Instead, conjectures are usually made based on the etological-communicative studies of animal behaviour. Following Alexander Barulin, animal communication displays certain signs analogous to ‘hedges’, whose main function consists in accommodating information conveyed as a sort of ‘goods’ in communicative ‘exchange’. Hedges of “possibly” vs. “probably” types belong to linguistic techniques extensively used both in West-European and in Russian discourses. Lexical properties of such hedges interact with grammatical and pragmatical categories of tense, mood, and negation.
Keywords
cognitive linguistics,
animal and human communicative systems,
hedge,
discourse accommodation,
probability vs. possibility,
opinion manipulation
Supporting agencies: My main gratitude goes to Sasha Barulin, the discussion of linguistic problems with whom had a strong influence on many of us, his peers. For critical remarks and very important suggestions for finalizing and improving the text, I am deeply grateful to anonymous reviewers and especially to P.M. Arkadiev. All these suggestions were gratefully taken into account. Sections 1, 2, and 3 of this study were funded by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 19–18–00429) at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The study described in sections 4 and 5 was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 19–18–00040) at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
About the Author
V. Z. Demyankov
Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Valery Z. Demyankov, Dr. of Sci. (Philology), professor
1-1, Bolshoi Kislovsky Lane, Moscow, 125000
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Review
For citations:
Demyankov V.Z. Hedging as a general-semiotic phenomenon. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2023;(5):138-152. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2023-5-138-152
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