Abstract
This chapter argues that assertion is fundamentally linguistic, in that it is a practice that can exist only in a speech community that has a linguistic form specified for the performance of assertions, i.e. a declarative mood-marker. Such a conception is required in order to distinguish assertion from other content-conveying linguistic acts, such as presupposition and implicature. The declarative mood also plays an information-structure role, but this can be separated from its role as an indicator of illocutionary force. Finally, while in human natural languages the declarative is a sentential mood, consideration of imaginary languages lacking the category of sentence shows that the declarative need not be sentential.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Oxford Handbook of Assertion |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Publication status | Accepted/In press - 2019 |
Profiles
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Mark Jary
- Centre for Research in Arts and Creative Exchange - Emeritus Professor
- School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
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