The expression I (don't) think has in recent years received a fair amount of attention from different viewpoints and in different linguistic frameworks. After a brief survey of the most important literature on the subject, this article examines the occurrence of I think in political discourse as compared with its use in informal conversation. On the basis of two samples of 100 instances each from casual conversations and radio political interviews, the expression is looked at from the points of view of syntax, intonation, the semantics of the proposition, collocation, and the wider context of the interaction taking place. It is shown that the expression has a complex of meanings which cannot simply be labelled ‘uncertainty’or ‘lack of commitment’. Depending on the context, it can signal a tentative attitude or authoritative deliberation. It is further argued that an understanding of the extralinguistic situation and the cultural meaning of the genre, including the power and status of interactants, is essential if one wishes to interpret the selection of I think in individual instances.
The aim of the article is to make a contribution to the description of the meaning and functions of well by looking at its translations into Swedish and Dutch. In order to study well cross-linguistically we have used electronic translation corpora. Our account of well is based on Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia as it is integrated within the systems of modality and evidentiality (White 1999(White , 2000. A comparison is made with earlier proposals by Carlson we found a wide range of translations, testifying to the uses of well as a connective and as an interpersonal marker. We want to claim that these different uses can be explained from the general heteroglossic function that well fulfils. The translations also show that positive appraisal is still part of the meaning of well, though in some cases this meaning aspect is more salient than in others.
This paper looks at the way in which politicians use radio interviews to present an image of themselves as fully committed to their cause. In previous research the focus has been on strategies of evasion which are developed by interviewees in response to face-threatening questions. In this article I aim to complement the picture of the hedging politician by concentrating on the equally important linguistic devices employed for conveying intellectual power. The desirable image is created through the use of expressions emphasizing cognitive certainty as well as emotional and social commitment. The investigation is based on a corpus of radio interviews with British politicians recorded between 1985 and 1990.
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