The "Strong Opinion Adverbs" selon moi, a mes yeux, a mon avis...: Subjective Viewpoint and Attenuation Effect

Within the general class of modal epistemic adverbials, we separate a small group of expressions (about a dozen) that we identified as strong opinion adverbs. In discourse, when such adverbials, appearing as parenthetical clauses in a sentence include a 1st person deictic element (ie, in their "...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Langue française 2004-06, Vol.142 (June), p.31-40
Main Author: Borillo, Andree
Format: Article
Language:fre
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Within the general class of modal epistemic adverbials, we separate a small group of expressions (about a dozen) that we identified as strong opinion adverbs. In discourse, when such adverbials, appearing as parenthetical clauses in a sentence include a 1st person deictic element (ie, in their "direct use"), their role is to express the speaker's subjective strong conviction about his utterance truth. But at the same time, they often fulfill a pragmatic function of attenuation: through them, the speaker explicitly assumes the responsibility of his affirmation - or of his appreciation - & by doing so, he demonstrates some kind of restraint that makes it easier for him eventually to adjust or to negotiate if a full agreement is not met with his addressee. 14 References. Adapted from the source document
ISSN:0023-8368