Experientiality markers in memory reports: A semantics-pragmatics puzzle

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.3.5815

Keywords:

Experiential remembering, Memory predicates, Attitude reports, Knowledge, Evidentiality, Study formats, Propositional attitudes, Pragmatic competitions

Abstract

Some recent work in semantics and the philosophy of language suggests that the way we report events reflects whether we have personally experienced or witnessed these events (i.e. through linguistic elements dubbed 'experientiality markers'). This paper provides experimental support for one such marker: German non-manner uses of wie ['how'].  We argue that when they are embedded under the memory predicates noch wissen ['still know'] and sich erinnern ['REFL-remind'], free relative wie-complements mark the remembering of a personally experienced event. We support this claim through a series of online studies based on scale judgements. The results of our main study raise questions about the semantics-pragmatics interface of the experientiality marking property of wie, and about the robustness of experientiality markers in general. A series of complementary studies address these questions.

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Published

2025-01-24

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Section

Articles