Evidentiality in Italian discourse structure

In many languages, when reproducing a proposition that we have obtained from an outside source that is not based on our own knowledge or experience, there is a possibility or even obligation to grammatically or lexically mark our source of information, e.g. “Apparently, Giovanni was here”. This is called evidentiality. In this case: inferred evidential marking, as the adverb apparently indicates that you have conducted (or inferred) your conveyed information from a clue in the context or the current situation (cf. Squartini 2001). 

Italian, like the other Romance languages, cannot mark evidentiality through specific and purely grammatical means (cf. Greco 2018), but through other forms whose original central meaning is something else (e.g., different tense or aspect forms of the verb, that usually locate an event or action in time or denote the manner in which this event occurs, cf. Dendale & Tasmowski, 2001). 

Combining insights from discourse analysis, modalisation and world reference with forensic linguistics, I want to provide an overview of the evidentiality strategies used in written Italian and subsequently apply my findings on authorship analysis and lies.

For my corpus research, I aim to investigate whether evidential markers in their frequency and their types of expression are author-specific and if they can be used in authorship analysis. Furthermore, I am planning to examine the differences in frequency and type of evidentiality markers between truthful and deceitful statements.

Statement on a.r.t.e.s.:

“a.r.t.e.s. offers great opportunities that enable interdisciplinary, intercultural and interlinguistic exchange. I especially value the support in doing research abroad and acquiring a binational degree.” 

Biography

Viktoria Henn holds a B.A. in Language Science from Saarland University and a master’s degree in Linguistics from the University of Cologne. During her studies, she spent one semester at the Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice. In 2022, she joined the research project C02 “Tense and aspect in discourse” of the CRC 1252 “Prominence in Language” as a student assistant and is now working there as a Doctoral Student. Her doctoral research focusses on evidentially in Italian discourse structure and is supervised by Prof. Dr. Martin Becker.