chapter 2 stance adverbs qualifying a standpoint - LOT publications

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CHAPTER 2
suggests that the standpoint he is advancing is in line with the antagonist‟s
expectations and signals that he shares this evaluation with him.
2.3.3 Stance adverbs commenting on the performance of the
act
The adverbs that can be used as the linguistic realisation of the ‘illocutionary’ way
of qualifying standpoints 48 add a comment that concerns the act that is being
performed, not the content of the act. Such a comment indicates the language
user‟s awareness of the conditions that pertain to the performance of an
assertive speech act. As a result, the protagonist who uses this way of qualifying
comments on his sincerity and cooperativeness when performing a particular
act or on the expectations that his interlocutor has about the performance of
that act. In section 2.3.3.1, I argue that the adverbs that constitute the linguistic
realisation of this way of qualifying come both from the group of the so-called
„illocutionary adverbs‟ (frankly, honestly, seriously), and from a group of adverbs
that are usually included among the epistemic adverbs or treated in the
literature under the label of „expectation markers‟ (actually, admittedly, in fact, of
course). 49 In section 2.3.3.2, I argue that the discourse effect of this way of
qualifying the standpoint is to emphasise the protagonist‟s cooperativeness.
2.3.3.1 Illocutionary adverbs and expectation markers
The adverbs that can be used to qualify a standpoint in the „illocutionary‟ way
belong to the group of adverbs that are known in the literature as „illocutionary
adverbs‟ (Bach & Harnish, 1979), „pragmatic adverbs‟ (Bellert, 1977) or „speechact
related adverbials‟ (Huddleston & Pullum, 2002). In this section, besides
presenting these adverbs, I argue that adverbs like actually, in fact, in reality, and of
course, which tend to be grouped together with modal adverbs or which appear
labelled as „expectation markers‟ (Aijmer & Simon-Vandenbergen, 2004;
Simon-Vandenbergen & Aijmer, 2002), may also count as qualifying the
standpoint by commenting on the act as a whole, rather than as commenting
on the commitment to the proposition.
Next to the groups of adverbs that Quirk et al. identify as „content
disjuncts‟, under which the adverbs presented in the previous two subsections
fall, the authors distinguish two more groups, under the label of „style
disjuncts‟. The one group indicates „modality and manner‟ and includes adverbs
such as:
48 I am aware of the confusion that the use of „illocutionary‟ as a label for this way of qualifying
standpoints may cause, since all three ways of qualifying pertain to the illocutionary level at which
standpoints are analysed, as I have argued in 1.4. For lack of any other term, I have chosen to call
this way after the most recurrent term with which the adverbs that constitute the linguistic
realisation of it are labelled in the literature (see „illocutionary adverbs‟).
49 For a detailed list, see the third column in Table 2.