ESTONIAN ACADEMY
PUBLISHERS
eesti teaduste
akadeemia kirjastus
PUBLISHED
SINCE 1965
 
Linguistica Uralica cover
Linguistica Uralica
ISSN 1736-7506 (Electronic)
ISSN 0868-4731 (Print)
Clauses Emerging as Epistemic Adverbs in Estonian Conversation; pp. 81-101
PDF | doi:10.3176/lu.2010.2.01

Author
Leelo Keevallik
Abstract
The paper shows how four combinations of 1st person pronoun + epistemic verb emerge as adverbs in contemporary spoken Estonian, arguing that word classes have fuzzy boundaries. Excerpts from naturally occurring conversations demonstrate how ma tean ’I know’, ma usun ’I believe’, ma arvan ’I think’, and mai tea ’I don’t know’ are used in varying positions in relation to the commented clause with the prosody that usually suggests their integration into these units. The items display somewhat divergent semantics as compared to their components, expressing degrees of epistemic certainty and uncertainty as well as personalized stance.
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