Cover not available

In:Communicating Certainty and Uncertainty in Medical, Supportive and Scientific Contexts
Edited by Andrzej Zuczkowski, Ramona Bongelli, Ilaria Riccioni and Carla Canestrari
[Dialogue Studies 25] 2014
► pp. 115–136

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Epistemic stance

Knowing, Unknowing, Believing (KUB) positions

 | University of Macerata, Italy
 | University of Macerata, Italy
 | University of Macerata, Italy
 | University of Macerata, Italy
Published online: 26 November 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.25.06zuc
In this study, we compare three approaches to epistemic stance: Akio Kamio’s Theory of Territories of Information (intended as a bridge between evidentiality and politeness) and his distinction between direct and indirect forms of utterances; John Heritage’s differentiation between epistemic status and epistemic stance and between speakers’ more knowledgeable and less knowledgeable positions; our theoretical model, which includes three epistemic positions : knowing, unknowing, believing (not knowing whether). Similarities and differences among these three approaches and their applicability to the analysis of naturally occurring conversations are discussed.
References (26)
References
Bongelli, Ramona, and Andrzej Zuczkowski. 2008. Indicatori Linguistici Percettivi e Cognitivi. Roma: Aracne.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bongelli, Ramona, Ilaria Riccioni, and Andrzej Zuczkowski. 2013. “Certain-Uncertain, True-False, Good-Evil in Italian Political Speeches.” In Multimodal Communication in Political Speech. Shaping Minds and Social and Social Action, ed. by Isabella Poggi, Francesca 
D’Errico, Laura Vincze, and Alessandro Vinciarelli, 164–180. Berlin: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 2011. “Territories of Knowledge, Territories of Experience: Emphatic Moments in Interaction.” In The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, ed. by Tanya Stivers, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig, 159–183. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012a. “Epistemics in Action: Action Formation and Territories of Knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 (1): 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012b. “The Epistemic Engine: Sequence Organization and Territories of Knowledge.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 (1): 30–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012c. “Beyond and Behind the Words: Some Reactions to My Commentators.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 45 (1): 76–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John, and Geoffrey Raymond. 2005. “The Terms of Agreement: Indexing Epistemic Authority and Subordination in Talk-in-Interaction.” Social Psychology Quarterly 68 (1): 15–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kamio, Akio. 1994. “The Theory of Territory of Information. The Case of Japanese.” Journal of Pragmatics 21 (1): 67–100. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. “Territory of Information in English and Japanese and Psychological Utterances.” Journal of Pragmatics 24 (3): 235–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997a. Territory of Information. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997b. “Evidentiality and Some Discourse Characteristics in Japanese.” In Directions in Functional Linguistics, ed. by Akio Kamio, 145–171. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kawanishi, Yumiko. 1994. “On the ‘Theory of Territory of Information’. An Interview with Akio Kamio.” Issue in Applied Linguistics 5 (2): 437–448.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keevallik, Leelo. 2011. “The Terms of Not Knowing.” In The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, ed. by Tanya Stivers, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig, 184–206. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2011. “The Management of Knowledge Discrepancies and of Epistemic Changes in Institutional Interactions.” In The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, ed. by Tanya Stivers, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig, 27–57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Displaying, Contesting and Negotiating Epistemic Authority in Social Interaction: Descriptions and Questions in Guided Visits.” Discourse Studies 15 (5): 597–626. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Petöfi, János Sándor. 1973. “Towards an Empirically Motivated Grammar Theory of Verbal Texts.” In Studies in Text Grammar, ed. by János Sándor Petöfi, and Hannes Rieser, 205–275. Dordrecht: Reidel. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Scrittura e Interpretazione. Introduzione alla Testologia Semiotica dei Testi Verbali. Roma: Carocci.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Philip, Gill, Ramona Bongelli, Ilaria Riccioni, Carla Canestrari, and Andrzej Zuczkowski. 2013. “Negotiating Narrative. Dialogic Dynamics of Known, Unknown and Believed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Language and Dialogue 3 (1): 6–32. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riccioni, Ilaria, Ramona Bongelli, and Andrzej Zuczkowski. 2013. “The Communication of Certainty and Uncertainty in Italian Political Media Discourses.” In The Pragmatics of Political Discourse, ed. by Anita Fetzer, 125–165. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “Mitigation and Epistemic Positions in Troubles Talk: The Giving Advice Activity in Close Interpersonal Relationships. Some Examples from Italian.” Language & Communication 39: 51–72.
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. Sequence Organization in Interactions: A Primer in Conversation Analysis, Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Ten Operations in Self-Initiated, Same-Turn Repair.” In Conversational Repair and Human Understanding, ed. by Makoto Hayashi, Geoffrey Raymond, and Jack Sidnell, 41–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A., Gail Jefferson, and Harvey Sacks. 1977. “The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation.” Language 53 (2): 361–382. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig. 2011. “Knowledge, Morality and Affiliation in Social Interaction.” In The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, ed. by Tanya Stivers, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig, 3–24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trent, Nobuko. 2013. “Speaker’s Information Territory and EFL Politeness Strategy of Japanese Learners of English.” In JALT 2012 Conference Proceedings, ed. by N. Sonda, and A. Krause. Tokyo: JALT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zuczkowski, Andrzej, Ramona Bongelli, and Ilaria Riccioni. 2011. “Proposizione costitutiva di mondo e indicatori linguistici percettivi e cognitivi.” In Dimensionen der Analyse von Texten und Diskursen. Festschrift für János Sándor Petöfi zum achtzigsten Geburstag. Dimensioni dell’analisi di testi e discorsi. Festschrift für János Sándor Petöfi in occasione del suo ottantesimo compleanno, ed. by Klaus Hölker, and Carla Marello, 41–61. Berlin: Lit-Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

González Vázquez, Mercedes
2025. Factores pragmáticos en el uso de los marcadores evidenciales en gallego. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 38:2 ► pp. 436 ff. DOI logo
Szczyrbak, Magdalena
2019. EPISTEMIC STANCE IN THE KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARING: FOCUS ON MENTAL AND COMMUNICATION VERBS. Discourse and Interaction 12:2 ► pp. 72 ff. DOI logo
Vincze, Laura, Ramona Bongelli, Ilaria Riccioni & Andrzej Zuczkowski
2016. Ignorance-unmasking questions in the Royal–Sarkozy presidential debate: A resource to claim epistemic authority. Discourse Studies 18:4 ► pp. 430 ff. DOI logo
Zuczkowski, Andrzej, Ramona Bongelli, Ilaria Riccioni, Massimiliano Valotto & Roberto Burro
2016. Writers’ Uncertainty in a Corpus of Scientific Biomedical Articles with a Diachronic Perspective. In Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2016 [Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics, ], ► pp. 203 ff. DOI logo
Bongelli, Ramona, Ilaria Riccioni & Andrzej Zuczkowski
2015. Consigli per dare consigli: salvaguardare il benessere relazionale nelle interazioni informali d'aiuto. RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA :1 ► pp. 193 ff. DOI logo
Dorigato, Laura, Gill Philip, Ramona Bongelli & Andrzej Zuczkowski
2015. Knowing, Unknowing, Believing stances and characters’ dialogic identities in theHarry Potterbooks. Language and Dialogue 5:1 ► pp. 62 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2017. Epistemic Stance in Dialogue [Dialogue Studies, 29], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue