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Nonveridicality and evaluation across disciplinary boundaries.
This volume brings together a diverse group of researchers with interests in
areas with connection to evaluation in discourse. The papers contained in the
volume address issues having to do with how evaluation and subjectivity are
interpreted in context, the context being sometimes determined by the pres-
ence of nonveridical markers, and sometimes by other discourse phenomena
such as coherence relations.
Evaluation and nonveridicality engage in an obvious interaction. Evaluation
may be expressed as definitive, or it may be tempered by a nonveridical ele-
ment, in which case it tends to have a weaker effect. Consider the difference
between (1) and (2).
(1) He is a good student.
(2) He could be a good student.
The modal verb in (2) indicates that the positive evaluation is weakened, or
downtoned, to a potentially negative appraisal of the student.
We use evaluation as an umbrella term that can be instantiated as Apprais-
al Theory (Martin & White, 2005), evaluation (Bednarek, 2006; Hunston &
Thompson, 2000b), stance (Biber & Finegan, 1989), or subjectivity (Langacker,
1990; Lyons, 1982; von Fintel & Gillies, 2010). Nonveridicality (Giannakidou,
1998; Zwarts, 1995), or irrealis (Fleischman, 1995) refers to the expressions, such
as modals and negation, that affect the truth conditions of elements in their
scope, and, in particular, of evaluative elements.