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Kajsa Djärv
University of Edinburgh
k(dot)djarv(at)ed(dot)ac(dot)uk
My dissertation (UPenn, 2019) is titled Factive and Assertive Attitude Reports.
Committee: Florian Schwarz (chair), Julie Anne Legate, Keir Moulton.
This work investigates how assertion and presupposition are reflected in the semantics, pragmatics, and syntax of propositional attitude reports. At the core of the dissertation are factive verbs, like know, discover, realize, and appreciate. The central contributions of the dissertation are: (i) demonstrating what precise dimensions of assertion and presupposition are reflected in the syntax and semantics of clausal embedding, and (ii) decomposing the classically multifaceted notion of factivity into a set of more specific theoretical notions.
To address these questions, I build on a broad range of experimental methods, including corpus work and various types of cross-linguistic acceptability and inference studies, using both written and auditory stimuli. These methodologies allow me to investigate the interaction and effects of notions like veridicality, prosodic focus, common ground status, and illocutionary force.
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