Epistemic modality is a sub-type of linguistic modality that deals with a speaker's evaluation/judgment of, degree of confidence in, or belief of the knowledge upon which a proposition is based. In other words, epistemic modality refers to the way speakers communicate their doubts, certainties, and guesses—their "modes of knowing". More technically, epistemic modality may be defined "...as (the linguistic expression of) an evaluation of the chances that a certain hypothetical state of affairs under consideration (or some aspect of it) will occur, is occurring, or has occurred in a possible world which serves as the universe of interpretation for the evaluation process… In other words, epistemic modality concerns an estimation of the likelihood that (some aspect of) a certain state of affairs is/has been/will be true (or false) in the context of the possible world under consideration. This estimation of likelihood is situated on a scale going from certainty that the state of affairs applies, via a neutral or agnostic stance towards its occurrence, to certainty that it does not apply, with intermediary positions on the positive and the negative sides of the scale".
Contents
Being a sub-type of linguistic modality, epistemic modality can in its turn be classified into a number of sub-types according to various criteria. An original classification of epistemic modality based on the conception of alienated knowledge is given in the work of V. A. Yatsko.
Realisation in speech
Evidentiality
Some linguists consider evidentiality (the indication of the source of the information upon which a proposition is based) to be a type of epistemic modality, and oppose it to judgement modality as epistemic modality based on the speaker's own judgement. An English example follows:
I doubt that it rained yesterday. (judgement epistemic: judgement of information source) I heard that it rained yesterday. (evidential: identification of information source)However, other linguists feel that evidentiality is distinct from and not necessarily related to modality. Some languages mark evidentiality separately from epistemic modality.