Indeterminate Quotational Constructions and Their Readings

Abstract

Modalizing quotation, also referred to as scare quotes (SQs), commonly serve to signal non-literal meanings in written language. SQs represent an instance of indeterminate language as they not only allow for as single but at least two possible readings. Nonliteral meanings can give rise to different readings, such as distancing, irony and sarcasm, while the boundary between non-literal and literal meanings can be blurred. This investigation combines theoretical perspectives with corpus-based evidence from German news texts to address the question which linguistic means are used to highlight intended meanings in indeterminate quotational constructions. The analysis reveals that lexical means like ‘sogenannt’ and ‘angeblich’ frequently co-occur with graphemic and discourse-based means in German news data. In a rating study, the perceived literal and non-literal continuum was empirically tested for. Sentences with (i) quotation marks, (ii) lexical modification, and (iii) a combination of quotes and lexical modification were all rated as more non-literal than their unmarked counterparts. The findings suggest that differences in readings are influenced by both lexical markers and graphemic marking.