On the Inferential Structure of Indirect Reports

Kertész, András and Rákosi, Csilla (2016) On the Inferential Structure of Indirect Reports. In: Indirect Reports and Pragmatics. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 5 (5). Springer, Cham, Heidelberg, New York, Dordrecht and London, pp. 435-470. ISBN 978-3-319-21394-1, 978-3-319-21395-8

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Abstract

The aim of the paper is to reveal the inferential structure, the functions and the felicity conditions of indirect reports from a novel perspective by the application of a model of plausible argumentation (Kertész and Rákosi 2012). The central idea is that indirect reports can be reconstructed as plausible inferences. As regards the inferential structure of indirect reports, the p-model interprets the relation between the original utterance and the processed report in terms of two consecutive plausible inferences. Then, indirect reports are assumed to function as effective tools of problem solving in cases in which the original speaker’s authority is greater than that of the reporter, or if the reporter does not want to take responsibility for the truth of the original utterance. The paper also discusses a series of felicity conditions of indirect reports. Among others, it focuses on those ones that are related to the reliability of information sources made use of in their production and processing.

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