Arab World English Journal (March, 2018) Theses / Dissertation (ID 202) DOI:https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/th.202 Author: Dr. Thouraya Zheni Thesis Title: A Socio-cognitive Approach to Factive Presupposition and Epistemic Modality in Hillary Clinton's Political Discourse: Tunisia's Democratic Transition as a Case Study Subject/major: Linguistics Institution: English Department, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities, Manouba University, Tunisia Degree: PhD. Year of award: 2017 Supervisor: Prof. Mounir Triki Keywords: factive presupposition, epistemic modality, evidentiality, ideology- society-discourse paradigm, mental models, political discourse, political cognition, human rights, democracy, Tunisia's Revolution. Abstract: Since political discourse portrays politicians’ knowledge state and their ideological assumptions, a critical analysis of Clinton’s speeches may unveil her perceptual and conceptual worlds. More specifically, critical discourse analysis may uncover her mental representations about the Tunisian Revolution and the US attitude towards such an important political event in North Africa and the Middle East. Studying factive presupposition and epistemic modality seems to be an effective pragmatic tool to reveal what is presented as factual and ideological knowledge in political discourse. The research instrument used to work out the frequency distribution of these lexical features is the latest version of ‘AntConc’ software. To uncover the epistemic state of Hillary Clinton, van Dijk’s (1995b) socio-cognitive approach, mainly discourse-cognition-society paradigm, is applied to analyze her speeches between January 2011 and December 2012. At the discourse level, research findings reveal that factive presupposition, epistemic modality and evidential verbs unveil the speaker’s strong personal commitment to the truth value of her propositions. At the cognitive level, results show that the speaker’s personal and social values, attitudes, ideologies and knowledge unmask her mental mapping of Tunisia, democracy and human rights. It also uncovers the cognitive mechanisms that govern discourse production and understanding via ICMs, cognitive frames, mental models and context models. At the social level, research demonstrates that Clinton's perceptual and conceptual worlds are based on a dichotomy that involves 'WE', or democracies Vs. 'THEY' or the enemies of democracy, hence a dual vision of the world or polarization. This research bridges the lack of research combining epistemic presupposition, epistemic modality and evidentiality within a socio-cognitive framework Cite as: Zheni, T. (2017). A Socio-cognitive Approach to Factive Presupposition and Epistemic Modality in Hillary Clinton's Political Discourse: Tunisia's Democratic Transition as a Case Study. English Department, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities, Manouba University, Tunisia (Ph.D.’s Thesis). Retrieved from (Arab World English Journal Database. (ID Number: 202, March, 2018). DOI:https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/th.2002 Arab World English Journal www.awej.org ISSN: 2229-9327 TUNISIAN REPUBLIC MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH MANOUBA UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LETTERS, ARTS AND HUMANITIES OF MANOUBA A Socio-Cognitive Approach to Factive Presupposition and Epistemic Modality in Hillary Clinton’s Political Discourse: Tunisia’s Democratic Transition as a Case Study A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics Elaborated by Thouraya ZHENI Supervised by Professor Mounir TRIKI © 2016 Copyright © 2016 by Thouraya Zheni ii ABSTRACT Since political discourse portrays politicians’ knowledge state and their ideological assumptions, a critical analysis of Clinton’s speeches may unveil her perceptual and conceptual worlds. More specifically, critical discourse analysis may uncover her mental representations about the Tunisian Revolution and the US attitude towards such an important political event in North Africa and the Middle East. Studying factive presupposition and epistemic modality seems to be an effective pragmatic tool to reveal what is presented as factual and ideological knowledge in political discourse. The research instrument used to work out the frequency distribution of these lexical features is the latest version of ‘AntConc’ software. To uncover the epistemic state of Hillary Clinton, van Dijk’s (1995b) socio-cognitive approach, mainly discourse-cognition-society paradigm, is applied to analyze her speeches between January 2011 and December 2012. At the discourse level, research findings reveal that factive presupposition, epistemic modality and evidential verbs unveil the speaker’s strong personal commitment to the truth value of her propositions. At the cognitive level, results show that the speaker’s personal and social values, attitudes, ideologies and knowledge unmask her mental mapping of Tunisia, democracy and human rights. It also uncovers the cognitive mechanisms that govern discourse production and understanding via ICMs, cognitive frames, mental models and context models. At the social level, research demonstrates that Clinton's perceptual and conceptual worlds are based on a dichotomy that involves 'WE', or democracies Vs. 'THEY' or the enemies of democracy, hence a dual vision of the world or polarization. This research bridges the lack of research combining epistemic presupposition, epistemic modality and evidentiality within a socio-cognitive framework. Keywords: political discourse, factive presupposition, epistemic modality, evidentiality, factive, knowledge, representations, mental frames, cognition, society, ideology, perception, human rights and democracy. iii I would like to dedicate this work to the soul of my father (May he rest in peace!), To my cherished mother who devoted all her life to see us succeed and excel. To my little one, Farah, who inspired me in times of hard work and sleepless nights. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express deep gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Mounir Triki, who has helped me to meet the research challenges and finalize the present PhD study. His valuable recommendations have been insightful in times of despair and fatigue. This research could not have been completed without the help of Professor Teun van Dijk, who sent me his most recent articles - even before being published - to clarify ambiguities related to his socio-cognitive approach. Pr. van Dijk has never ignored my emails, and I am more than grateful for that. My heartfelt thanks go to Mrs. Umm Wassim Mir and Mrs. Jameela Abdelshakour, two British colleagues, who accepted to proofread the current PhD research paper. In spite of their busy schedules, they devoted some time to read my thesis and recommend necessary improvements. I would like to thank Dr. Asma Maaoui for her insightful remarks and feedback, and Mrs. Mouna Soussi for relentlessly helping me solve computer-related problems. Special thanks also go to my colleague and friend Mrs. Shumaila Naser who has never hesitated to help me type, proofread or finalize this paper. Last but not least, I would like to thank my colleagues who accepted to answer the validation test questions, namely Dr. Nadia Bouchhioua, Dr. Asma Maaoui, Mr. Zied Ben Amor, Mrs. Shumaila Naser and Ms. Hedia Ben Elouedhnine. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………… iii DEDICATION ……………………………………………………………………… iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………………………. v TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………………… vi LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ……………………………….. xiv LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………. xv LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………………. xvii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Theoretical background ………………………………………………………….. 1 1.2 Rationale for the study ..………………………………………………………….. 2 1.3 Scope of the study ……………………………………………………………….. 4 1.4 Research problem ……………………………………………………..…………. 4 1.5 Research objectives …………………………………………………..………….. 5 1.6 Research questions ……………………………………………………………..... 5 1.7 Thesis organization …………………………………………….……………..…. 6 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Presupposition ……..…………………………………………………………. 8 2.1.1 Definition ……………………………………………………………………… 8 2.1.2 Presupposition theories ………………………………………………………. 10 2.1.3 Approaches to presupposition ………………………………………………... 11 2.1.2.1 Semantic approach …………………………………………………………. 12 2.1.2.2 Pragmatic approach ………………………………………………………… 13 2.1.4 Properties of presupposition ………………………………………………….. 15 2.1.4.1 Negation test ………………………………………………………………... 15 2.1.4.2 Projection problem …………………………………………………………. 15 2.1.4.3 Defeasibility ………………………………………………………………... 16 2.1.4.4 Accommodation ……………………………………………………………. 17 vi 2.1.4.5 Acceptance …………………………………………………………………. 19 2.1.5 Presupposition triggers ……………………………………………………….. 19 2.1.6 Types of presupposition ……………………………………………………… 20 2.1.6.1 Existential …………………………………………………………………... 21 2.1.6.2 Factive ……………………………………………………………………… 21 2.1.6.3 Lexical ……………………………………………………………………… 22 2.1.6.4 Structural …………………………………………………………………… 22 2.1.6.5 Non-factive …………………………………………………………………. 22 2.1.6.6 Counterfactual ……………………………………………………………… 23 2.1.7 Epistemics of factive presupposition ………………………………………..……. 23 2.1.7.1 Epistemology ……………………………………………………………….. 24 2.1.7.2 Epistemological presupposition …………………………………………….. 24 2.1.7.3 Factivity and presupposition ………………………………………………... 25 2.1.7.4 Factivity triggers ……………………………………………………………. 26 2.1.7.4.1 Factive verbs …………………………………………………………….... 26 2.1.7.4.2 Factive NPs ……………………………………………………………….. 27 2.1.8 Presupposition