Evaluating Claims: Linguistic Resources for Stance Taking
Classified in Philosophy and ethics
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When engaging with the work of others, writers must clearly signal their position regarding the claims being reported. These linguistic resources help establish alignment (agreement) or distance (disagreement/skepticism).
Neutral Projection Language
Neutral Verbal Projection
Used when simply reporting a claim without immediate judgment:
- claim
- propose
- suggest
- indicate
- argue
Neutral Mental Projection
Includes all mental verbs used neutrally (e.g., believe, think).
Resources for Aligning and Distancing
| Resource Category | Aligning (Agreement/Support) | Distancing (Skepticism/Rejection) |
|---|---|---|
| Verbs (Simple) | proved, established | erred (in stating), failed (to establish) |
| Verbal Projection | prove, report | |
| “Show” Type Verbs | demonstrate, show, establish, reveal | |
| Adverbs with Verbal Projection | Suggest: strongly, clearly, cunningly, directly, palpably. Say/State: safely, plausibly, sensibly, validly, boldly, clearly, commonly, often, explicitly, firmly, plainly, rightly, significantly, confidently, truthfully. | State/Say/Claim: falsely, simplistically, optimistically, wrongly. |
| Adverbs with Argumentation Verbs | Assumes: correctly, reasonably. Argues: convincingly, persuasively, cleverly, cogently, eloquently, reasonably, firmly. Concludes: correctly. | Assumes: inaccurately, incorrectly, wrongly, unrealistically. Argues: incorrectly. Concludes: erroneously, prematurely, wrongly. |
| Adverbs with Mental Projection | Understand: rightly, undoubtedly. Believe: strongly. | Understand: incompletely. Believe: irrationally. |
| Adverbs with “Show” Type Verbs | Demonstrate/Show: clearly, successfully, adequately, aptly, coherently, conclusively, significantly, amply, consistently, correctly, objectively, overwhelmingly, systematically, unquestionably. Indicates: strongly, significantly, clearly, directly, unconditionally. Reveal: admirably, brilliantly. | |
| Adjectives (Attributive Structure) | Argument: convincing, well-constructed. Study: sound, well-designed. Statement: "He was wrong." | Arguments: not convincing, unsatisfactory. Study: limited, weak, misguided, badly designed. Statement: wrong, mistaken. |
| Nominals (Attributive with NP) | ... is a sound idea. | ... is a problematic idea. |
| Recency Markers |
| It was earlier believed that… |
| Comparatives | This could be better analysed as… | |
| Concessives (Connectors) | However, yet, although, on the other hand. |