Corpus Analysis of Evidential Verbs SAGEN and BEHAUPTEN in Modern German-Language Media Discourse

The semantic and morphological features of the evidential verbs of speech sagen (speak) and behaupten (assert), introducing statements with direct, indirect and fragmentary quotes in the German-language media discourse are discussed in the article. The study is based on the material of the Mannheim Corps of the German Language “COSMAS II”. The empirical material is the newspapers “Die Welt”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, and “Tageszeitung”. Attention is paid to one of the components of the category of evidentiality - reported evidentiality, which includes the meanings of ‘quotative’ and ‘hearsay’. A classification of the most significant sources of information is proposed. The results of a comparative analysis of the verbs sagen and behaupten are presented. It is concluded that the verb sagen is the most frequent and neutral verb introducing someone else's speech. The authors note that when transmitting indirect and fragmented citation, sagen usually means ‘individual personal quotative’ based on official and reliable sources. It is proved that the verb behaupten is a marked means of direct, indirect and fragmented quotes. It is emphasized that the verb behaupten is possible as an introductory verb when transmitting the meanings ‘generalized quotation’ and ‘rumors’

Evidential Markers in German Scientific and Popular Science Discourse: Comparative Analysis

The purpose of this article is a comparative analysis of evidential markers in German-language texts of scientific and popular science discourse. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that today there are no scientific works devoted to comparing the means of expressing evidentiality in these types of discourse. Evidence markers contain a link to the source of the information. The researchers note that indicating the source of information increases the degree of reliability of the reported information. One of the main characteristics of scientific and popular science discourse is intertextuality, which is expressed with the help of evidential markers that vary depending on the discourse. The material of the study was 5 texts (299 mentions of the source of information) of scientific and 28 texts (281 mentions of the source of information) of popular science discourse in German, dedicated to the problems of the Arctic. As a result of the study, it was found that statements with evidential meanings “direct evidentiality” and “citation” are more common in scientific discourse than in popular science. At the same time, full citations are less common in scientific texts than in popular science ones. The meaning “rumors” as well as fragmentary quoting are rather rare in both discourses. The lowest frequency was found by the value “inferentiality”, fixed only in the texts of popular science discourse