Affirmativity and Verification [Аффирмативная модальность и верификация]

I discuss two general meanings associated with two non-intersecting groups of Russian discourse markers. The meaning of verification is defined in this talk as the meaning of verifying DE RE hypotheses about the states of affairs in the outer world. The class of Russian verification markers includes discourse words ДЕЙСТВИТЕЛЬНО 'indeed', РЕАЛЬНО 'really', ПРАВДА 'it is true that', the collocation НА САМОМ ДЕЛЕ 'in fact', 'actually', etc. These elements attract the phrasal accent and do not undergo deaccenting in any environment. If lexical verification markers are absent, the same type of meaning is signaled by the accent shift: the verb gets the accent. Affirmativity is defined in this talk as kind of subjective modality involving the confirmation of the speaker’s expectations. The class of Russian affirmative markers includes discourse words like ЕСТЕСТВЕННО ‘naturally’, РАЗУМЕЕТСЯ 'of course', КОНЕЧНО ‘certainly’, ПОНЯТНО ‘clearly’, the collocation Я ТАК И ЗНАЛ, lit. ‘I knew it’. Affirmative markers often bear the accent but can be deaccented as well. There are other tests diagnosing these two groups of discourse markers. Оnly verification markers are licensed in the context of the yes-no marker ЛИ. Only verification markers can be exported to indirect contexts, where the speech or mental acts of other people are described, cf. Rus. Иван (действительно) считал, что Василий действительно ошибся ‘John (really) believed that Vasiliy really made a mistake’. Affirmative markers are not licensed in indirect contexts, hence the ill-ill-formedness of Rus. *Иван считал, что Василий, естественно, ошибся, lit. ‘John believed that Vasiliy naturally made a mistake’. This diagnostics firmly links verification markers with DE RE modals, i.e. the attitude to describe the things as they are and affirmative markers with DE DICTO modals, i.e. the attitude to interpret the text in the form as it was expressed.