The Discourse Effects of Rising Declaratives

Abstract

This paper examines the discourse effects rising declaratives, which are non-canonical structures characterized by declarative sentences accompanied by rising intonation. Rising declaratives serve as biased questions, exhibiting positive or negative bias depending on the context. Confirmative Rising Declaratives imply the speakers positive bias toward the expressed proposition, whereas Contradictory Rising Declaratives imply a negative bias. In this study, I present novel update conventions for the two main types of rising declaratives. Confirmative Rising Declaratives update the speakers projected commitment set, while Contradictory Rising Declaratives update the addressees projected commitment set. This analysis can account the functioning and pragmatic implications of rising declaratives in various discourse contexts