Cognitive Position: Points of View and Utterance Processing

SPeaker point of mew is known to be of crucial importance in the semantic interpretation of a number of linguistic constructions. Based on the assumption that taking alternate points of view is a basic cognitive ability, the paper approaches the problem of English. mood I modals in terms of viewpoint phenomena and utterance processing. The distinction between Real World and Unreal World Positions, a novel viewpoint dimension in (IR) REALIS, is introduced to explain the basic nature of the indicative mood and hypothetical mood I modals. The proposed viewpoint dimension is integrated with three other viewpoint dimensions, SPATIALITY, OBJECTIVITY-SUBJECTIVITY, and TEM-PORALITY. It is hypothesized that the Utterance Processing model be comprised of three components, Mental Space, Cognitive Position and Cognitive Shift. Mental Spaces deal with a situation or a number of situations designated in clauses in discourse. Cognitive. Position synthe-sizes the four dimensions of viewpoint intimately associated with the utterance of each clause in discourse. Together with Cognitive Position, the notion of Cognitive Shift handles the real-time nature of semantic interpretation of a sentencel discourse, and it operates under · clearly definable conditions. Such a model is shown to provide a way of captur-ing meaning relationships concerning (ir) realis between clauses in dis-15-course. O