DEGREES OF ASSENT.

DEGREES OF ASSENT. Wierzbicka shows how the English language responded to Locke’s call for specifying our “degrees of assent” to a statement. She finds in English “ a proliferation of various linguistic tools for qualifying one’s statements, for hedging one’s assertions, and for differentiating the strength of one’s assent to a proposition.” One major difference between English and other languages is that “I think” is used heavily in English to distinguish between fact and opinion. There are 30 or more uses of “I think” per 10,000 words in spoken English; the figure for the Swedish equivalent is 2.6; for Dutch, 9; and for German, about 6. And today the word “reasonable” is readily combined with words that reflect a lack of conviction. Wierzbicka gives the example: “it is reasonable to suppose/ assume/ wonder/ fear/ speculate/ hypothesize, etc.” Notice that in the last quotation the way the different verbs are used to specify the “degree of assent.”