Communicating Certainty and Uncertainty in Medical, Supportive and Scientific Contexts

1. Preface (by Zuczkowski, Andrzej); 2. Theoretical and general models; 3. Subjectivity in modality, and beyond (by Nuyts, Jan); 4. Certainty and uncertainty in assertive speech acts (by Labinaz, Paolo); 5. Ideal and deviant interlocutors in a formal interpretation system (by Alberti, Gabor); 6. On being certain whether: A puzzle about indirect interrogatives (by Holker, Klaus); 7. Uncertainty as integrated part of meaning and understanding (by Feller, Sebastian); 8. Epistemic stance: Knowing, Unknowing, Believing (KUB) positions (by Zuczkowski, Andrzej); 9. Medical and supportive interactions; 10. Requesting help with null or limited knowledge: Entitlements and responsibility in emergency calls (by Fele, Giolo); 11. The journey to advice: Balancing certainty and uncertainty in doctor delivery of expert opinion (by Fatigante, Marilena); 12. Diagnostic news delivery: A microanalysis of the use of shields (by Plastina, Anna Franca); 13. Epistemic struggles in addiction Therapeutic Community meetings (by Pino, Marco); 14. Embodying epistemicity: Negotiating (un)certainty through semiotic objects (by Klein, Gabriella B.); 15. Scientific writing and academic communication; 16. The fabric of certainty: Ignoring interactional details as an epistemic resource in research interviews (by Caronia, Letizia); 17. Hedging and attitude markers in Spanish and English scientific medical writing (by Oliver del Olmo, Sonia); 18. A theoretical contribution to tackling certainty and uncertainty in scientific writing: Four research articles from the journal Brain in focus (by Graca Pinto, Maria da); 19. BioUncertainty: A historical corpus evaluating uncertainty language over a 167-year span of biomedical scientific articles (by Bongelli, Ramona); 20. Uncertainty markers in a corpus of German biomedical papers from Spektrum der Wissenschaft (1993-2012) (by Bucciarelli, Paola); 21. Questioning certainty in research articles and popular science articles: A case-study of modalized wh-interrogatives (by Pic, Elsa); 22. Self-repairs and certainty in Romanian academic meetings (by Velea, Adina I.); 23. About the authors; 24. Index