Page 20 - Dalle origini ai giorni nostri: convergenze e divergenze tra lingue slave

Paola Bocale

is somehow made less strong through the use of ja ne znaju with a miti-
gating function, i.e. as a means of downplaying the assertiveness of the
statement.
In example (6), it serves as a means for the speaker of hedging the as-
sertiveness of the utterance in a conditional context where she is wonder-
ing whether Russians should try to obtain from local authorities or the
government more favourable conditions to open and run their business.

Interactional device with minimal or no residual epistemicity
Several ja ne znaju tokens testify to the fact that its uses in interaction-
al conversation cannot be reduced to the functions of marking the epis-
temic position of the speaker or hedging, but are instrumental to the way
in which participants sequentially organize their interaction. Helping to
connect large segments of discourse, ja ne znaju can function as a marker
of reformulation whenever speakers feel that their utterances need fur-
ther elaboration, expansion or clarification in order to be understood.
In example (7), the speaker is asserting that Russian police must have
some form of information or intelligence on the participants to demon-
strations and street-marches. The hypothesis that police use informants
to spy on people who oppose the government by taking to the street and
engaging in protest is further corroborated by paraphrasing the defini-
tion sogljadataev ‘eavesdroppers’ with informatorov ‘informants’.
Similarly, in example (8) the speaker is expressing her concern that the
growth in the number of cars on the roads in Moscow has not been matched

Example 7
Da ja dumaju čto i daže i bez
but I think that and even and without
videokamer policija vladeet informaciej kto byl na vot
video.cameras police owns information who was on here
ètich akcijach navernjaka ot suščestvuet sistema kakich-to očej
these actions probably from exists system certain eyes
sogljadataev ja ne znaju informatorov mne trudno skazat’
eavesdroppers I NEG know informants to.me difficult to.say
ja ne specialist po ètoj časti kotoraja govorit
I NEG specialist by this part which says
o tom vot ètot čelovek byl
about that here this person was
But I think that even without video cameras, the police have information about who was at these
events, probably there is a system of some kind of spies, I don’t know informants, it’s hard for me
to say I’m not an expert in this area, which says that this person was

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