Assertion and Certainty.

The article addresses the puzzle concerning the relationship between assertion and certainty, noting that while assertions do not require absolute certainty, it is odd to combine assertions with explicit expressions of uncertainty. It proposes a pretense theory of assertion, according to which asserting a proposition p is a proposal that conversational participants act as if they are absolutely certain of p, thereby explaining why admitting uncertainty after asserting p is problematic. The account relies on principles of sincerity and rationality, arguing that voicing uncertainty after an assertion thwarts the speaker's own proposal to treat the proposition as certain, which is why such combinations sound odd. The theory is compared to alternative approaches—such as certainty norms, probabilistic semantics, and epistemic posturing—and is presented as better able to explain the linguistic data without requiring actual absolute certainty for assertion.