Benedek Bartha

I'm interested in how communication is sensitive to stakes: speakers use careful (hedged) or committed language depending on context.

In my PhD, I focus on how speakers use epistemic and evidential language to manage accountability. Speakers face a constant reputational risk of losing credibility, constituting a trade-off between being persuasive and protecting their reputation. I call this accountability pressure, and I study how it shapes language use and structure.