Pragmatic effects of intersubjective evidentiality On Classical Greek oukh horâis? `don't you see?' in dialogic interaction

I aim here to analyze the semantic and pragmatic functions of the negative question oukh horais? `don't you see?' in the context of dialogic interactions in Classical Greek. In light of recent studies on the intersubjective impact of evidential strategies, especially, though not exclusively, on their use in interrogative contexts, I propose to interpret oukh horais? as a non-canonical, assertive question with an evidential intersubjective value, primarily encompassing the domain of visual evidentiality but also allowing the expression of inferential evidentiality. It is shown that the oukh horais? strategy enables the speaker to (i) engage the hearer by guiding their focus to a visual source of information which is relevant to the construction of their interaction, (ii) make the hearer responsible, and (iii) share responsibility, ultimately with an agreement-seeking function. The analysis is corpus-based and investigates the occurrences of oukh horais? in all the plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Furthermore, it examines the occurrences of the non-negative question horais? `do you see?' for comparative purposes.