The project deals with the linguistic means used to signal the reliability or certainty of a statement, to which linguistic form can contribute in various ways. We can distinguish two groups of expressions: 

1. Expressions that locate the reliability of a statement at the objective level of common knowledge or insight (objective probability). 
2. Expressions which indicate more strongly a personal or subjective estimate of a fact.

Research has barely addressed the question which types of uncertainty marking occur in which dialogue/conversation formats and with which frequency. In this project, we want to take a closer look at this issue with regard to formats of public, non-scientific science communication. In doing so, we assume that a clear-cut and seamless marking of the objective certainty (the certainty based on general knowledge) is of central importance for a statement, which is why it should be made often explicit.