“I can confirm that $1,000 has been deposited into my account.”
Why can? Why not, “I hereby confirm that” or some other speech act which is equivalent?
From all the duckduckgo hits for ‘I can confirm’, it seems this is the way to use ‘confirm’ when it’s you who’s doing it. I guess it is the speech act of confirming (using ‘can’). Like ‘Can you close the window’ is the speech act of requesting (using ‘can’).
To confirm something is to convey to someone that something they suspect/fear/hope to be the case is in fact the case.
Other uses of ‘I can’ in speech acts?
‘I can confirm that, if you like’ has the possible meaning of ‘I can check that, if you like’, which is an offer?
Sloppily speaking, I guess a sloppy speaker could.
Perhaps ‘can’ is a hedge.
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