EvidentialityIn some languages every statement must contain a specification of the type of evidence on which it is based: for example, whether the speaker saw it, or heard it, or inferred it from indirect evidence, or learnt it from someone else. This grammatical reference to information source is called 'evidentiality', and is one of the least described grammatical categories. Evidentiality systems differ in how complex they are: some distinguish just two terms (eyewitness and noneyewitness, or reported and everything else), while others have six or even more terms. Evidentiality is a category in its own right, and not a subcategory of epistemic or some other modality, nor of tense-aspect. Every language has some way of referring to the source of information, but not every language has grammatical evidentiality. In English expressions such as I guess, they say, I hear that, the alleged are not obligatory and do not constitute a grammatical system. Similar expressions in other languages may provide historical sources for evidentials. True evidentials, by contrast, form a grammatical system. In the North Arawak language Tariana an expression such as "the dog bit the man" must be augmented by a grammatical suffix indicating whether the event was seen, or heard, or assumed, or reported. This book provides the first exhaustive cross-linguistic typological study of how languages deal with the marking of information source. Examples are drawn from over 500 languages from all over the world, several of them based on the author's original fieldwork. Professor Aikhenvald also considers the role evidentiality plays in human cognition, and the ways in which evidentiality influences human perception of the world.. This is an important book on an intriguing subject. It will interest anthropologists, cognitive psychologists and philosophers, as well as linguists. |
Contents
1 Preliminaries and key concepts | 1 |
2 Evidentials worldwide | 23 |
3 How to mark information source | 67 |
4 Evidential extensions of nonevidential categories | 105 |
5 Evidentials and their meanings | 153 |
6 Evidentiality and mirativity | 195 |
7 Whose evidence is that? Evidentials and person | 217 |
8 Evidentials and other grammatical categories | 241 |
11 What are evidentials good for? Evidentiality cognition and cultural knowledge | 333 |
12 What can we conclude? Summary and prospects | 365 |
Fieldworkers guide How to gather materials on evidentiality systems | 385 |
Glossary of terms | 391 |
| 397 | |
| 429 | |
| 439 | |
| 445 | |
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Common terms and phrases
acquired action additional appears assumed cast Chapter clause combination comes complement considered construction context contrast conventions correlations cover depending described develop direct evidential discussed distinct distinguish dreams effect employed epistemic event evidence evidentiality choices evidentiality strategies evidentiality systems examples experience expressed extensions fact feelings firsthand function further future grammatical happened hear heard hearsay implies indicates inferred evidential information source instance interpreted involve Jarawara kind knowledge lack languages lexical linguistic marker marking meaning mirative modalities mood narrative nominalizations non-firsthand evidential non-visual evidential non-visual sensory obligatory observed occur one’s overtones participant particle past perfect person present Quechua questions quotative refer reported evidential reported speech require result seen semantic sentence similar someone speaker specifications statement story suffix surprise Table talk Tariana tense term tion told traditional Tucano typically unmarked verb verbal visual evidential