Evidentiality in Finnish

Abstract

AbstractEvidentiality conveys information about the nature – and reliability – of the information source. This paper investigates the Finnish reportative evidential (hearsay particle)kuulemmaand the dubitative particlemuka(‘supposedly, allegedly, as if’). I propose a unifying analysis of two seemingly divergent uses ofmuka, and show how they contrast withkuulemma. My analysis builds on and extends recent work on reportatives regarding the distinction between the Animator (the speaker who utters the sentence) and the Principal (the person whose commitments are being expressed). Furthermore, I suggest that the dubitativemukamay point to the existence of non-assertive discourse moves and has implications for our understanding of the discourse role of ‘Principal.’ This work also informs typological work on evidentials and related expressions by providing a systematic investigation of reportative and dubitative markers in a non-Indo-European language.