Reported speech constructions and the grammaticalization of hearsay evidentiality: a cross-linguistic survey

Abstract

Abstract Functional similarities between the expression of reportative evidentiality and the grammatical representation of reported speech manifest themselves in varying degrees of corresponding formal similarity across languages. Assuming a systematic correlation between these domains this paper investigates and compares two likely sources for the expression of reportative evidentiality: non-referential reportative matrix clauses with generic utterance verbs and functionally specialized dependent clauses. The argument is based primarily on parallels in the development from biclausal to monoclausal structures in a number of genetically and areally diverse languages.