The Interactional and Cultural Pragmatics of Evidentiality in Pastaza Quichua

Abstract

AbstractThis paper analyses the interactional and pragmatic effects of two evidential enclitics in the Pastaza Quichua language of Amazonian Ecuador. Attention is also given to represented discourse in a variety of genres. The overall goal is a better understanding of the perspectival encoding of experience through evidential enclitics and represented discourse, and the role of these devices in articulating concepts of sociability and politeness principles. A broader aim is to clarify how discourse practices making use of evidentiality and represented discourse may clarify Quichua peoples’ understandings of their relationships with each other and with non-human nature. Finally, this paper points to the need for future work which attempts to disentangle evidentiality from epistemic modality in Pastaza Quichua by suggesting that epistemic modality may be generated from evidentials as an implicature that depends in part on intonation.