Evidential System Research Articles

Thewo Tibetan’s /ta33/ and /nə33/

Abstract This paper has three aims. First, in its form, this paper uses a narrative style to overtly highlight the iterative process used to identify the meaning of the two suffixes in question. Second, this paper seeks to describe the intricate workings of two verbal suffixes in Thewo Tibetan. Finally, this paper makes a defense of why these two suffixes belong to the category of evidentiality. Thewo Tibetan is spoken in China on the Gansu-Sichuan border. The suffixes /ta33/ and /nə33/ appear either directly after action verbs, or directly after the progressive aspect marker. /nə33/ is used to express that the speaker has sensory information of their claim at the time of the speech act. The temporal nature of the evidence, whether it is sensory information of the act itself or of the results of the act, is determined in part by the semantics of the verb (telic vs non-telic). In contrast, /ta33/ is used to express that at the time of the speech act, the speaker no longer has sensory evidence (but formerly did) of the stated action. Based upon these observations, this paper argues that temporal space and verbal semantics are key to understanding the cognition which underlies interpreting /nə33/ and /ta33/. As such, this paper makes the following three contributions: (1) In its form it provides an anecdote of failures and success along the path to identifying the function and meaning of two evidential suffixes; (2) It introduces two suffixes of the hitherto un-described Thewo Tibetan evidential system; and (3) It gives an in-depth analysis of these suffixes and offers evidence to support the claim that they are evidential suffixes.

Functional transition from hear to nonvisual sensory and hearsay evidential categories

Abstract This article presents a development of evidential categories derived from a verb related to the auditory sense in the evidential system attested in rGyalthang Tibetan varieties. The language varieties under study possess a morphological distinction of at least five evidentials in the access-to-information category and two evidentials in the source-of-information category. The discussion focuses on one morpheme derived from the Literary Tibetan verb grag ‘resound, hear’ used for both categories, and examines its process of grammaticalisation and degrammaticalisation. Elicited data illustrate the following functions: (1) grag as a nonvisual sensory evidential suffix that was further degrammaticalised as a copulative nonvisual sensory verb stem; (2) grag as a hearsay marker in a separate syntactic slot, which extended from (1); and (3) grag as a lexical verb stem meaning ‘hear’ [the common origin to (1) and (2)], which underwent two grammaticalisation processes.

Evidentiality in Middle Classical Tibetan

Abstract This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of Evidentiality in Middle Classical Tibetan. This is of great importance since Middle Classical Tibetan is the oldest system in typological studies yet identified that uses evidentiality beginning in at least the 15th century. This article also highlights the distinction between the notions of information source and information access in an evidential system. By using a morphosyntactic approach, the usage of evidentiality can be properly described in that language. Specifically, certain types of highly complex copula and auxiliary verb constructions, which had not been previously analyzed, can be used to demonstrate how evidentiality is grammaticalized in Middle Classical Tibetan. This approach avoids the pitfalls of lexical-only analyses, which have previously not been able to support a comprehensive and accurate description of evidentiality. Further, the intricate interaction between evidentiality, aspect, and epistemic modality reveals the subtlety and complexity of the system. Finally, the interaction between evidentiality and politeness register, reveals discursive complex social relationships which have not been previously described and the importance of social deixis in the study of evidentiality.

Revelative evidential markers in English-language dream reports: A corpus-based study

This corpus-based study investigates revelative evidential marking in English dream reports, specifically focusing on the word dream. Analyzing a corpus of 60,155 dream reports, the research identifies the expressions in * dream (in the dream, in my dream etc) and of the dream as most frequent revelative evidentials. The frequency of the central revelative marker in the dream reveals a conventional conceptualization of DREAM IS A CONTAINER, aligning with the broader linguistic metaphor of STATES ARE CONTAINERS. Concordance analysis of the second-frequent phrase of the dream illustrates that narrators tend to use the marker for navigation and coherent narrativization of the dream experiences, conceptualizing the experience as DREAM IS A STORY or DREAM IS A SPACE. Identified with the help of cluster analysis, the trends in dream experience narrativization also emphasize navigation and coherence. The study argues for pragmatic and cognitive implications of evidential marking, which is accounted for by juxtaposing dream content with real-world knowledge via the use of evidential markers in dream reports. It has been found that evidential marking serves to maintain a coherent construal and retain the epistemic control over the conceptualization of the narrated experience. The findings contribute to the expounding revelative evidential labelling, specifically, as well as of the broader semantic evidential system of the English language, advancing the scholarship on linguistic expressions of subjective states and narrativization of subjective experience.

The paradigmaticity of evidentials in the Tibetic languages of Khams

Abstract This article argues that the evidential system of Khams Tibetan, a cluster of Tibetic languages spoken in the south-eastern Tibetosphere, should be considered a verb paradigm. We propose a paradigm with six evidential categories (egophoric, statemental, visual sensory, nonvisual sensory, sensory inferential, and logical inferential) for all the verb classes. We focus on two varieties – rGyalthang and Lhagang – and examine how these evidential categories are encoded with distinct morphemes. We then discuss the main evidential forms of the copulative and existential verbs available in Khams Tibetan varieties as a whole, as well as their morphological relationship. Our analyses lead us to argue against a differential treatment of evidentiality depending on verb categories. The article concludes that describing the evidential paradigm may be the first essential task in writing a grammar of a Tibetic language.

A restructuring analysis of the non‑inferential evidential verb han in Siwkolan Amis

Abstract This work aims to investigate the morphosyntactic properties of han in Siwkolan Amis and to defend a lexical split of han, one being a lexical category with argument structure and the other a functional category merging to Voice0. I argue that the functional han cannot be analyzed as a quotative verb or a pv-inflected verb as proposed in the literature, due to novel findings that han (a) is permitted in patient, instrumental and locative voice constructions, (b) represses the presence of voice affixes, (c) must stand immediately adjacent to the lexical verb and (d) encodes the non-inferential evidentiality. I follow Cinque’s (2004) functional approach to restructuring predicates by treating han as a functional category of Voice0 and Shih & Lin’s (2011) voice Agree system where voice is a reflex of thematic relations. This analysis fares well with Wu’s (2006, 2007) proposed system of undergoer voice in Amis which subsumes patient, instrument and locative voice in general. Moreover, the [iθ] feature on Voice0 is spelt out as han surfacing as a bound affix attached to the raised lexical verb from v 0. Several issues involved in dealing with the Amis voice system and implications for the evidential systems in Formosan languages are also discussed.

The Distinction Between Synchronous and Retrospective Inferences in Uzbek:

This paper investigates the inferentials shekilli and -(i)bdi in a written corpus of modern Uzbek with consideration of native speakers’ opinions on the interpretation of specific uses of these items. As a result of the analysis, these inferentials are used to distinguish synchronic or a priori evidence and a posteriori evidence respectively in the Uzbek evidential system. Although both inferentials have developed from markers encodingobservable evidence that is related to a propositional event, the characteristics of the evidence forming the basis of the proposition differ. While -(i)bdi encodes inference based on traces that are interpreted as a posteriori evidence, which remains after the actualization of the event, shekilli is used for propositions based on signs that are synchronically present, or a priori evidence in cases without clear evidence at the time of speaking. Based on these two types of indirect evidence, speakers can mark synchronic and retrospective inferences in the Uzbek language with these two inferentials. Considering the evidential system in Turkic languages, Uzbek, which is considered the continuation of Chagatay, has a relatively rich evidential system that includes different markers with specific semantic tasks. Furthermore, this research shows that in Uzbek’s comprehensive evidential system, copying items can also develop as evidential in addition to evidentials of Turkic origin.

Seeing and knowing

AbstractThe paper provides evidence against the claim that perceptual access is commonly encoded in direct evidentials. While visual, auditory, tactile and olfactory perception are conveyed by direct evidentials in contexts where such interpretations are appropriate, in others it is the speaker’s involvement, affectedness and established beliefs which are conveyed. These may be exclusive to the speaker or shared by the addressee. Instead of information source, it is argued that some direct evidentials encode the speaker’s epistemic authority regarding an event based on their primary relation to the event. Epistemic authority concerns the speaker’s rights over knowledge and is therefore a relational concept that captures some of the dynamics between speech act participants in terms of knowledge representation and attribution. Support for this argument comes from the diachronic development of direct evidentials, the effects of co-distribution between direct evidentials and person marking (egophoricity), and patterns of use. Data comes from the literature on evidentiality and frequently cited languages from Tucanoan and Quechuan languages that feature well-described, rich evidential systems.

Common ground management via evidential markers in Turkish

Abstract This paper is a reanalysis of the Turkish evidential markers as Common Ground management tools. Based on conversational data from Turkish National Corpus and a real-life example from the media, I demonstrate how the traditional description of these markers fails to account for their dialogic uses. The data presented in this paper show that Turkish speakers alternate between these markers in order to mark their epistemic relation to the utterance content relative to their addressee. The relevant pragmatic notions marked with the Turkish evidential system are asymmetric and symmetric epistemic relation of the speaker and addressee, resulting in the speaker’s evaluation of epistemic primacy and shared information, respectively. Turkish also has another symmetric position where the speaker abstains from primacy claim without specifying the addressee’s epistemic relation. These observations lead to the conclusion that Turkish evidentiality is in fact an intersubjective epistemic category in the pragmatic component of language where intersubjectivity is defined as the speaker’s evaluation of the interlocutors’ differential perspectives.

Pragmatic effects on semantic learnability: Insights from evidentiality

Cross-linguistically prevalent semantic distinctions are widely assumed to be easier to learn because they reflect natural concepts. Here we propose an alternative, pragmatic perspective that links both the cross-linguistic prevalence and the learnability of semantic distinctions to communicative pressures. We focus on evidentiality (the encoding of the speaker’s information source). Across languages, grammatical evidential systems are more likely to encode indirect sources (especially, reported information) compared to direct sources (e.g., visual perception). On a conceptual account, this seems puzzling, since humans reason naturally about how seeing connects to knowing. On a pragmatic account, however, the predominant encoding of the speaker’s reportative compared to visual information sources can be explained in terms of informativeness (visual access is ubiquitous and potentially more reliable, hence less marked). We tested the pragmatic account in four experiments. Adult English speakers exposed to novel miniature evidential morphological systems consistently showed higher learning rates for systems with a single indirect (reportative) compared to a single direct (visual) evidential morpheme (Experiment 1). This pattern persisted even when participants were given specific cues to the target meanings (Experiment 2) and partly extended to cases where evidential meanings were conveyed through visual, not linguistic, means (Experiment 3). It also persisted when the evidential morphemes had to be learned from different materials (Experiment 4). We conclude that the cross-linguistic bias to mark reportative/indirect over visual/direct sources of information has pragmatic roots that also shape the learnability of evidential semantic distinctions.

The pragmatic differences between grammatical and lexical evidentiality: A corpus-based study of Tibetan and English

The paper examines to what extent expressing information sources with a fully grammaticalized evidential system or with lexical means may have a different pragmatic impact in conversation. A contrastive corpus of Tibetan (TSC) and English (CSC/LAC) allows me to investigate several dimensions: frequency, semantic schematicity, optionality, economy, and information hierarchy. The data from the contrastive corpus indicate that Tibetan evidentials are on average 6.7 times more frequent than English evidentials. Tibetan evidentials are also functionally more schematic, since English evidentials usually contain more semantic features. This compels English speakers to be more specific when referring to their information sources. Grammatical evidential systems may be less optional than lexical systems, but the degree of optionality differs depending on the linguistic level. The morpho-syntactic obligatoriness of many Tibetan evidentials may indeed be compensated by the availability of evidentially neutral forms in the same paradigm. However, evidentiality seems to be pragmatically less optional in Tibetan than in English. Tibetan evidentials are also more economical on a morpho-phonetic, syntactic, and cognitive level. Finally, all these parameters influence the informational status of evidentials. Because they are more frequent, schematic, obligatory, and economical, Tibetan evidentials appear more backgrounded.

The role of pragmatics in the definition of evidentiality

AbstractThis paper argues that a definition of evidentiality as a linguistic notion should be based on the pragmatic properties of evidential forms and their distribution in spoken discourse. The prevailing definition of evidentiality as signaling “information source” is based on the idea that evidentials encode a solitary speaker’s perception and cognitive processes, but this definition does not fit well with observations regarding the use and distribution of evidentials. A definition of evidentiality in terms of “information source” has largely disregarded evidentials in-use, which is especially true for typologically oriented studies of evidentiality. Recent descriptions of evidentials and evidential systems have shown that evidentials encode meanings related to ownership of knowledge, rather than information source and it is evident from such descriptions that social and interactional parameters are encoded in evidential forms. The attested semantic and pragmatic complexity of evidential systems constitutes an analytical challenge that the present paper aims to address.

From narrative past to mirativity and direct evidentiality: the case of Moldavian (Csángó) Hungarian

AbstractThis paper describes the evolution of grammaticalized evidentiality in the Moldavian dialect of Hungarian. It documents how the suffix-a/e, originally the marker of narrative past, became a rare, elevated marker of past tense highlighting significant past events; how it assumed a mirative overtone; and how the features ʻwitnessedʼ and ʻimmediate pastʼ, often present in mirative utterances, became inherent parts of its meaning. This grammaticalization path has resulted in an evidential system with typologically unique features. It is a two-term system based on the opposition of direct evidentiality and no evidentiality – violating the alleged universal that if a language has grammaticalized direct evidentiality, it has also grammaticalized indirect evidentiality. Mirative meaning is expressed by the same -a/esuffix that also encodes direct evidentiality – whereas it is claimed to be the extension of inferred evidentiality elsewhere. The unique properties of Moldavian Hungarian evidentiality are derived from the historical evolution of the -a/esuffix.

The development and functions of the inferential marker chog‘i in Uzbek

AbstractIn the evidential system of Uzbek, the speaker has different grammatical options in marking the source of information, such as -ibdi, ekan, emish, etc., although it is not compulsory to mark this category in the utterance. In addition to these established markers, new markers have developed into evidentials, and they encode specific sub-categories of evidentiality. In this study, after a brief overview of grammatical markers of evidentiality in Uzbek, the marker chog‘i is examined with a syntactic and semantic approach based on a corpus of selected texts. Its development into an inferential marker is evaluated with special attention to sources of evidentials.

The Bantu-Salish connection in determiner semantics

This paper provides a semantic analysis of the D(eterminer)-system in Nata (Eastern Bantu), and compares it with the strikingly similar D-system of St’át’imcets (Salish). Our core proposal is that in both languages, the major distinction encoded by Ds correlates with the presence vs. absence of speaker commitment to the existence of a referent for the noun phrase.We show that neither Nata nor St’át’imcets Ds encode well-known distinctions like definiteness or specificity. Instead, they reflect the speaker’s (un)willingness to commit to the existence of a referent for the DP. Despite these parallels, the two D-systems are not identical. In St’át’imcets, the notion of existence is based on the speaker’s personal knowledge; in Nata, the existence Ds are also used for entities which are surmised to exist, or are future possibilities. We derive the difference between ‘knowledge of existence’ and ‘belief of existence’ from independent differences in the evidential systems of the two languages. This work contributes to the landscape of potential determiner meanings across languages. 

Revisiting the Amdo Sprachbund: Genes, languages, and beyond

This paper attempts to discuss the convergence phenomena in the Amdo Sprachbund in the light of genetic and cultural/religious factors. As an ethnolinguistically diverse region, the Amdo Sprachbund constitutes a natural laboratory for the study of language contact and human interaction at large. Unsurprisingly, populations within the Amdo Sprachbund show considerable signs of genetic admixture which sometimes result in disagreement between genetic structure and linguistic affiliation. More remarkably, their languages appear to show varying degrees of structural convergence towards Amdo Tibetan depending on their religious practice. To wit, syllable-initial consonant clusters and a three-term evidential system, two features which are clearly attributable to Tibetic influence, are only found in languages whose speakers practise(d) Tibetan Buddhism. These observations suggest that genetic and various sociohistorical factors should be taken into account in the study of areal linguistics.

The Lithuanian mirative present and its history

The article deals with a Lithuanian mirative construction based on the present active participle with the continuative and progressive prefix be-. In Lithuanian grammar it has been described as a tense form or (more recently) as a member of the evidential system, but it is here dealt with as a construction in its own right. On the basis of a corpus search the authors attempt to define the place of the mirative present among constructions containing the present active participle with the prefix be-, as well as its formal and functional properties and lexical input. In the diachronic section of the article it is suggested that the rise of the construction under discussion could have been, at least partly, the outcome of a distinct path of grammaticalisation (involving a post-nominal participial modifier in a presentative construction), different from that of both the progressiveproximative tense forms containing the participle with be- and the evidential forms based on participles. This, however, was not necessarily the only source of the construction: the pragmatic and emotive overtones developed by present progressives have probably also contributed to it. Mirativity has hitherto been known as one of the cluster of meanings characteristic of the Lithuanian evidential, but the analysis carried out in the article suggests that Lithuanian also has mirativity as a category in its own right, distinct from evidentiality.

Evidentiality in Selibu

AbstractSelibu is a Mandarin-Khams Tibetan mixed language with about 900 native speakers in northwest Yunnan, People’s Republic of China. As a Form-Semantics mixed language, it derives most of its lexicon and grammatical morphemes from Southwest Mandarin and borrows its morphosyntactic and semantic structure from Alangu Tibetan. This article examines the contact-induced emergence of a five-category complex evidential system in Selibu with a detailed comparison with its source system in the model language, Alangu Tibetan. Our discussion focuses on the hybrid features of Selibu evidentiality in both forms and functions and also on its structural formation, which does not represent a Form-Semantics mixed type in this particular domain.

Review on the Development of Evidentiality and Analysis of Non-Grammatical Evidential Systems

Review on the Development of Evidentiality and Analysis of Non-Grammatical Evidential Systems

A Contrastive Approach to the Evidential System in Tibetic Languages: Examining Five Varieties from Khams and Amdo

A Contrastive Approach to the Evidential System in Tibetic Languages: Examining Five Varieties from Khams and Amdo