Evidential System Research Articles

Особенности семантики сенсорно-эвиденциальной граммемы «аудитива» в ненецких шаманских песнях

The specific semantic features and the functions of sensory evidential verbal “auditive” forms are identified and specified in Nenets shamanistic ritual songs documented by Toivo Lehtisalo at the beginning of the 20th century. The significant typological specificity of Samoyedic evidential systems is the availability of verbal forms marked by special morphological formants expressing sensory evidential meanings. The verbal forms in question, indicating an auditory, acoustic source of receiving the information being communicated, are traditionally termed as “auditive” in Samoyedic linguistics. The cognitive problem is that the particular grammatical meaning of the auditive that is basic in the diachronic levels documented, in fact, coincides with the lexical meaning of the Samoyedic verbs of auditory perception. When used in evidential utterances, they indicate an auditory source of information communicated in the same way as the auditive grammemes in their basic meaning. That is why, at the later stages documented, the Samoyedic “auditive” is assumed to be redundant archaism that is not based on any actual communicative demand but only depends on folklore tradition. Nenets shamanistic ritual song texts informatively documented by Toivo Lehtisalo offer linguistically fact-based, historical, and ethnological facts. These facts make it possible to assume that the Samoyedic “auditive” primarily was grammaticalized in the sacral sphere, and its diachronically earlier semantics reflected the specificity of sacral shamanistic performance ritual communication with invisible ghost helpers. Therefore, the diachronically earlier auditive semantics was specific and different from the lexical semantics of auditive perception verbs.

Looks like a duck, quacks like a hand: Tools for eliciting evidential and epistemic distinctions, with examples from Lamjung Yolmo (Tibetic, Nepal)

AbstractThis article describes the use of eight research tools used in the documentation of evidential and modal use in Lamjung Yolmo, a Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal. For each tool, the methodology is described, and some examples of the usefulness and limitations are discussed. The methods include use of existing and novel tools and materials. Image tasks included the existing resources Family Problem Picture Task and Jackal and Crow, as well as optical illusions. Object tasks included the hidden objects game and magic tricks. Listening and talking tasks included the game twenty questions, reporting previous speech, and a grammaticality judgement task based on multiple reports. Making research methods more transparent, and the open sharing of data and materials, allows us to move forward with better understanding of the contexts of evidential use, and more nuanced cross-linguistic typological analysis of evidential systems.

Looks like a duck, quacks like a hand: Tools for eliciting evidential and epistemic distinctions, with examples from Lamjung Yolmo (Tibetic, Nepal)

AbstractThis article describes the use of eight research tools used in the documentation of evidential and modal use in Lamjung Yolmo, a Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal. For each tool, the methodology is described, and some examples of the usefulness and limitations are discussed. The methods include use of existing and novel tools and materials. Image tasks included the existing resourcesFamily Problem Picture TaskandJackal and Crow, as well as optical illusions. Object tasks included thehidden objectsgame and magic tricks. Listening and talking tasks included the gametwenty questions, reporting previous speech, and a grammaticality judgement task based on multiple reports. Making research methods more transparent, and the open sharing of data and materials, allows us to move forward with better understanding of the contexts of evidential use, and more nuanced cross-linguistic typological analysis of evidential systems.

The Semantics of Evidentials in Questions

AbstractThis paper presents a novel cross-linguistic exploration of the phenomenon of Interrogative Flip at the semantics-pragmatics interfaces. Most previous studies describe an obligatory shift in the anchor of an evidential from the speaker to the addressee in interrogatives, across a diverse set of languages. In this work, we discuss a lesser-studied set of facts, which show that in many languages this shift does not take place. Modeling the contribution of evidentials with ‘judge’-sensitivity in the semantics and with newly refined notions of commitment and sourcehood in an extended dynamic pragmatics framework, the presence or absence of Interrogative Flip is shown to lie in an evidential’s ability to license a commitment update operator $\uparrow $. All attested evidential systems are shown to fall in either the class of $\uparrow $ licensors or not, with apparent exceptions explained across a heterogeneous array of data. A dynamic polar question operator is formulated and its interaction with $\uparrow $ explored. Finally, a novel link between evidentiality and bias is established, by arguing that the lack of the Flip results in biased questions.

Egophoric marking and person indexation in Japhug

AbstractJaphug, like other Gyalrong languages, is one of the very few languages with both a full-fledged person indexation system and an egophoric evidential category. A detailed account of the uses and meanings of the Egophoric and its interaction with person is thus of interest to the typology of evidential systems. This paper describes the uses of Egophoric marking in Japhug and of the other two evidential categories with which it contrasts (Factual and Sensory), as well as their interaction with person indexation. Due to the limited distribution of the Egophoric in Japhug (it only occurs in present contexts), the present paper exclusively focuses on the uses of evidentials with stative verbs in present (imperfective) contexts, where minimal pairs are available in the corpus.

Don’t believe in a paradigm that you haven’t manipulated yourself! – Evidentiality, speaker attitude, and admirativity in Ladakhi

Author(s): Zeisler, Bettina | Abstract: A speaker may conceptualise and represent a situation from three different ‘perspectives’: epistemic, evidential, and attitudinal. Languages differ in which of these con­cepts they profile and how a grammaticalised category may be extended to the other two. The grammatical systems of lesser-known languages tend to be misrepresented in the typological literature. Modern Tibetic languages including the Ladakhi dialects are said to have grammaticalised evidentiality. However, their ‘evidential’ systems differ from the typologically more common systems, in that speaker attitude is co-grammaticalised and knowledge based on perception shares properties with knowledge based on inferences. The starting point for the development of this, as it seems, typologically rather uncommon ‘evidential system’ was a lexical marker for non-commitment (or admirativity): the auxiliary ḥdug.

Re-evaluation of the evidential system of Lhasa Tibetan and its atypical functions

Author(s): Oisel, Guillaume | Abstract: This paper describes the specific contexts in which evidentials may be used in Lhasa Tibetan. I first give a brief presentation of the notion of evidentiality in interaction with pragmatics, which has been mainly used for describing Lhasa Tibetan. Then I re-evaluate the analysis of the evidential verb system in Lhasa Tibetan. I show there are indeed eight evidentials. I only focus on the six first evidentials: egophoric, sensorial, factual, inferential, mnemic and self-corrective with controllable verbs. The two other evidentials are the quotative and the hearsay particles.Then, I focus on the specific functions of the evidentials with controllable verbs. I present the use of the intentional egophoric with the non-SAP and controllable verbs when the speaker refers to personal knowledge and I also discuss some of its restrictions. Then, I present the specific uses of the sensorial, factual and inferential evidentials.

Review of Lauren Gawne & Nathan W. Hill. (eds). 2016. Evidential systems of Tibetan languages

Review of Lauren Gawne &amp; Nathan W. Hill. (eds). 2016. <i>Evidential systems of Tibetan languages</i>

Don’t believe in a paradigm that you haven’t manipulated yourself!

AbstractA speaker may conceptualise a situation from three different modal ‘perspectives’: epistemic, evidential, and attitudinal. Languages differ in which of these concepts they perspectivise and how a grammaticalised concept may be extended to the other two. ‘Lesser-known’ languages tend to be misrepresented in the typological literature. E.g., the Modern Tibetic languages, including the Ladakhi dialects, are said to have grammaticalised the concept ofevidentiality. However, their ‘evidential’ systems differ from the cross-linguistically acknowledged evidential systems, in thatspeaker attitudeis co-grammaticalised and knowledge based on perception shares properties with knowledge based on inferences. DeLancey therefore claimed that these systems also encodemirativity. The starting point for the development of these typologically rather uncommon ‘evidential’ systems was a lexical marker for non-commitment (oradmirativity): the auxiliaryḥdug.

Using corpora to track changing thought styles: evidentiality, epistemology, and Early Modern English and German scientific discourse

Most research on evidentiality has focused on classifying evidential systems synchronically; meanwhile, diachronic studies on evidentiality seem to have focused on the development of specific items into evidential markers with little regard to discourse context. This paper begins to fill this gap by presenting the results of a corpus-based study of evidential markers in Early Modern scientific discourse in English and German. The Early Modern period witnessed the transition from scholastic-based models of science to more empirical models of enquiry; this study demonstrates a decrease in the use of markers of mediated information and an increase in the use of markers of direct observation and inference accompanying these sociohistorical developments.

Ônus da prova como acesso à justiça: uma (re)definição à luz do novo cpc?

O trabalho investiga os fundamentos da definição jurídica de ônus probatório, sem abdicar da premissa de que prova compreende a garantia do acesso à justiça. Partindo do conceito de prova, perpassa as bases utilizadas ao longo da história do processo para definir sua finalidade, utilidade e validade, concluindo com a adequada adoção, na perspectiva de um processo democrático, do ônus probatório e indispensável distribuição entre as partes. Enfrentando o novo CPC, adentra-se na adoção, em sede de exibição de documento ou coisa, de comandos mandamentais que podem reverter o sistema probatório, implicando em um indevido dever de provar.

Language, Translation, Trauma

Contemporary definitions of trauma and their application remain controversial within anthropology. A survivor's awareness of a parallel, incompatible world of atrocity is understood to bypass language or conscious expression. Such a framework can be compared with ethnographic work on the silence of survivors. Experiences of inhumanity and extreme violence eventually find a discursive niche but nevertheless pose problems of translation. Through the lens of traditional anthropology another realm emerges—a world of vampires, zombies, and cannibals. “Crimes against humanity” can be added to the list, but overall translations seem oriented toward the maintenance of interpretative control, even in contexts of mass dehumanization. Anthropologists are well placed to pay attention to both the complex evidential systems of survivors and the construction of liberal voices. The image of trauma and its untranslatability, however, linger in the background of interventions and point to the vital but endangered bond between language and humanity.

Classification of Complex Urban Fringe Land Cover Using Evidential Reasoning Based on Fuzzy Rough Set: A Case Study of Wuhan City

Urban fringe is the transition zone fine grained with urban and non-urban land cover types. The complex landscape mosaic in this area challenges the land cover classification based on the remote-sensing data. Spectral signatures are not efficient to discriminate all pixels into classes. To improve the recognition and handle the uncertainty, this paper provides a novel integrated approach, based on a fuzzy rough set and evidential reasoning (FRSER), for land cover classification in an urban fringe area. The approach is implemented on Landsat Operation Land Imager data covering the urban fringe area of Wuhan city, China. A fuzzy rough set is first used to define a decision table from multispectral imagery and ground reference data. Then the fuzzy rough information system is interpreted using the Dempster–Shafer theory, based on an evidential reasoning system. A final land cover classification with uncertainty is achieved by evidential reasoning. The results are compared with the traditional maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) and some rough set-based classifiers including classical rough set classifier (RS), fuzzy rough set classifier (FRS), and variable precision fuzzy rough set classifier (VPFRS). The better overall accuracy, user’s and producer’s accuracies, and the kappa coefficient, in comparison with the other classifiers, suggest that the proposed approach can effectively discriminate land cover types in urban fringe areas with high inter-class similarities and intra-class heterogeneity. It is also capable of handling the uncertainty in data processing, and the final land cover map comes with a degree of uncertainty. The proposed approach that can efficiently integrate the merits of both the fuzzy rough set and DS theory provides an efficient method for urban fringe land cover classification.

The Acquisition of Evidentiality and Source Monitoring

ABSTRACTEvidentiality in language marks how information contained in a sentence was acquired. For instance, Turkish has two past-tense morphemes that mark whether access to information was direct (typically, perception) or indirect (hearsay/inference). Full acquisition of evidential systems appears to be a late achievement cross-linguistically. Currently, there are two distinct hypotheses about why this is so. According to the first hypothesis, the acquisition of evidentiality is delayed by conceptual factors related to source monitoring (the process of identifying and evaluating information sources). According to a different hypothesis, a substantial part of the learning difficulty comes from mapping evidential markers onto the underlying source concepts (even if these concepts are already available to the child), most likely because source concepts do not correspond to observable referents in the world. Here we tested these two hypotheses in a series of experiments comparing the acquisition of evidential morphology (Experiments 1–3) and the development of source monitoring (Experiments 4–6) in the same group of Turkish-speaking children. We found that the semantics and pragmatics of evidential morphology in Turkish are not acquired until age 6 or 7. A comparison between linguistic evidentiality and source monitoring experiments revealed that conceptual understanding of information access develops before the corresponding concepts are linked to evidential morphemes in Turkish, thereby demonstrating that mapping difficulties underlie the late acquisition of evidentiality in Turkish. Nevertheless, our data also suggest that conceptual limitations play an important role in the acquisition of evidentiality, since in both language and source monitoring direct evidence seems to be privileged compared to indirect evidence. This work has implications for the acquisition of mental-state language and the relation between children’s linguistic and conceptual development.

On Evidentiality in Nuosu Yi

This paper delineates the evidential system of Nuosu Yi, which is found to be comprised of a reported evidential and an inferred evidential. We first describe the semantics of the two evidentials in Nuosu Yi and the interaction between them in terms of double evidential marking. Then we analyze the reported evidential by examining its relation to the verb of speech and (in) direct speech, and demonstrate how reported speech expressions give rise to the reported evidential. Finally, two syntactic tests are used to draw a clear-cut line between the epistemic modal and the inferred evidential in Nuosu Yi.

The evidential category of mutual knowledge in Quechua

In this paper we examine the notion of mutual knowledge, an evidential category that has remained largely unexplored in the relevant literature. Mutual knowledge principally refers to knowledge which is jointly constructed through linguistic interaction and shared perceptual experience. Sources of information for mutual knowledge include the contributions of conversational participants, together with their jointly held beliefs and assumptions. Interlocutors use individual knowledge evidentials to introduce information and use mutual knowledge evidentials to establish facts by consensus. Once established, this shared knowledge is marked as such in subsequent speech. Evidentials are thus shown to be part of a system for building up the epistemic base shared between speakers in dynamic, interactive discourse.In South Conchucos Quechua and in Sihuas Quechua the individual and mutual knowledge categories are formally distinguished via dedicated enclitics in paradigmatic contrast. We describe and illustrate the five-choice evidential system of South Conchucos and the six-choice system of Sihuas, then compare the two systems with each other and with the more well-known three-choice system of Cusco Quechua, a system in which mutual knowledge forms have not been attested. The comparison of the three evidential systems suggests a sequence of stages in the development of mutual knowledge as a grammatical category. The findings presented here are primarily based on spontaneous conversation, the setting in which mutual knowledge forms principally reside and in which epistemic authority is carefully negotiated.

Interpersonal evidentiality: The Mandarin V-过 guo construction and other evidential systems beyond the ‘source of information’

This study aims at establishing a new evidential category of interpersonal evidentiality (IE). IE grounds the illocutionary force of a statement in intersubjective knowledge shared by the speaker and other assumed members of society, regardless of whatever the source of information is. Drawing on Nuyts's (1992, 2001a,b) work on the evidential application of the notion of intersubjectivity (Traugott and Dasher, 2002; Traugott, 1999, 2003, 2010; Verhagen, 2005) this paper argues that the perfect V-过 guo evolved in Modern Mandarin into a new IE construction. I provided a qualitative survey on 862 occurrences from the LCMC (Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese) proving the specific interpersonal dimension of V-过 guo as an evidential marker. I demonstrate in this work that IE can be seen as a proper typological category characterized by specifically grammaticalized items in many languages of the world. The theoretical implications of the establishment of IE as a typologically attested domain must lead us to redefine the primary semantics of evidentiality. The secondary claim of this work is thus to reconsider evidentiality as a non-modal domain primarily marking different types of ‘acquired knowledge’ rather than a ‘particular source of information’. Evidential constructions encoding specific sources of evidence must then be considered as a sub-class of the broader semantic scope of ‘acquired knowledge’ (AK). In essence, AK is here regarded as the primary pragmatic and semantic connotation of any type of evidential construction or strategy.

The Mamaindê Tense/Evidentiality System

This paper describes the extensive tense/evidentiality system of Mamaindê, a northern Nambikwara language of Brazil. This morphological system performs a dual function in Mamaindê, that of marking tense as well as indicating information source. First, each of the six evidentials are discussed in detail, followed by a section on the use of evidentials as ‘extensions’ with secondary semantic properties. After comments regarding the possible origins of this particular morphological category, a comparative section highlights the similarities and differences between the various evidential systems discovered thus far in the Nambikwara family, as well as some parallels with evidentiality within other Amazonian languages. The systems most similar to Mamaindê are those found in Lakondê, a northern Nambikwara language ( Telles &amp; Wetzels 2006 ), Tariana, an Arawak language ( Aikhenvald 2004 : 60) and Tuyuca, East Tucanoan ( Payne 1997 : 256–7). The paper closes with a short commentary on the possible connections between Mamaindê evidentials and Mamaindê culture.The overall result of this research is a comprehensive presentation of the Mamaindê evidential system, and an assessment of how it fits into a cross-linguistic picture of evidentiality.

Law of evidence e common law: o sistema de provas e o sigilo no Direito inglês

Cada vez mais a normatização do Direito inglês atrai o interesse dos pesquisadores, especialmente, em virtude das possíveis aproximações entre os sistemas anglo-saxão e românico-germânico. Esta atual coexistência da Case Law e, do direito positivado dos statutes, não passa despercebida, também, no estudo do direito processual e do sistema probatório inglês. Destarte, propõe-se no presente artigo investigar se a natureza jurídica das noções historicamente consolidadas pelo Law of evidence inglês permanece inalterada. Trata-se, ainda, de identificar o caráter jurídico das modificações ocorridas no regime legal das regras de exclusão (exclusionary rules) e de suas respectivas modalidades (hearsay evidence, bad character testimony e illegal evidence). Com o exame, em seguida, dos principais meios de obtenção de prova no processo penal inglês (identificação criminal, busca e apreensão, interceptação telefônica e vigilância), à luz do reconhecimento histórico do direito fundamental à privacidade (right of privacy) e do interesse estatal no sigilo das investigações criminais. Para tanto, indispensável à análise dos statutes e das decisões dos Tribunais ingleses e da Corte Europeia de Direitos do Homem.

Reported Speech in Matses: Perspective Persistence and Evidential Narratives

In Matses reported speech, the personal, spatial, and temporal indexicals of the reported speech act must be maintained from the point of view of the original speaker, thus resembling a strict form of direct speech. However, substantial paraphrasing, extraction, reconfiguration, and de re construals are permitted, which are features more typically associated with indirect speech. We give a detailed account of this unique reported speech system, its relationship to the evidential system, and the broader implications for theories of reported discourse. In relation to the evidential system, all past events learned through inference or speech must encode the point of view of an event’s detection, and in turn the context of the reporting of that event, the only exception being that community elders may make direct indexical reference to unobserved past events within a “Narrative Past” construction used exclusively for recounting oral history.