Characterizing evidentiality

Abstract

Abstract This article examines theoretical and typological characterizations of evidentials. Based on the literature and newly analyzed data from Karuk (a Native American language of California), we argue that two properties are criterial: (i) marking source of evidence and (ii) membership in grammatical systems. Other properties vary crosslinguistically: presence of epistemic, illocutionary, or mirative meaning; speaker deixis; obligatoriness; complementarity of meaning with other items; and truth-conditionality. The values of these variable properties cannot be assumed but must be empirically determined for individual items and languages. Our characterization can serve as a guide for research, examination of the relationship between evidentiality and other categories, and typological work on evidentials.

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