Chapter 9. Evidence for the development of ‘evidentiality’ as a grammatical category in the Tibetic languages
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Bettina Zeisler
Abstract
The coding of evidentiality and/or the speaker’s attitude grammaticalized in most Modern Tibetic languages, whereas Classical Tibetan lacks a fully developed evidential system. The source for marking sensory perception is the hedging use of the verb ḥdug. Its lexical meaning of limited stay was extended to the notion of limited truth: ‘it seems’. This was further applied to situations merely perceived. ḥdug spread first into West Tibetan as an inferential marker; later it was re-borrowed as an experiential maker. This scenario allows reconstructing the timeline and the semantic path, and explaining the flexible use of ‘evidential’ markers in Tibetic languages.
Abstract
The coding of evidentiality and/or the speaker’s attitude grammaticalized in most Modern Tibetic languages, whereas Classical Tibetan lacks a fully developed evidential system. The source for marking sensory perception is the hedging use of the verb ḥdug. Its lexical meaning of limited stay was extended to the notion of limited truth: ‘it seems’. This was further applied to situations merely perceived. ḥdug spread first into West Tibetan as an inferential marker; later it was re-borrowed as an experiential maker. This scenario allows reconstructing the timeline and the semantic path, and explaining the flexible use of ‘evidential’ markers in Tibetic languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
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Part I. What do we know? Knowledge and evidence
- Chapter 1. Evidentiality as stance 19
- Chapter 2. Factual vs. evidential? The past tense forms of spoken Khalkha Mongolian 45
- Chapter 3. I think and I believe 77
- Chapter 4. (Yo) creo que as a marker of evidentiality and epistemic modality 99
- Chapter 5. Finnish evidential adverbs in argumentative texts 121
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Part II. When do we know? Accessibility of evidence in time
- Chapter 6. Uralic perspectives on experimental evidence for evidentials 145
- Chapter 7. Reportive sollen in an exclusively functional view of evidentiality 173
- Chapter 8. The French future 199
- Chapter 9. Evidence for the development of ‘evidentiality’ as a grammatical category in the Tibetic languages 227
- Chapter 10. From similarity to evidentiality 257
- Chapter 11. What can different types of linguistic data teach us on evidentiality? 281
- Author Index 305
- Language index 309
- Subject index 311
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. What do we know? Knowledge and evidence
- Chapter 1. Evidentiality as stance 19
- Chapter 2. Factual vs. evidential? The past tense forms of spoken Khalkha Mongolian 45
- Chapter 3. I think and I believe 77
- Chapter 4. (Yo) creo que as a marker of evidentiality and epistemic modality 99
- Chapter 5. Finnish evidential adverbs in argumentative texts 121
-
Part II. When do we know? Accessibility of evidence in time
- Chapter 6. Uralic perspectives on experimental evidence for evidentials 145
- Chapter 7. Reportive sollen in an exclusively functional view of evidentiality 173
- Chapter 8. The French future 199
- Chapter 9. Evidence for the development of ‘evidentiality’ as a grammatical category in the Tibetic languages 227
- Chapter 10. From similarity to evidentiality 257
- Chapter 11. What can different types of linguistic data teach us on evidentiality? 281
- Author Index 305
- Language index 309
- Subject index 311
