What everybody knows
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Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Abstract
Every language has a variety of ways of expressing how one knows what one is talking about. In quite a few of the world’s languages, one has to always specify the information source through grammatical means. Evidential terms may combine reference to the information sources of the speaker and of the addressee and to information shared by everyone. A special term for ‘common knowledge’ is a feature of a few large systems of evidentials. Sharing information source and common knowledge may constitute part of the meaning of an existing evidential within a large system. Shared context allows speakers and the audience to distinguish the exact reference of each evidential term. If a language becomes obsolescent, the meanings of the evidential terms change. This is illustrated with a case study from Tariana, an endangered Arawak language from north-west Amazonia, Brazil.
Abstract
Every language has a variety of ways of expressing how one knows what one is talking about. In quite a few of the world’s languages, one has to always specify the information source through grammatical means. Evidential terms may combine reference to the information sources of the speaker and of the addressee and to information shared by everyone. A special term for ‘common knowledge’ is a feature of a few large systems of evidentials. Sharing information source and common knowledge may constitute part of the meaning of an existing evidential within a large system. Shared context allows speakers and the audience to distinguish the exact reference of each evidential term. If a language becomes obsolescent, the meanings of the evidential terms change. This is illustrated with a case study from Tariana, an endangered Arawak language from north-west Amazonia, Brazil.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- What everybody knows 1
- Revisiting verbs and plurality 19
- Grammaticalization of the periphrasis tenir + participle in Old Catalan (13th–16th centuries) 41
- Secondary senses of the verb afrancesar/se throughout history 77
- (No) faltaba/faltaría más 99
- The present tense as a mark of evidentiality and intersubjectivity in Spanish 131
- Quantifiers of factual proximity and counterfactuality in Spanish and other Romance languages 149
- Solipsistic and inter-subjective attitude reports 171
- Acostumar ( a/de ) + inf . From the habitual aspect to the generic aspect 203
- Epistemic futures and aspect 231
- Time after time 263
- Conditionality and the verbal mood in Spanish phraseological units 291
- Meaning, degrees of abstraction and shared knowledge 307
- The role of context in imperative form choice 327
- Potential and presuppositional predicative complements in Old Catalan 351
- The vectorial analysis model and modal-temporal multi-functionality in the Spanish verb system 371
- Index 395
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- What everybody knows 1
- Revisiting verbs and plurality 19
- Grammaticalization of the periphrasis tenir + participle in Old Catalan (13th–16th centuries) 41
- Secondary senses of the verb afrancesar/se throughout history 77
- (No) faltaba/faltaría más 99
- The present tense as a mark of evidentiality and intersubjectivity in Spanish 131
- Quantifiers of factual proximity and counterfactuality in Spanish and other Romance languages 149
- Solipsistic and inter-subjective attitude reports 171
- Acostumar ( a/de ) + inf . From the habitual aspect to the generic aspect 203
- Epistemic futures and aspect 231
- Time after time 263
- Conditionality and the verbal mood in Spanish phraseological units 291
- Meaning, degrees of abstraction and shared knowledge 307
- The role of context in imperative form choice 327
- Potential and presuppositional predicative complements in Old Catalan 351
- The vectorial analysis model and modal-temporal multi-functionality in the Spanish verb system 371
- Index 395
