Abstract
While evidential categories have similar meanings and uses cross-linguistically, the names given to the categories tend to vary. This article surveys the terms for evidentials used in descriptive grammars of 51 languages that have at least three evidential categories. Comparing terms to find common terminological tendencies can provide useful insights into the descriptions of categories. There is great deal of term synonymy and term polysemy, but each evidential category has its typical terms that are semantically motivated. The term synonymy is the result of emphasizing different semantic aspects of the evidential categories, which leads to variable term choices. There is terminological overlap between categories involving sensory perception (i.e. visual, direct, and nonvisual sensory evidentials), inference, and second-hand information, which suggests that they may not always be considered sufficiently conceptually distinct to merit unique terms, especially when the terms for inferential and assumptive evidentials are frequently created from the same words. The variation of the terminology is also connected to how the understanding of evidentiality and relationship to other adjacent categories has developed.
Appendix: List of languages
Africa: 1
Shilluk (Western Nilotic)
America, North: 14
Apache, Western (Athabaskan)
Greenlandic, Western (= Kalaallisut) (Eskimo-Aleut)
Cora (Southern Uto-Aztecan)
Kashaya (= Southwestern Pomo) (Pomoan)
Kwakiutl (Northern Wakashan)
Makah (Southern Wakashan)
Maricopa (Yuman)
Musqueam (Salishan)
Patwin (Wintuan)
Pomo, Eastern (Pomoan)
Pomo, Southeastern (Pomoan)
Pomo, Southern (Pomoan)[6]
Washo (isolate)
Wintu (Wintuan)
America, South: 16
Aymara (Aymaran)
Bora (Boran)
Desano (Eastern Tucanoan)
Hup (Nadahup)
Jarawara (Arawan)
Quechua, Wanka (Quechuan)
Mamaindê (Northern Nambiquaran)
Matses (Panoan)
Mosetén (isolate)
Mỹky (isolate)
Nambikuara (Nambiquaran)
Shipibo-Konibo (Panoan)
Tariana (Arawakan)
Tsafiki (Barbacoan)
Tuyuca (Eastern Tucanoan)
Wanano (Eastern Tucanoan)
Eurasia: 13
Ainu (Ainu)
Akha (Sino-Tibetan, Burmo-Qiangic)
Dulong (Sino-Tibetan)
Enets, Forest (Uralic, Samoyedic)
Ersu (Sino-Tibetan, Burmo-Qiangic)
Ingush (Nakh-Daghestan)
Kalmyk (Mongolic)
Ladakhi (Sino-Tibetan, Bodish)
Nenets, Tundra (Uralic, Samoyedic)
Qiang (Sino-Tibetan, Burmo-Qiangic)
Tibetan (standard) (Sino-Tibetan, Bodish)
Chechen (Nakh-Daghestan)
Wutun (Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic)
Papua New Guinea: 7
Duna (isolate)
Edolo (Bosavi)
Fasu (isolate)
Foe (East Kutubu)
Huli (Nuclear Trans New Guinea)
Ipili (Nuclear Trans New Guinea)
Oksapmin (Nuclear Trans New Guinea)
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
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- ‘Well, that’s just great!’: an empirically based analysis of non-literal and attitudinal content of ironic utterances
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- ‘Invisible’ spatial meaning: a text-based study of covert Path encoding in Ancient Greek
- A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga
- A metalinguistic analysis of the terminology of evidential categories: experiential, conjecture or deduced?
- Book Reviews
- Ksenia Shagal: Participles. A typological study
- Dalrymple, Mary, John J. Lowe & Louise Mycock: The Oxford reference guide to Lexical Functional Grammar
- Tania Kuteva, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog and Seongha Rhee: World lexicon of grammaticalization
- Verena Schröter: Null subjects in Englishes: A comparison of British English and Asian Englishes
- Aline Godfroid: Eye tracking in Second Language Acquisition and bilingualism. A research synthesis and methodological guide
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Phonological restrictions on nominal pluralization in Sign Language of the Netherlands: evidence from corpus and elicited data
- ‘Well, that’s just great!’: an empirically based analysis of non-literal and attitudinal content of ironic utterances
- Aspectual cognate objects in Hungarian
- Expressing intent, imminence and ire by attributing speech/thought in Mongolian
- ‘Invisible’ spatial meaning: a text-based study of covert Path encoding in Ancient Greek
- A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga
- A metalinguistic analysis of the terminology of evidential categories: experiential, conjecture or deduced?
- Book Reviews
- Ksenia Shagal: Participles. A typological study
- Dalrymple, Mary, John J. Lowe & Louise Mycock: The Oxford reference guide to Lexical Functional Grammar
- Tania Kuteva, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog and Seongha Rhee: World lexicon of grammaticalization
- Verena Schröter: Null subjects in Englishes: A comparison of British English and Asian Englishes
- Aline Godfroid: Eye tracking in Second Language Acquisition and bilingualism. A research synthesis and methodological guide