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Evidentiality
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
480 pages
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1 map, numerous tables
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234x156mm
978-0-19-926388-2
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Hardback
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04 November 2004
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This item is printed to order. Items which are printed to order are normally despatched and charged within 5-10 days.
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- First investigation of evidentiality
- One of the most fascinating features of human languages
- Explores the cognitive and sociolinguistic consequences of evidentiality in a language
In some languages every statement must contain a specification of the type of evidence on which it is based: for example, whether the speaker saw it, or heard it, or inferred it from indirect evidence, or learnt it from someone else. This grammatical reference to information source is called 'evidentiality', and is one of the least described grammatical categories. Evidentiality systems differ in how complex they are: some distinguish just two terms (eyewitness and noneyewitness, or reported and everything else), while others have six or even more terms. Evidentiality is a category in its own right, and not a subcategory of
epistemic or some other modality, nor of tense-aspect.
Every language has some way of referring to the source of information, but not every language has grammatical evidentiality. In English expressions such as I guess, they say, I hear that, the alleged are not obligatory and do not constitute a grammatical system. Similar expressions in other languages may provide historical sources for evidentials. True evidentials, by contrast, form a grammatical system. In the North Arawak language Tariana an expression such as "the dog bit the man" must be augmented by a grammatical suffix indicating whether the event was seen, or heard, or assumed, or reported.
This book provides the first exhaustive cross-linguistic typological study of how languages
deal with the marking of information source. Examples are drawn from over 500 languages from all over the world, several of them based on the author's original fieldwork. Professor Aikhenvald also considers the role evidentiality plays in human cognition, and the ways in which evidentiality influences human perception of the world.. This is an important book on an intriguing subject. It will interest anthropologists, cognitive psychologists and philosophers, as well as linguists.
Readership: Scholars and advanced students of anthropological linguistics and linguistic typology.
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Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Professor and Associate Director, La Trobe University, Australia
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"...well written and well structured" - Johan Van Der Auwera, Language vol. 84, No.1, 2008 "...provides an excellent state of the art and a most interesting basis for further investigation" - Johan Van Der Auwera, Language vol. 84, No.1, 2008 "...is essential for anyone who wishes to study evidentiality in depth and crosslinguistically. It is hereby highly recommended" - Johan Van Der Auwera,Language vol. 84, No.1, 2008 "...marks a major advance in the study of evidentiality ... Aikenvald has opened the floor for discussion, and everyone with an interest in this area can only appreciate this." - Heiko Narrog, SKY journal of Linguistics "...a truly
superb example of a cross-linguistic survey of a grammatical category... This book belongs in every linguistics library." - Edward J Vajda, Western Washington University "...an impressive typological survey of evidentiality systems in the world's languages... With its numerous carefully glossed example sentences and its various summarizing tables, Aikhenvald's book opens up a fascinating aspect of natural language grammar to future systematic enquiry." - The Year's Works in English Studies "The most important current resource for anyone interested in the nature and typology of evidentials." - Margaret Speas, University of Massachusetts
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1: Preliminaries and Key Concepts
2: Evidentials World-wide
3: How to Mark Information Source
4: Evidential Extensions of Non-evidential Categories
5: Evidentials and Their Meanings
6: Evidentiality and Mirativity
7: Whose Evidence is That? Evidentials and Person
8: Evidentials and Other Grammatical Categories
9: Evidentials: Where do They Come From?
10: How to Choose the Correct Evidential: Evidentiality in Discourse and in Lexicon
11: What are Evidentials Good for? Evidentiality, Cognition and Cultural Knowledge
12: What can we Conclude; Summary and Prospects
Fieldworker's Guide. How to Gather Materials on Evidentiality Systems
Glossary of Terms
References
Index of Languages
Index of Authors
Subject Index
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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