Evidentiality Egophoricity And Engagement

The expression of knowledge in language (i.e. epistemicity) consists of a number of distinct notions and proposed categories that are only partly related to a well explored forms like epistemic modals. The aim of the volume is therefore to contribute to the ongoing exploration of epistemic marking systems in lesser-documented languages from the Americas, Papua New Guinea, and Central Asia from the perspective of language description and cross-linguistic comparison. As the title of the volume suggests, part of this exploration consists of situating already established notions (such as evidentiality) with the diversity of systems found in individual languages. Epistemic forms that feature in the present volume include ones that singal how speakers claim knowledge based on perceptual-cognitive access (evidentials); the speaker’s involvement as a basis for claiming epistemic authority (egophorics); the distribution of knowledge between the speech-participants where the speaker signals assumptions about the addressee’s knowledge of an event as either shared, or non-shared with the speaker (engagement marking).

The expression of knowledge in language (i.e. epistemicity) consists of a number of distinct notions and proposed categories that are only partly related to a well explored forms like epistemic modals. The aim of the volume is therefore to contribute to the ongoing exploration of epistemic marking systems in lesser-documented languages from the Americas, Papua New Guinea, and Central Asia from the perspective of language description and cross-linguistic comparison. As the title of the volume suggests, part of this exploration consists of situating already established notions (such as evidentiality) with the diversity of systems found in individual languages. Epistemic forms that feature in the present volume include ones that signal how speakers claim knowledge based on perceptual-cognitive access (evidentials); the speaker’s involvement as a basis for claiming epistemic authority (egophorics); the distribution of knowledge between the speech-participants where the speaker signals assumptions about the addressee’s knowledge of an event as either shared, or non-shared with the speaker (engagement marking).

Egophoricity refers to the grammaticalised encoding of personal knowledge or involvement of a conscious self in a represented event or situation. Most typically, a marker that is egophoric is found with first person subjects in declarative sentences and with second person subjects in interrogative sentences. This person sensitivity reflects the fact that speakers generally know most about their own affairs, while in questions this epistemic authority typically shifts to the addressee. First described for Tibeto-Burman languages, egophoric-like patterns have now been documented in a number of other regions around the world, including languages of Western China, the Andean region of South America, the Caucasus, Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere. This book is a first attempt to place detailed descriptions of this understudied grammatical category side by side and to add to the cross-linguistic picture of how ideas of self and other are encoded and projected in language. The diverse but conceptually related egophoric phenomena described in its chapters provide fascinating case studies for how structural patterns in morphosyntax are forged under intersubjective, interactional pressures as we link elements of our speech to our speech situation.

Despite the intensive research carried out in recent years, modality remains an intriguing and challenging issue in linguistics. This book investigates modality from a syntactic viewpoint and with a bottom-up approach. A strong focus of the book is the interaction between the different linguistic tools that build modality (moods, modal verbs, modal adverbs, etc.), taking both the role of syntactic structure and the compositionality of modal meanings into account. The volume comprises corpus-based studies devoted to several syntactic aspects of modality in Ancient Greek, within different theoretical frameworks. The chapters shed new light on different modal categories (e.g. epistemicity, possibility, counterfactuality, evidentiality, subjectivity) and show how these modal meanings arise from the combination of different linguistic devices in specific syntactic contexts (e.g. combinations of modal elements, types of main and dependent clauses, types of illocutionary acts, etc.). By approaching modality from a different perspective and providing an up-to-date discussion of several aspects of modality, the book makes a significant contribution to current debates.

INHALT Originalia - Béres, Mátyás: Male–female opposition in Mansi - Bradley, Jeremy: Non cogito, ergo non sum: Existenz jenseits 3.prs.ind im Uralischen - Holopainen, Sampsa: Development of Proto-Uralic word-initial *ä in Hungarian: reassessing the etymological evidence - Muravyev, Nikita – Daria Zhornik: Passive in Ob-Ugric: information structure and beyond - Vojter, Kitti: The functions of inferential evidential in first and second person in Nganasan - Wagner-Nagy, Beáta: Events of giving and getting in Samoyedic languages Diskussion und kritik - Blokland, Rogier: Winkler, Eberhard & Pajusalu, Karl 2016. Salis-Livisch I. J.A. Sjögrens Manuskript. Ediert, glossiert und übersetzt von Eberhard Winkler und Karl Pajusalu. Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica Band 88. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz; Winkler, Eberhard & Pajusalu, Karl 2018. Salis-Livisch II. Grammatik und Wörterverzeichnis. Mit einem Anhang zu den salis-livischen Sprichwörtern. Auf der Grundlage von J. A. Sjögrens Sprachmaterialien verfasst von Eberhard Winkler und Karl Pajusalu. Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica Band 89. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz; Winkler, Eberhard 2019. Salis-Livisch III. Ergänzungen, frühe Quellen und Geschichte. Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica Band 91. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz - Tomingas, Marili: Norvik, Miina & Tuisk, Tuuli. 2023. Līvõ kīel optõbrōntõz. Liivi keele õpik. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus Berichte, Mitteilungen, Nachrichten Hasselblatt, Cornelius: Tette Hofstra 18. Februar 1943 – 22. Februar 2023

Our sense of agency and ability to distinguish between intentional and accidental actions are fundamental for social interaction. They allow us to plan and perform joint actions and assign responsibility for our own actions and those of others. Research on the nature of agency and intentions has been very fruitful over the last few decades in philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. However, trully new discoveries could be made only when we engage in interdisciplinary discussions. This volume is the result of such discussions.

This book explores the semantics of tense, aspect, modality and evidentiality in the North-East Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) language family. It offers an overview of the most challenging features and provides in-depth studies of selected TAME systems in a number of languages.