Full Description
The Grammar of Knowledge offers both a linguistic and anthropological perspective on the expression of information sources, as well as inferences, assumptions, probability and possibility, and gradations of doubt and beliefs in a range of languages. The book investigates twelve different languages, from families including Tibeto-Burman, Nakh-Dagestani, and Austronesian, all of which share the property of requiring the source of information to be specified in every sentence. In these languages, it may not be possible to say merely that 'the man went fishing'. Instead, the source of evidence for the statement must also be specified, usually through the use of evidential markers. For example, it may be necessary to indicate whether the speaker saw the man go fishing; has simply assumed that the man went fishing; or was told that he went fishing by a third party. Some languages, such as Hinuq and Tatar, distinguish between first-hand and non first-hand information sources; others, such as Ersu, mark three distinct types of information - directly required, inferred or assumed, and reported. Some require an even greater level of specification: Ashéninka Perené, from South America, has a specific marker to express suspicions or misgivings. Like others in the series, the book illustrates and examines these aspects of language in different cultural and linguistic settings. It will interest linguists of all persuasions as well as linguistically-minded anthropologists.
Contents
1. The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic view of evidentials and the expression of information source ; 2. The grammar of knowledge in Hinuq ; 3. Expression of knowledge in Tatar ; 4. The grammar of knowledge in Saaroa ; 5. The grammar of knowledge in Kurtop: evidentiality, mirativity, and expectation of knowledge ; 6. Evidentiality in Ersu ; 7. Evidentiality in Kalmyk ; 8. The non-visible marker in Dyirbal ; 9. The grammar of knowledge in Maaka (Western Chadic, Nigeria) ; 10. Expression of information-source meanings in Asheninca Perene ; 11. Nominalization, knowledge, and information source in Aguarana ; 12. The grammar of knowledge in Tima ; 13. Saying, seeing, and knowing among the Karawari of Papua New Guinea
