Cover not available

Article published In: Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area
Vol. 38:1 (2015) ► pp.3–25

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Evidentiality and epistemic modality in Zhuang

 | University of Melbourne
Published online: 10 July 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ltba.38.1.01luo
This paper discusses evidentiality and epistemic modality in Zhuang, a Tai language spoken in South China’s Guangxi Province and surrounding regions. A set of verbs of SPEAKING are found in Zhuang that describe the sources of information. These typically involve the grammaticalised marker nau⁴ which derives from a lexical verb meaning ‘say’, forming a rich array of expressions to mark direct and indirect speech, hearsay and other types of reported information, which carry a wide variety of evidential and epistemic overtones such as surprise, self-correction, mirativity, uncertainty, among others. A number of sentence-final particles, along with hedges and sensory verbs, are also found with these functions. Each of these conveys different degrees of reliability of the source of information.
References (30)
Aikhenvald, A. 2015. The Art of Grammar. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aikhenvald, AlexandraY. 2004. Evidentiality. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. & Dixon, Robert M.W. (eds). 2003. Studies in Evidentiality. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Akatsuka, Noriko. 1985. Conditionals and the epistemic scale. Language 611: 625–639. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace & Nichols, Johanna (eds) 1986. Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology. Norwood NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 2000. Evidentials: semantics and history. In Johanson & Utas (eds), 1–12. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Haan, Ferdinand. 2005. Semantic distinctions of evidentiality. In Haspelmath, et al. (eds), 318–21.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dehé, Nicole & Kavalova, Yordanka. 2007. Parentheticals. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DeLancey, Scott. 2001. The mirative and evidentiality. Journal of Pragmatics 331: 369–382. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Still mirative after all these years. Linguistic Typology 161: 529–564.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert M.W. 2005. A Semantic Approach to English Grammar. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guentchéva, Zlatka (ed.). 1996. l'Énonciation médiatisée [Bibliothèque de l'Information Grammaticale]. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guentchéva, Zlatka & Landaburu, John (eds). 2007. L'énonciation médiatisée II - Le traitement épistémologique de l'information: illustrations amérindiennes et caucasiennes [Bibliothèque de l’Information Grammaticale 63], VIII–433. Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin, Dryer, Matthew S., Gil, David & Comrie, Bernard (eds). 2005. World Atlas of Language Structures. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hsieh, Chia-Ling. 2008. Evidentiality in Chinese newspaper reports: Subjectivity /objectivity as a factor. Discourse Studies 101: 205–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman O. 1990 [1957]. Shifters, verbal categories, and the Russian verb. In On Language, Roman Jakobson, 386–392. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johanson, Lars & Utas, Bo (eds). 2000. Evidentials: Turkic, Iranian and Neighboring Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kalsang, Jay Garfield, Speas, Peggy & de Villiers, Jill. 2013. Direct evidentials, case, tense and aspect in Tibetan: Evidence for a general theory of the semantics of evidential. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 31(2): 517–561. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lazard, Gilbert. 1999. Mirativity, evidentiality, mediativity, or other? Linguistic Typology 31: 91–110. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luo, Yongxian. 2008 Zhuang. In The Tai-Kadai Languages, Anthony V.N. Diller, Jerold Edmondson & Yongxian Luo (eds), 317–376. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oisel, Guillaume. 2014. Evidentiality and epistemic modality in Middle Tibetan. Paper presented at the 47th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics.
Squartini, Mario. 2007. Lexical vs. grammatical evidentiality in French and Italian. Linguistics 461: 917–47.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A. & Mulac, Anthony. 1991. A quantitative perspective on the grammaticization of epistemic parentheticals in English. In Approaches to Grammaticalization, Vol.II1, Elizabeth C. Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds), 313–329. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tournadre, Nicolas & Dorje, Sangda. 2003. Manual of Standard Tibetan. Ithaca NY: Snowlion. (translation of Manuel de tibetain standard, 1998)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tournadre, Nicholas & LaPolla, Randy 2014. Towards a new approach to evidentiality: Issues and directions for research. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 37(2): 240–263. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Urmson James O. 1952. Parenthetical verbs. Mind 611: 480–496. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vokurkova, Zuzana. 2008. Epistemic modalities in Spoken Standard Tibetan. PhD dissertation, Charles University, Prague, and University of Paris 8.
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1994. Semantics and Epistemology: the meaning of ‘evidentials’ in a cross-linguistic perspective. Language Sciences 16(1): 81–137. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Liang, Di
2025. Observing and interpreting jiāzhuàng as a semiotic device in small business signs. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal DOI logo
Grey, Alexandra
2019. A polity study of minority language management in China focusing on Zhuang. Current Issues in Language Planning 20:5 ► pp. 443 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue