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Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 44:2 (2020) ► pp.461–499

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Reported speech in earthquake narratives from six Tibeto-Burman languages

ORCiD logo with link | La Trobe University
 | Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Published online: 10 June 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.18028.gaw
Abstract
This paper is an analysis of the use of reported speech in six Tibeto-Burman languages from two closely-related sub-branches (Tamangic and Tibetic). The data come from a set of interview narratives about people’s experiences of the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal. The analysis begins with an examination of the relationship between reported speech, overt subjects and ergativity. We also look at reported speech and evidentiality, including grammatical reported speech evidentials. Structural features discussed include hybrid reported speech and multiple clause relationality. Interactional features discussed include the use of deictic shift, prominent subordination, and the multiple functions of reported speech forms, as well as zero-marked reported speech events. This analysis highlights the benefits of studying linguistic features such as reported speech in narrative context. We conclude with the implications of this usage-based analysis in the coverage of reported speech in descriptive grammars.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
  • 3.Corpora and methods
  • 4.Overt subjects, ergativity, and the relevance to reported speech in Tibeto-Burman languages
  • 5.Structural features of reported speech
    • 5.1Reported speech as part of the evidential system
      • 5.1.1Reported evidential particle
      • 5.1.2Reported speech, evidence, access to information
      • 5.1.3Evidential and modal effects of lexical reported speech
    • 5.2Hybrid reported speech
    • 5.3Multiple clause relationality
    • 5.4Structural features of reported speech: A summary
  • 6.Pragmatic and interactional features of reported speech
    • 6.1Deictic shift
    • 6.2Prominent information
    • 6.3Polyfunctionality
      • 6.3.1Semantic functions
      • 6.3.2Grammatical functions
      • 6.3.3Summary of polyfunctionality
    • 6.4Zero-marked reported speech
    • 6.5Pragmatic and interactional features of reported speech: A summary
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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