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Article published In: Evidentiality, Modality and Grammaticalization
Edited by Eric Mélac
[Studies in Language 48:3] 2024
► pp. 638–681

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Evidentiality as a grammaticalization passenger

An investigation of evidential developments in Tibetic languages and beyond

ORCiD logo with link | Université Paul Valéry – Montpellier 3
ORCiD logo with link | Independent researcher
Published online: 29 January 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.23009.mel
Abstract
This article investigates the grammaticalization patterns of evidentiality from a cross-linguistic perspective with a focus on Lhasa Tibetan. It documents the history of the evidential morphemes ’dug, -song, -bzhag, and =ze from Old Literary Tibetan to modern spoken Lhasa Tibetan. Our analyses show that these morphemes started grammaticalizing before encoding evidentiality. We argue that, through pragmatic strengthening, evidentiality tends to infiltrate forms which have already grammaticalized to express other semantic domains. These patterns of grammaticalization are confirmed by diachronic and reconstructed data from genetically unrelated languages. Evidentiality thus tends to be a ‘grammaticalization passenger’ (i.e., a conventionalized meaning which used to be merely implied from the recurrent contexts of a grammaticalized form) rather than a ‘grammaticalization target’ (i.e., a functional domain which triggers grammaticalization). This may explain why evidentiality is less often grammaticalized than other notions, such as time or modality, in the world’s languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Evidentiality and its grammaticalization
    • 2.1Grammaticalization and its function
    • 2.2The grammaticalization of evidentiality in the world’s languages
  • 3.Methodology and corpus
    • 3.1Languages under study
    • 3.2Corpora and sources
  • 4.Grammaticalization patterns of main evidential categories
    • 4.1An overview of the Central Tibetan evidential system
    • 4.2Direct perception
      • 4.2.1Lhasa Tibetan ’dug
      • 4.2.2Lhasa Tibetan song
      • 4.2.3In other languages
    • 4.3Inference
      • 4.3.1Lhasa Tibetan -bzhag
      • 4.3.2In other languages
    • 4.4Hearsay
      • 4.4.1Lhasa Tibetan =ze
      • 4.4.2In other languages
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References and sigla
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