Evidentials and clause modality in Wanano

This paper investigates evidentiality as a category of clause modality in Wanano (Eastern Tukanoan). I discuss four major categories of modality by which statements, questions, and ‘oriented’ utterances are grammatically and obligatorily marked and explore areas of semantic overlap. The major focus is the complex and typologically interesting Wanano evidential system, and I describe the core and extended semantics of each of the five categories — HEARSAY, VISUAL, NON-VISUAL, INFERENCE, and ASSERTION. This description provides input to the theoretical discussion of the relationship between evidentials and epistemic values. I conclude that in Wanano, not only statements coded by evidentials but also statements referring to irrealis situations and interrogatives display sensitivity to scalar values of speaker commitment.