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In:Exploring the Turkish Linguistic Landscape: Essays in honor of Eser Erguvanlı-Taylan
Edited by Mine Güven, Didar Akar, Balkız Öztürk and Meltem Kelepir
[Studies in Language Companion Series 175] 2016
► pp. 143–156

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The interface of evidentials and epistemics in Turkish

Perspectives from acquisition

 | Bogaziçi University
Published online: 14 June 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.175.09aks
Evidentiality marking is grammaticized in Turkish and closely aligns with the marking of epistemic notions. This paper addresses questions regarding the nature of evidentiality as a modal category, explores the functions of the evidential suffix -mIş/-(y)mIş for indicating information source and speaker stance, and considers its complementary distribution with the neutral past tense marker -DI and the epistemic suffix -DIr, providing empirical evidence from acquisition research. It concludes that evidentiality in Turkish is a modal category that is distinct from epistemic modality.
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