semantics and pragmatics of evidentials in cuzco quechua

Chapter 3
Evidentiality and epistemic
modality
3.1 Introduction
In addition to defining the principles that structure a typological category such as
evidentiality internally, typological theory is also concerned with delimiting these categories
against each other. Since evidentiality was recognized only relatively recently
as a grammatical category, its boundaries are still a matter of ongoing research, especially
with respect to the somewhat more firmly established category of modality.
In this chapter, I argue that evidentiality deserves category status, and should not be
subsumed under modality.
As Dendale and Tasmowski (2001) observe, most researchers would agree that
there is a conceptual difference between indicating the type of one’s source of information
and indicating one’s judgment as to how likely it is that that information is
true. It is equally clear that one’s judgment of the truth of a proposition is at least
in part influenced by one’s source of information. Thus, for Frajzyngier (1995) “it
appears rather obvious that the different manners of acquiring knowledge correspond
to different degrees of certainty about the truth of the proposition.” It is therefore
reasonable to say that there is a close relationship between the two concepts. What
is not so clear is the nature of this relation, and how it manifests itself linguistically.
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