West Greenlandic evidentiality #
West Greenlandic codes information source in scattered fashion: evidential meanings are carried by derivational suffixes that stand in opposition to suffixes unrelated to information source, by an enclitic and by a particle, and they form no single paradigm. Aikhenvald, after Fortescue, counts three synonymous reported evidentials, the sentential suffix -nirar-, the enclitic -guuq and the particle unnia, which the inventory records. WALS codes the language as having indirect evidentials only.
TODO #
The sentential suffixes -gunar- 'it seems that' and -sima- 'apparently', and the non-sentential suffixes for what one can hear and what something looks or sounds like, await Fortescue's description of which sources each covers.
References #
The sentential suffix -nirar- 'say that someone or something verbs', the one reported evidential without an epistemic overtone.
Equations
- WestGreenlandic.Evidentiality.nirar = { morphs := [Morphology.Morph.suff "nirar"], covers := {Evidential.Parameter.hearsay, Evidential.Parameter.quotative} }
Instances For
The enclitic -guuq, whose reports suggest displaced responsibility rather than doubt.
Equations
- WestGreenlandic.Evidentiality.guuq = { morphs := [Morphology.Morph.encl "guuq"], covers := {Evidential.Parameter.hearsay, Evidential.Parameter.quotative} }
Instances For
The particle unnia, from the verb stem unnir- 'say (that)', with a gossipy and mirative flavour.
Equations
- WestGreenlandic.Evidentiality.unnia = { morphs := [Morphology.Morph.free "unnia"], covers := {Evidential.Parameter.hearsay, Evidential.Parameter.quotative} }
Instances For
The reported evidentials.