Evidentiality [Paperback]

In a number of languages, scattered across the world, every statement must contain a specification of the type of evidence on which it is based--whether the speaker saw it, or heard it, or inferred it from indirect evidence, or learnt it from somebody else. Of interest to any grammarian, the book discusses evidentiality, and the cognitive and sociolinguistic consequences of evidentiality in a language.

1. Preliminaries and Key Concepts
2. Evidentials World-wide
3. How to Mark Information Source
4. Evidential Extensions of Non-evidential Categories
5. Evidentials and Their Meanings
6. Evidentiality and Mirativity
7. Whose Evidence is that? Evidentials and Person
8. Evidentials and Other Grammatical Categories
9. Evidentials: Where do they come from?
10. How to Choose the Correct Evidential: Evidentiality in Discourse and in Lexicon
11. What are Evidentials Good for? Evidentiality, Cognition and Cultural Knowledge
12. What can we Conclude; Summary and Prospects
Fieldworker's Guide. How to gather materials on evidentiality systmes
Glossary of Terms
References
Index of Languages
Index of Authors
Subject Index

This book is well written and well-structured. Aikhenvald's monograph provides an excellent state of the art and a most interesting basis for further investigation. The extensive bibliography and the fieldworker's guide on 'how to gather materials on evidentiality systems' are highly appreciated also. The monograph is essential for anyone who wishes to study evidentiality in depth and crosslinguistically. It is hereby highly recommended. --Language

The most important current resource for anyone interested in the nature and typology of evidentials, that is, morphemes indicating the information source or type of evidence that the speaker has for the truth of a sentence. --Lingua

Alexandra Aikhenvaldis Professor of Linguistics The Cairns Instl#z