Evidence from Evidentials

Broadly speaking, evidentiality is the expression of the source of evidence for a proposition. The papers in this volume undertake analyses which focus on different aspects of the syntax, the semantics and the pragmatics of evidentiality. The languages under investigation include Plains Cree (Cohen et al.), English (Remberger, Gilmour et al.), German (Remberger, Schenner), Gitksan (Littell et al., Peterson), Japanese (Cheung et al., McCready), St’át’imcets (Littell et al.), Quechua (McCready), Russian (Steriopolo), Tagalog (Schwager, Cohen et al.), Thompson (Littell et al.), Turkish (Peterson, Stott et al.), and Yorùbá (Brown). The collection of papers in the present volume represents the convergence of two research communities who had the common goal of exploring the formal basis of evidentiality. In fall 2007, a research seminar focusing on the cross-linguistic typology of evidentials was held at UBC organized by Rose-Marie Dechaine. In spring 2008, GLOW hosted a workshop at the University of Newcastle on the semantics of evidentials organized by Uli Introduction 5 Sauerland. The broad goal of the workshop was to understand and explain what kind of category “evidentiality” is. This volume presents a selection of papers from both the seminar and the workshop.