Evidentiality in Japanese: A Case of -te iru

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Other Title
  • 日本語のエビデンシャリティ : 「-ている」を事例に
  • ニホンゴ ノ エビデンシャリティ : 「-テ イル 」 オ ジレイ ニ

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This paper aims to show inseparability of evidentiality and tense-aspect markers in Japanese. When we make sentences, some source of information is essential. Some languages may have grammatical elements to indicate it, which are called “evidentiality” from the typological perspective. Recently, descriptive studies of evidentiality are growing in various languages. This paper examines several dimensions of -te iru from the viewpoint of evidentiality. It will be proposed that a speaker can use -te iru as an evidential (i.e., markers of evidentiality) if s/he has a certain information source at the moment of speaking. The main points of the discussion are as follows. Firstly, although -te iru does not correspond to a particular kind of information source, this can be used on the basis of various sources such are perceptual experience and recalling short or long-term memory. Secondly, in the cases where -te iru is actually used to denote future or past events, they are not acceptable if they lack any kind of evidence for the occurrence of the events. Thirdly, it will be pointed out that -te iru is a mirative marker (i.e., signals of speaker’s surprise or unprepared mind). Typological researchers have argued that evidentiality and mirativity are closely related and that evidentials may also have a mirative usage (e.g., Slobin and Aksu 1982, Aikhenvald 2004). Since -te iru is used as an evidential, it is typologically reasonable that this can be employed as the mirative marker.

Journal

  • 言語科学論集

    言語科学論集 23 1-18, 2017-12

    Department of Linguistic Science, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University

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