Re: Mood name?

Quoting daniel andreasson <danielandreasson@...>:

> Andreas Johansson wrote:
>
> > Anyway, I was looking for suggestions for a latinesque name for a
> > mood indicating that the speaker is merely relaying information
> > without making any claim as to its being true or not. It would
> > typically be used in indirect speech. I seem to recall that Quechua
> > has an infection indicating this. Any suggestions?
>
> It sounds much like an evidential of some kind. Though evidentials
> rather say how you came to know something (inference, hearsay,
> direct evidence - you actually saw it, or perhaps you heard it).
>
> This mood of yours sounds more like a veridical marker, telling
> something about the truth of the information (that you don't
> know if it's true :).
>
> Perhaps you can simply call this marker "veridical" if you don't
> have any other truth-marking particles? Or "validational"? Though
> neither of these say that you don't claim anything about the
> statement's truth. Perhaps "non-veridical" or "non-validational"? :)
I guess the question also depends on how the morphology
patterns.  In Phaleran, such veridicality can be marked in
one of two ways:  with the irrealis mood, which is fusional
with the person, number, and obviation features; or the
evidential suffixes themselves.  The two are mutually
distinct and mutually independent, and both realis/irrealis
and evidentials must be present in verb inflection. Compare:

  eioxeri:mtan
  eioxe-ri-:mta-n
  be-sober.INTR.3PlProgIr.Q [irrealis, quotative]
  "Though we're told we are sober"

  eioxeri:mtai
  eioxe-ri-:mta-i
  be-sober.INTR.3PlProgIr.S [irrealis, sensory]
  "Though I can tell we're sober"

  eioxeri:mtas
  eioxe-ri-:mta-s
  be-sober.INTR.3PlProgIr.C [irrealis, cognitive]
  "Though I know we're sober"

Here, the function of the irrealis is little more than
to subordinate one clause to another, while the evidential
suffixes carry quite distinct, and a more limited range of,
functions. In the case of Phaleran, then, veridicality is
a distinct category, and must be treated separately from mood.

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