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Re: Mood name?

From:Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Date:Sunday, June 15, 2003, 4:24
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. ========================================================================= Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally, Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of 1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter. Chicago, IL 60637