Re: What is "validationality"?

Thanks, David.

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, "David J. Peterson" <dedalvs@G...>
wrote:
> Tom wrote:
> <<
> In the table of contents of Thomas E. Payne's 1997 "Describing
> Morphosyntax:  a Guide for Field Linguists" under " 9  Other verb
and
> verb-phrase operations" we see "9.6  Evidentiality,
validationality,
> and mirativity".
>  >>
>
> I'm guessing you only have access to the table of contents, and
> not the book itself...?
Exactly so.  I have requested the book, but it has not come in yet.

> Because Payne says exactly what validational
> (or veridical) force is.  Specifically, he cites Weber 1986
(Information
> perspective, profile and patterns in Quechua.  In Evidentiality: the
> Linguistic Encoding of Epistemology, ed. by Wallace Chafe and
> Johanna Nichols, 137-55 New York: Ablex).  He summarizes saying
> that evidentiality is purely a marker indicating from whence the
> information came (i.e., the speaker saw it, the speaker heard it,
the
> speaker didn't hear it, etc.).
> Validationality, though, indicates how
> truthful or accurate the speaker believes the information to be--
> the degree of commitment the speaker is making to the assertion
> they make.
That's kind of what I guessed it meant.

Epistemology is the philosophical study of how to answer the question
"How can you be so sure?"

Looks like it divides into evidence -- the "how can ... ?" part --
and "veridical force" -- the "exactly /how/ sure are you, anyway?"
part.

But, in that case, what's the difference between validationality and
what's usually called "epistemic modality"?

> Payne identifies these as concepts, but doesn't assert
> they, for example, have distinct manifestations in languages.  So
> in Quechua even if a speaker knows what his mother's grandfather's
> name is (i.e., he's been told, everyone in the family verifies it,
he's
> seen records, etc.), he can't use the direct evidential marker.
>
> At this point, he continues talking about evidentiality, and the
> discussion of validationality ends.  So, I say check out Weber;
> looks like it's his idea.
Thanks.

Tom H.C. in MI

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