Piraha (Re: VMs: Welsh/Cornish)

[Jacques Guy <jguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

27/01/2005 12:39:35 AM, Knox Mix <knoxmix@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>I read recently, and made a note:
>
>Pirahã uses evidentiality to connote the speaker's assessment of the 
>evidence for a statement.

I suppose that that means, in plain English: when you say something
you must necessarily express whether you know it by having seen
it yourself, or from having been told someone else (there may be
some more such "degrees of evidence", but I do not remember exactly).

>
>If I remember correctly (20 percent confidence) there are a few other 
>languages that do the same.

Quechua does it. And Aymara. Natural: they are related. I don't
know if Guarani does it too. I would not be surprised if it
did. 

The way in which they do it is similar to the way in which,
in English and in all European languages I can think of,
the grammar forces you to distinguish between singular and
plural, like it or not. Likewise, there is no way in which
you can say in Quechua "Pedro came back today" without making 
it clear whether you saw him yourself or you heard the news from
someone. On the other hand, nothing forces you to distinguish
between singular and plural.

 


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