LINGUIST List 17.1333
Mon May 01 2006
Diss: Syntax: Bermúdez: 'Evidentiality. The linguist...'
Editor for this issue: Meredith Valant
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Directory
1. Fernando
Bermúdez,
Evidentiality. The linguistic code of point-of-view
Message 1: Evidentiality. The linguistic code of point-of-view
Date: 30-Apr-2006
From: Fernando Bermúdez <fernando.bermudezmdh.se>
Subject: Evidentiality. The linguistic code of point-of-view
Institution: Stockholm University
Program: Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2006
Author: Fernando Bermúdez
Dissertation Title: Evidentiality. The linguistic code of point-of-view
Dissertation URL: www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocument?urn_nbn_se_su_diva-806-2__fulltext.pdf
Linguistic Field(s):
Syntax
Subject Language(s): Spanish (spa)
Dissertation Director:
Lars Fant
Dissertation Abstract:
This work investigates into the semantic domain of evidentiality and itsgrammatical expression in Spanish. A model for describing the evidentialitydomain is outlined, which emphasises the scalar nature of the proposedparameters: information source (subject-internal <--> external), access toinformation (exclusive <--> universal) and mode of access (sensory <-->cognitive), all of which are construed as bipolar continua. Support is alsoprovided for the relevance of using the notions of deixis and perspectivein describing evidentiality.
The prevailing view in current research is that of evidentiality being agrammatical category to be analysed separately from other evidentialstrategies. The present study challenges this view as it attempts tobroaden the perspective on how evidential meanings, expressed by variousgrammatical means, fit into an overall picture of human cognition andcommunication patterns. The theoretical framework adopted is that ofCognitive Grammar, which, it is argued, is particularly suited forinvestigating evidentiality, in particular due to the central role given toperspective, metaphor and category fuzziness in describing grammar andgrammatical structures.
Four articles constitute the body of this work, in which four differentprototypical aspects of the encoding of evidentiality into grammaticaldevices in Spanish are addressed. In the first, the marking of commonknowledge in consecutive connectives is argued to depend on a perspectiveshift; the second proposes the evidential values of tense morphemes to betheir core meaning, time deixis being an inference; in the third and theforth it is claimed that the evidential and modal effects of bothsubject-raising and clitic climbing are determined through the attributionof varying degrees of prominence to the relational participants.
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