semantics and pragmatics of evidentials in cuzco quechua

20 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION AND MAIN HYPOTHESES
to have authority over the information conveyed, that is, they should be able to relate
the current piece of information to other relevant pieces. Consider (11).
(11) a. Yunka-pi-n k’usillu-kuna-qa ka-n.
Rainforest-loc-mi monkey-pl-top be-3
p=‘In the rainforest, there are monkeys.’
ev= p is common cultural knowledge
b. Africa-pi-mi elefante-kuna-qa ka-n.
Africa-loc-mi elephant-pl-top be-3
p=‘In Africa, there are elephants.’
ev= speaker learned that p from an authority
Example (11a) is information that is known by any Quechua speaker, whether or not
they have actually been to the rainforest. Thus, -mi is licensed here because it is part
of general cultural knowledge. (11b) is something that a Quechua speaker might have
learned in school, and -mi is only felicitous if the speaker has in fact learned it from
an authority such as a teacher. Furthermore, the speaker should have authority over
this information in the sense that they should be able to expand on the topic, that
is, (s)he should be able to also say what kind of creatures monkeys and elephants
are, and that Africa is a continent. If a speaker was simply told (11b) by someone,
and the speaker has no idea that Africa is a continent, they will not pass on this
information with -mi, but will use the Reportative -si instead.
Factuality
The enclitic -mi cannot be used in a statement if the speaker doubts that the embedded
proposition is true—even if (s)he has the most direct source possible for the
described event. For example, if Pilar tells the speaker that she will go to Cuzco the
next day, but the speaker knows Pilar to be a person who easily changes her mind
about such things, (s)he will not use -mi. Even for direct perception it is possible
that the speaker doubts the truth of what his or her eyes tell him or her (for example
at a magician’s show), and in such cases -mi would also not be used. This has been
taken by some previous researchers as evidence for analyzing -mi as a marker of factuality
or as encoding a high degree of certainty—either exclusively, or in addition