ALS 2010 Annual Conference Programme - Australian Linguistic ...

Clendon
Mark Clendon
ellentreow@internode.on.net
Evidentiality in Worrorra
Evidentiality in Worrorra is part of the meaning of a verbal form-class I will call
Inferential. Inferential verbs constitute a distinct mood, analogous to indicative,
optative and counterfactual.
MOOD FUNCTION
Indicative actualized events
Optative projected events
Inferential averted events
Counterfactual unactualized events
These four moods show varying degrees of event actualization or reality status,
from indicative, in which events happen (realis), to counterfactual, in which events
do not happen (irrealis). In between are two more irrealis moods; optative, in
which an event does not happen but is expected to happen at some future time,
and inferential, in which an event does not happen although it nearly happened
(avertive reality status). This set defines a scale of actualization, from indicative
through optative and inferential to counterfactual. The semantics of avertive
modality involve irrealis meanings well suited to framing inferential logic, including
hypothesizing. Mid-way between non-actualization and projection, logical
inference is grounded in the preconditions for event actualization.
Inferential verbs may convey irrealis meanings, but they are in many ways the
opposite of counterfactual irrealis verbs: they may be used to affirm or assert a
proposition’s validity on the basis of evidence. One of the most intriguing features
of this morphology is the wide range of uses to which it is put; inferential
verbs are found in three quite distinct functions. In modal use they signal avertive
reality-status, and a root-modal frustrative mood. In evidential use they index a
source of evidence for an utterance’s propositional content. And in their syntactic
role they signal that the clause they head is subordinate to another, matrix,
constituent. These three ultimately quite distinct functions are united by a common
formal means of expression.
Four kinds of evidential meaning may be distinguished:
Non-firsthand: (i) antecedent general knowledge
(ii) inference from stated antecedents
Firsthand: (iii) immediately apparent evidence
(iv) mirativity