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Article In:
Concentric
Vol. 51:1 (2025) ► pp.121–144

Assessing hierarchical categories of evidentiality in Chinese in terms of readers’ certainty levels

ORCID logo | National Chengchi University
This study examines whether knowledge encoded in evidential categories is perceived differently by readers with varying levels of certainty. A questionnaire with a five-point scale was conducted to collect readers’ judgments about events introduced by evidential markers in Chinese. The evidential markers were manually categorized into categories, and inter-rater agreement was calculated. The findings reveal two hierarchies in terms of readers’ degree of certainty in judging the veracity of the knowledge: visual > hearsay and inference > quotative > hearsay. Additionally, three factors were observed to influence readers’ judgments about events: (a) whether a detailed event depiction is provided, (b) whether knowledge of an event is provided by more than one source, and (c) whether knowledge of an event has a close relationship with readers’ political standpoints or personal societal beliefs.
Keywords: evidentiality, evidential category, readers’ certainty levels, encoded knowledge, evidential hierarchy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1The hierarchical categorization of evidentiality
    • 2.2The scale of certainty levels
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Annotation of evidential categories
    • 3.2Collection of readers’ judgments
    • 3.3Procedure for data analysis
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1The visual category
    • 5.2The inference category
    • 5.3The quotative category
    • 5.4The hearsay category
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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