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Article published In:
Diachronica
Vol. 39:2 (2022) ► pp.268–309

Evidentiality in Selibu

A contact-induced emergence

ORCID logo | Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
ORCID logo | Fudan University

Selibu is a Mandarin-Khams Tibetan mixed language with about 900 native speakers in northwest Yunnan, People’s Republic of China. As a Form-Semantics mixed language, it derives most of its lexicon and grammatical morphemes from Southwest Mandarin and borrows its morphosyntactic and semantic structure from Alangu Tibetan. This article examines the contact-induced emergence of a five-category complex evidential system in Selibu with a detailed comparison with its source system in the model language, Alangu Tibetan. Our discussion focuses on the hybrid features of Selibu evidentiality in both forms and functions and also on its structural formation, which does not represent a Form-Semantics mixed type in this particular domain.

Keywords: Selibu, Alangu Tibetan, evidentiality, language contact, borrowing, Form-Semantics mixed language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Evidentiality in Sino-Tibetan
    • 1.2Selibu and its contact situation
    • 1.3Theoretical framework and methodology
  • 2.Egophoric evidential
  • 3.Statemental evidential
  • 4.Sensory evidential
  • 5.Inferential evidential
  • 6.Reported evidential
  • 7.Discussion: Selibu evidentiality as a hybrid system
    • 7.1Formal hybridity
    • 7.2Expansion and loss
    • 7.3Hybridity in aspecto-evidential marking
    • 7.4Typological implications
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 10 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.19055.zho
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