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Article published In:
Interactional Linguistics
Vol. 2:1 (2022) ► pp.79–109

Egophoricity and evidentiality: Different categories, similar discourse functions

Insights on conversational data from the Tibetan Plateau and the Amazonian Foothills

| University of Helsinki
| University of Valencia | Stockholm University

This article discusses how evidential and egophoric making is used to manage knowledge in interaction. To this end, it analyzes interactional data from Wutun (mixed Sinitic, Northwest China) and Upper Napo Kichwa (Quechuan, Ecuador). Wutun has an egophoric marking system, which, according to the definition of egophoricity, encodes involvement/lack of involvement in the described event. Upper Napo Kichwa has a set of evidentials, which, according to theory, encode the source of evidence for a given proposition. The two languages are typologically unrelated. However, when we look closely at how speakers of Wutun and Kichwa use epistemic markers, we discover functional similarities not predicted by the dominant definitions of epistemicity and evidentiality. In both languages, the use of the markers is conditioned by the interpersonal context of the interaction, and speakers use egophoric and evidential marking to signal their epistemic rights and responsibilities with respect to other speech-act participants.

Keywords: epistemicity, Conversation Analysis, Kichwa, Wutun, stance
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Evidentiality and egophoricity
  • 3.Definitions of the relevant interactional concepts
  • 4.Egophoric marking and epistemic authority: The case study of Wutun
    • 4.1The paradigm of egophoric markers in Wutun
    • 4.2Interactional analysis of Wutun egophoric markers
  • 5.‘Evidentials’ as markers of epistemic authority: The case study of Upper Napo Kichwa
    • 5.1Meaning and interactional functions of UNK evidentials/epistemic markers
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Symbols used in transcripts
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 22 August 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/il.21014.san
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