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Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 42:4 (2018) ► pp.923–966

From perfect to narrative tense

The development of an evidential meaning examined generally and in the Even language

| University of Helsinki | SIL International

2,500 years ago Pāṇini identified the Sanskrit perfect form as expressing a non-witnessed, and therefore, evidential meaning. Across languages, the perfect is still attested as one of the central verb forms acquiring meanings of information source. This paper investigates the development of the perfect meaning into evidential meanings from two vantage points: firstly, cross-linguistically, and, secondly, in the North-Tungusic language Even. The perfect meaning typically evolves into the evidential meaning of inference, a development which has been documented in two of the three main dialects of Even by Malchukov (2000). Inference is accompanied by a mirative interpretation in first-person contexts; the current study shows that this interpretation extends to second person. As is cross-linguistically common, in Even inference has evolved to a non-witnessed meaning. By losing its perfect “nature”, this use has crossed over to the domain of discourse to signal a narrative genre by functioning as a narrative tense.

Keywords: evidentiality, perfect, Even
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Evidentiality – historical background
    • 1.2Evidentiality as a category
    • 1.3Aims and methods of research
  • 2.Participle, perfect, and evidentiality
    • 2.1Sources of evidentials
    • 2.2From perfect to indirect evidential
    • 2.3From indirect evidential to narrative tense
    • 2.4The multifunctional perfect
  • 3.The Even people and the Even language
    • 3.1Tungusic languages
    • 3.2Even: The people and language
    • 3.3Typological characteristics of Even
  • 4.Evidential meanings expressed with verb forms in Even
  • 5.Perfect and evidential meanings in Even
    • 5.1Participle in Even
    • 5.2From participle to perfect
  • 6.Even perfect: Dialect-dependent semantics
    • 6.1Eastern dialect, resultative and other extensions of meaning
    • 6.2Western and central dialects and the functions of the perfect form
    • 6.3Co-occurrence of non-firsthand evidential and epistemic meanings
      • 6.3.1Concomitant epistemic probabilitive and non-firsthand evidential uses
      • 6.3.2First-person effect and mirativity
  • 7.Perfect as narrative tense
  • 8.Origin of functions and path of development of the Even perfect
    • 8.1Sakha contact
    • 8.2Path of the Even perfect
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 4 February 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.18031.gre
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