Expanding the Boundaries of Epistemicity

Overview & Synopsis

This volume posits that evidentials and other types of epistemic marking (i.e. epistemics) are deictic forms, indexing knowledge representation and attribution, and need to be analysed in context. The volume adopts an interaction- and discourse-based perspective to the study of meaning and distribution of epistemics in a varied sample of languages. Its primary aim is to further our understanding of epistemics by addressing three main analytical challenges: (1) the context-sensitivity of epistemic forms, (2) comparability of forms and systems across languages, and (3) linking data-driven analyses of epistemics focusing on interaction and discourse to traditional analyses of similar forms.