The category of epistemic marking: A typological survey of knowledge and perspective in Trans-Himalayan languages

Abstract

Grammaticalised marking of epistemic meaning---that is meaning conditioned by the relationship between speech act participants and the information at hand---is widespread across the Trans-Himalayan language family, and more generally the Himalayan region. This thesis provides a typological overview of epistemic marking across the Trans-Himalayan language family by sampling previous literature and analysis on 68 languages across the family in terms of van Driem's (2014) Fallen Leaves model of the phylogeny of the family. In doing so, it develops a number of typological categories for the description of epistemic marking in terms of form and function in cross-linguistic terms, arguing that epistemic bases within a system can be meaningfully classified along a gradient with respect to the strength of claim over epistemic authority being made by the speaker. Specifically, this thesis argues for a functional supercategory of epistemic marking which extends epistemicity as described by Boye (2012) to include not only the functional categories of epistemic modality and evidentiality, but also egophoricity, mirativity, and engagement, and suggests that this marking, and in fact cooperative conversational in general, is inherently attentive to the perspectives of both speech act participants both in terms of relationships to the information at hand, as well as potentially in social terms. Finally, it compares the typological classifications of epistemic marking across the 68 languages sampled and extralinguistic factors to investigate the possible routes for the development of such a widespread epistemic marking sprachbund, finding that the diachronic development of epistemic marking across the Trans-Himalayan family appears to have spread areally rather than vertically from Proto-Trans-Himalayan, but that any solid conclusions regarding the exact nature of this diffusion are limited by a lack of contemporary knowledge surrounding the historical context of the languages.