A multidimensional analysis of the Spanish reportative epistemic evidential dizque

On evidentiality in American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese

“…Overall, the application of this test suggests that dizque does have an epistemic meaning of possibility, as proposed in the previous literature; there is, however, ample variation that needs additional research. Note, in this regard, that my findings add more subtleties to what has been reported in previous research, for instance, Demonte & Fernández-Soriano (2022) indicate that sequences with dizque and posiblemente 'possibly' are possible in both orders, with a preference for dizque posiblemente. 6 (17) a.…”

“…In general, dizque appears in its two canonical positions in the examples to follow (according to the literature; see, e.g., Cruschina & Remberger 2008 for seminal work in this regard), i.e., in sentence-initial position and preceding the verb (the latter is regarded as a case involving topicalization of, e.g., the subject). The initial conclusion that can be drawn based on the evidence provided in what follows is that dizque would be located in the TP, as a mood adverbial (Demonte & Fernández-Soriano 2022), and moves into the CP area in an evidential projection (Cruschina & Remberger 2008; see also Cinque 1999). 3 The first examples that are discussed in this section involve declarative sentences with dizque in sentence-initial position and preceding the inflected verb (following the subject), as in ( 13)-( 16).…”

“…The next tests turn to the discussion of modal verbs, both in deontic and epistemic scenarios. Demonte & Fernández-Soriano (2022) claim that dizque may only appear in cases where the modal verb is deontic-these cases are to be understood in terms of a body of rules or laws that are followed. My findings do indicate that dizque may appear in such cases.…”

“…I further discuss the distribution of these evidentials in connection to whether they appear to combine with subclausal constituents (Travis 2006): in the Spanish varieties, this is possible; in Brazilian Portuguese, this is much more limited. As for the semantic and pragmatic properties, I discuss the types of evidence with which these evidentials are compatible, the at-issue vs. not-at-issue distinction and the doubt implication that sentences with these elements normally have (see Demonte & Fernández Soriano 2022; see also Brasoveanu & Farkas 2007;Bary & Maier 2021). It is worth pointing out from the outset that there is variation within and across varieties.…”

“…Based on such a theoretically informed methodology, I discuss the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties of these evidentials in an approach that allows to identify very nuanced distinctions. As for the syntactic properties, a key question lies in what the structural position of these elements is (Cruschina & Remberger 2008; see Demonte & Fernández Soriano 2022 for a recent overview). I suggest that the evidentials in these varieties share properties with modal and evidential adverbs-the use as an illocutionary evidential used to cite somebody else's words is, in general, disallowed in these varieties.…”