Factual vs. evidential? The past tense forms of spoken Khalkha Mongolian

Abstract

Past tense forms of spoken Khalkha Mongolian distinguish between established (-sang) and non-established knowledge, which is then either based on direct (-laa) or indirect (-jee) evidence. Time of acquisition thus determines whether information source is marked, though vivid recollection (-laa) and deferred realization (-jee) overrule it. Conversely, attempted recollection in questions (-l=uu) doesn't presuppose sensory perception. A fourth suffix (-v) is used if well-established events still surprise the speaker. These suffixes may also be used in a discontinuous fashion to refer to the future and then modally qualify predictions as inevitable (-sang), apprehended [but preventable] (-v), based on sensory evidence (-laa) or inferred (-jee). The distinction between unsourced -sang and sourced -laa/-jee is thus not about factual stance, but codes the extent to which information is consolidated in memory. for comments on the draft of this chapter, to all my informants for their enormous contribution, and to all who supported me during this stay and later on. My research was financed by Stockholm University as my employer and the Sven och Dagmar Saléns stiftelse who funded my 7-month stay as a visiting researcher at the National University of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar with 53270 SEK.

Evidentiality

“…For example, some languages have specialized constructions or markers that indicate personal knowledge of a specifically passive or internal nature (e.g., feeling pain), sometimes called endopathic or endophoric evidentials (e.g., Tournadre 1996, Plungian 2001, Widmer 2014, Norcliffe 2018. We also find factual, general knowledge or common knowledge evidentials (e.g., Skribnik & Seesing 2014, Brosig 2018. These categories point to the fact that we do not exclusively experience the world as a series of isolated and discrete events, each derived from a single informative moment.…”

Don’t believe in a paradigm that you haven’t manipulated yourself! – Evidentiality, speaker attitude, and admirativity in Ladakhi

“…Some Mongolian, Turkic, and Sinitic languages of the Amdo Sprachbund adopted the Tibetic system (Georg 2001, Sandmann & Simon 2016 with further references, Fried 2018). Even Khalkha Mongolian seems to have developed towards a Tibetic system, Brosig (2018). 'Participatory' knowledge as a separate category has been described for a few other languages, such as the New Guinea Highlands languages Oksapmin, Foe, and Fasu (San Roque & Loughnane 2012, see also Floyd, Norcliffe, & San Roque 2018).…”

Expressing intent, imminence and ire by attributing speech/thought in Mongolian

“…'Time of acquisition' relates to whether the speaker just learned about the event that she refers to or knew about it beforehand (seeBrosig 2018). 2 Informants reject ge-ed in this particular context, while e.g.…”