The Mamaindê Tense/Evidentiality System

Abstract

This paper describes the extensive tense/evidentiality system of Mamaindê, a northern Nambikwara language of Brazil. This morphological system performs a dual function in Mamaindê, that of marking tense as well as indicating information source. First, each of the six evidentials are discussed in detail, followed by a section on the use of evidentials as ‘extensions’ with secondary semantic properties. After comments regarding the possible origins of this particular morphological category, a comparative section highlights the similarities and differences between the various evidential systems discovered thus far in the Nambikwara family, as well as some parallels with evidentiality within other Amazonian languages. The systems most similar to Mamaindê are those found in Lakondê, a northern Nambikwara language ( Telles & Wetzels 2006 ), Tariana, an Arawak language ( Aikhenvald 2004 : 60) and Tuyuca, East Tucanoan ( Payne 1997 : 256–7). The paper closes with a short commentary on the possible connections between Mamaindê evidentials and Mamaindê culture. The overall result of this research is a comprehensive presentation of the Mamaindê evidential system, and an assessment of how it fits into a cross-linguistic picture of evidentiality.

General knowledge as an evidential category

“…This is formally manifest, for example, in Turkish, where the non-firsthand evidential no longer appears with reported information, when the given piece of information has become a part of the speaker's general knowledge (Aksu-Koç and Slobin 1986). Similar cases have been reported, e. g. for Yukaghir (Maslova 2003: 229) and Mamainde (Eberhard 2012). As noted above, the speaker has subjective certainty of his/her general knowledge.…”

Tensed evidentials: A typological study

“…(and I know this because both he and his axe are gone) (Eberhard 2012: 146) Fleck (2007 analyses the relation between tense and inferentials in Matses as having several components: the event itself, the detection of the result of the event on which the inference is based, and the reporting of the evidence (Fleck 2007). These take place at subsequent points in time.…”

Non-Witnessed Evidentiality in Tuparí and its Connection to Resultative Constructions in the Perfect Aspect

“…Particularly famous cases come from northwest Amazonia, where the elaborate systems of the Eastern Tukanoan languages (Barnes 1984(Barnes , 1999Stenzel 2008;Stenzel and Gómez-Imbert 2018) and of their non-Tukanoan neighbors (Aikhenvald 2003;Epps 2005) are found. Complex evidential systems occur in other lowland South American families, as well, including Panoan (Valenzuela 2003;Fleck 2007;Munro et al 2012) and Nambikwaran (Kroeker 2001;Telles and Wetzels 2006;Eberhard 2012Eberhard , 2018. Evidentiality in many Tupían languages, meanwhile, remains little described, even though Tupían is one of South America's largest families both in terms of geographic dispersion and sheer number of languages (Urban 1996;Vander Velden 2010;Rodrigues and Cabral 2012;Eriksen and Galucio 2014).…”