Evidentiality, epistemic modality, and speaker attitude in Ladakhi - Modality and the interface for semantics, pragmatics, and grammar

• Applicant: Dr. Bettina Zeisler
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages ; Asian Studies ; Individual Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
• Term: from 2015 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 282920869

Ladakhi is a Tibetic language, spoken in North India (Jammu & Kashmir). It consists of two major dialect groups, which differ considerably in their grammar. With respect to the object ofinvestigation, they show similar principles, but differ substantially in details. The Tibetic languages and a few other Tibeto-Burman languages have a particular system of evidential marking through auxiliary verbs, which is not fully taken into account in the crosslinguisticdiscussion, most probably, because it is not yet fully analysed. Crosslinguistically, one discriminates between direct and indirect sources of knowledge. The former consist of the immediate or direct observation of situations of others. Statements concerning this domain automatically have a high truthvalue. Participatory Knowledge or self-awareness with respect to one's own actions is usually not accounted for. Indirect knowledge consists of hearsay and inferences. Both may, but need not, go along with connotations of a decreased truthvalue. In the Tibetic languages, however, the main opposition is between situations the speaker can assert with authority and merely observed situations, for which the speaker cannot, does not want to, or is not allowed to assume authority. The system is highly flexible, and the choice of auxiliaries is pragmatically conditioned. The Project aims at the adequate description of the complex grammatical System of evidential and in the widest sense epistemic markers used in the Ladakhi dialects on the base of a qualitative investigation of as many dialects as possible from all dialect regions. The project will contribute to research into the semantic, pragmatic, and grammatical interface in the domain of modality. It will lead to a more precise Differentiation between evidentiality and epistemic modality, and will further establish speaker attitude (or stance) as an independent perspectivisation or profiling of statements. It will thus contribute to a better understanding of evidentiality and speaker attitude as grammatical categories as well as a better understanding of evidential and attitudinal strategies, that is, secondary usages of modal verbs and particles. At the same time, the project aims at the documentation of a, in the long run, endangered and until now not yet well-studied language.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants