Evidentiality in Rgyalthang Tibetan
This article analyses the evidential system in Rgyalthang, a Kham Tibetan dialect spoken in Shangri-la (Zhongdian) County, Diqin Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. Like Central Tibetan, evidentiality in this dialect is marked by two types of verbs: copulas and auxiliaries...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177913 |
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| Institution: | Nanyang Technological University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | This article analyses the evidential system in Rgyalthang, a Kham
Tibetan dialect spoken in Shangri-la (Zhongdian) County, Diqin
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. Like
Central Tibetan, evidentiality in this dialect is marked by two types
of verbs: copulas and auxiliaries. These verbs also function as
markers of tense-aspect and participant perspective. Rgyalthang
Tibetan shows a system of four-way evidentiality contrasts, namely
visual, non-visual, reported and quotative. Generally, the non-visual
evidential is used as the unmarked form indicating assumed
knowledge. There is no special inferred evidential in this dialect. To
indicate inferred evidence, speakers resort to modality as one of the
evidential strategies. Like many other Kham Tibetan dialects,
Rgyalthang marks mirativity by means of a special existential verb,
which is not attested in Central Tibetan. The article also discusses
data from Rgyalthang narratives, which are mainly evidentiality free.
In addition, it examines some evidential contrasts in other Kham
Tibetan dialects, particularly Bathang Tibetan. The paper concludes
with a discussion of the development of evidentials and miratives in
various dialects of Tibetan. |
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