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Paper short abstract:

This study explores evidentiality in Sakhalin Ainu (SA). Here I focus on evidentiality that expresses information source based on inference. Using a semantic-based approach, I propose a tentative analysis of SA inferential constructions, highlighting their interaction with the category of tense.

Paper long abstract:

This study investigates inferential evidentiality in Sakhalin Ainu (SA). Adopting a semantic-based approach, I propose a tentative organisation of SA’s inferentials according to their degree of source reliability. Furthermore, following approaches to event de-composition and telicity (Demonte and McNally, 2012), and referring to Reichenbach’s (1947) theory of tense, I argue that SA’s inferentials do not only concern information source, but also function as indicators of predicate tense reference.

Inferentiality is coded in SA via four sentence-final constructions: ruwehe ne/an, sirihi an, humihi an and hawehe an. Although preliminary analysis on these forms is present in previous literature (Murasaki, 1976), there has been no in-depth study on their use as evidentials.

(1) Cise Ø-or-o-wano pa Ø-numa ea ruwehe an.

house 3SG-place-POSS-from smoke 3SG.SUBJ-raise PRG EV.INF.INT

‘Smoke is raising up from the house.’ (Pilsudski, 1912:99)

(2) Nean tuhso Ø-or-o-wa Ø-asin sirihi an

that cave 3SG-place-from 3SG.SUBJ-come.out EV.INF.VS

manu.

EV.DIR.KNW

‘[A monster] seemed to come out of that cave.’ (Murasaki, 1976:96)

(3) Kanne Ø-san kotonno humihi an manu.

more 3SG.SUBJ-come.down.PC like EV.INF.FL EV.DIR.KNW

‘It sounded as if [the demon] came closer.’ (Pilsudski, 1912:203)

(4) Ta ohacisuye seta Ø-Ø-hum-pa hawehe an.

that empty.house.devil dog 3SG.SUBJ-3PL.OBJ-chop-PL EV.INF.HR

‘It sounded like that empty-house-devil crushed those dogs.’ (Pilsudski, 1912:79)

Separate forms to encode a same type of evidentiality, depending on different sensory stimuli, are typologically accounted for (Aikhenvald, 2004). However, the sensory stimuli on which SA’s inferential forms are based also subsume distinct degrees of source reliability. These degrees are determined by a hierarchy of senses, whose assumption seems to be confirmed by the co-occurrences of expressions of doubt or certainty with specific inferentials. Through discourse-context parsing, I show how the selection of inferential forms is ruled by the characteristics of the reported event and by the changing reliability of the available stimulus, through which the speaker can access it.

Evidentiality may interact with the category of tense (Aikhenvald, 2004). However, in SA evidentiality is not subjected to tense – rather, evidentiality defines tense. Specifically, the original semantics of the nouns that originated SA’s inferentials highlights the time reference of the predicate. The existential status of these nouns relates the moment when the event happens, and the moment of coding of said event through evidentiality, putting them into a simultaneous or antecedent temporal relation – this results in a past or present time reference (Reichenbach, 1947). Predicate telicity (Demonte and McNally, 2012) and perfectivity (Borik, 2004) also prove to influence this temporal relation, and are equally addressed.

This study represents a contribute to the ongoing debate on Ainu’s tense, but especially to the cross-linguistic speculation on evidentiality, aiming to improve our typological understanding of this category.