Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how statements of certainty and uncertainty may be combined in specific discourses -prophecies among the contemporary Yucatec Mayas-, and the relations between (un)certainty and temporal domains. It articulates linguistic, pragmatic and anthropological analyses.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores different ways in which statements of certainty and uncertainty may be combined in specific discourses, as well as the relationship between (un)certainty and temporal domains, especially the future. The analysis focuses on gnomic-like assertions - prophecies among the contemporary Mayas -; it studies the means used by Mayan speakers to subtly nuance or qualify such statements, and the pragmatic, cultural and historical reasons which motivate these discursive strategies.

The Yucatec Mayas have a long tradition of prophetic discourse, which is part of their conception of history, commonly discussed, often invoked for the interpretation of collective events and decisions concerning social action.

This tradition was revitalized and took on special religious and political importance among a sub-group of Yucatec Mayas, known as the Cruso'ob, in the middle of the 19th century, with the continuous creation of a corpus of prophecies, understood as quotations of divine speech acts. This also led to the emergence of a prospective marker (bíin) specialized for the reference to prophetic events, and more generally to predetermined and irrevocable events, outside the control of human contingencies, a future of certainty.

However, the mention of prophecies is usually accompanied by marks of uncertainty, or non assertion (including the modalizer wa'le and various reportatives). This linguistic markers index different stances with respect to the legitimacy and authority of speakers and utterers, the ability to interpret the present. They ground the constitution and negotiation of the historical knowledge of the past and the future, as well as the interplay of social identities which are intimately related to it among the Cruso'ob Mayas.