Evidentials in Ryukyuan : the Shuri variety of Luchuan : a typological and theoretical study of grammatical evidentiality

Culture and Dialogue is an international peer-reviewed journal of cross-cultural philosophy and the arts that is published semi-annually both in print and electronically. The Journal seeks to encourage and promote research in the type of philosophy and theory that sees dialogue as a fundamental ingredient of cultural formations, that is to say the ways cultures become apparent and ultimately identifiable. Evidentiality, the linguistic category which marks the source of the speaker's information, has often been overlooked in studies of Luchuan (Ryukyuan), the only sister language of Japanese. In this book, Arakaki provides the first comprehensive analysis of Luchuan evidentials. She proposes that Luchuan has a grammatical evidential system which contains one Direct evidential and three indirect evidentials (Inference, Assumed, and Reportative). The discussion includes cross-linguistic issues such as how evidentiality is related to epistemic modality, with the intention that this work should constitute a contribution to the typological and theoretical study of evidentiality. This work will open new horizons for the study of evidentiality. This is the first comprehensive investigation of evidentials in Luchuan. Arakaki proposes that Luchuan has a grammatical evidential system, with one direct evidential and three indirect evidentials. Various cross-linguistic issues are discussed, opening new horizons for the study of evidentiality.