Modern Uyghur evidentials in interrogative sentences

Abstract

Modern Uyghur has five terms for evidentiality in declarative sentences: direct, inferred-perceptive, inferential-assumptive, reportative, and quotative. The direct evidential is primarily expressed through markers of viewpoint aspect, while the remaining four terms are expressed through evidential markers and a combination of evidential markers with evidential strategies. Although most evidentials occur in interrogative sentences, not all of them do. In contrast to declarative sentences, certain evidentials are not utilized to convey evidentiality in interrogative sentences. Some of these evidentials are not present in questions when they are employed to describe the speaker’s actions, emotions, and physical condition. In interrogative sentences in Modern Uyghur, the source of information can be either the addressee or someone else. The speaker may provide information obtained through personal observation or from a third party, seeking the addressee’s expertise. Some evidential markers serve only to confirm information, and some questions may simply be a polite repetition of the addressee’s information.