Evidentiality in the Samoyedic languages: A study of the auditive forms

Abstract

In the Samoyedic languages non-visuality is marked by the affixes of a specific Auditive mood that is explored in this paper from paradigmatic and syntagmatic perspectives. The focus is on various usages of the Auditive in its paradigmatic meaning, as well as on correlation of the meaning of this mood with the semantic properties of the predicates it marks. The work also examines the emergence of the Auditive in the functional sphere of other moods, the use of other moods as functional equivalents of the Auditive, and the semantic grounds for these transpositions.