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The semantics of certainty in Quechua and its implications for a cultural epistemology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2009

Janis B. Nuckolls
Janis B. Nuckolls
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405
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Abstract

This article contributes to attempts on the part of Quechua scholars to understand the evidential system of this language family, and thereby paves the way for a more complex understanding of Quechua speakers' language and culture. The author opposes the position that the most general meaning of the -mi suffix is to indicate a direct or first-hand experience; and she holds that specific claims about Quechua speakers' epistemological orientations, based on such an analysis, cannot be supported. Evidence from speakers' use of -mi indicates that it encodes two paradigmatic contrasts: one is status-like or modal, the other evidential. The patterning of -mi, including its use and nonuse in a variety of speech types, suggests that Quechua speakers from the Pastaza region of Ecuador do not share Euro-American concern for facts that transcend aesthetic and emotive significance. (Quechua language and culture, evidentiality, language in context, grammatical categories)

Type
Research Article
Information
Language in Society , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , June 1993 , pp. 235 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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