International Workshop April 25-26, 2024
Ego-Evidentiality and the right(s) to know (better)
Short meeting description
The modern Tibetic languages are known to have developed quite a particular type of ‘evidential’ marking, their basic principles having beec described for quite a few of them. One of the key features is the subjective involvement of the epistemic origo (the speaker in statements, the addressee in questions, and the original speaker in reported speech) in the events relayed. The ‘system’ is thus also known under the key terms of ‘egophoricity’ and ‘conjunct/disjunct’, both concepts often mistaken for a somewhat weird syntactic person category (ego vs. non-ego).
However, at a closer look, the ‘system’ is extremely flexible, allowing, in principle, most if not all forms for all persons, albeit in different frequencies and for different motivations. It further does not only deal with the source of information (firsthand vs. second-hand) or the access channels (self-centred knowledge, perception, and inferences), but also or even predominantly with the subjective assessment of the situation and/or socio-pragmatic factors. These factors appear to be related to a speaker’s rights to treat a particular piece of knowledge as belonging to his or her ‘territory of information’; this also means that speaker-hearer (a)symmetries may play a crucial role. Apart from ‘epistemic rights’, other key words may be ‘empathy hierarchy’ and ‘engagement’.
The workshop aims at discussing the ‘unsystematic’ aspects of ‘ego’-evidentiality or participatory knowledge marking.
Preliminary Program
Thursday 25.04.2024 – Tibetic languages | ||
09:30-10:00 | Address of welcome and introduction | |
10:00-10:30 | Nicolas Tournadre | t.b.a. |
| break |
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10:45-11:30 | Hiroyuki Suzuki, | Towards shaping the egophoric category in Tibetic languages: Suggestions from the factual evidential expression emerging in Japanese |
11:30-12:15 | Rtamgrin Lhamo | Egophoricity of Minyag |
| lunch break |
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14:15-15:00 | Wang Jiahong | Distribution of egophoricity in Golog: An investigation of flexibility and inflexibility |
15:00-15:45 | Juha Yiliniemi | Flexibility of personal and neutral forms in Denjongke |
| break |
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16:00-17:30 | Discussion |
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Friday. 26.04.2024 – Tibetic and beyond | ||
09:45-10:00 | Introduction to the second part | |
10:00-10:30 | Ilana Mushin | t.b.a. |
| break |
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10:45-11:15 | Henrik Bergqvist | Revisiting the origo: a view from the Andes |
11:15-11:45 | Sh. Singh Shresta | Formality, status & egophoricity in Kathmandu Newār |
11:45-12:15 | Christian Huber | Egophoricity, evidentiality and modality in Shumcho/ Humcho |
| lunch break |
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14:15-15:00 | Zoe Tribur et al. | A preliminary account of “non-canonical” occurrences of epistemic markers in spontaneous speech data of Amdo Tibetan |
15:00-15:45 | Bettina Zeisler | A paradigm of pragmatic flexibility: the case of the Ladakhi dialects |
| break |
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16:00-17:30 | Discussion |
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