Open AccessAguaruna speculative clause: Evidentiality meets focus
Author(s) -
Benjamin Rozonoyer
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
proceedings of the linguistic society of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2473-8689
DOI - 10.3765/plsa.v5i1.4695
Subject(s) - evidentiality , focus (optics) , linguistics , semantics (computer science) , typology , phenomenon , computer science , history , epistemology , philosophy , physics , programming language , optics , archaeology
The speculative clause in Aguaruna presents us with two distinctive and interacting semantic phenomena – evidentiality and focus – both of which have been objects of recent interest cross-linguistically. Following the alternative semantics theory of focus developed by Rooth (1992), I analyze Aguaruna's alternating speculative focus enclitics, and incorporate the evidentiality-focus complex into a compositional semantics for Aguaruna. By formally modeling the interplay of evidentiality and focus, this analysis hopes to glean a more precise understanding of each phenomenon individually, and to contribute to a more complete typology of both.