Evidential markers, mofifiers, sentence adverbials, predicates - another interface of pragmatics and semantics within syntax
Abstract
The article deals with the phenomenon of evidentiality in languages expressing evidential meanings lexically and in Czech, in particular. The so-called evidential markers are presented as a group with fuzzy limits, partly overlapping with epistemic modals (modal verbs muset, moci, mít, e.g.).
In Czech, the core of evidential markers is represented by particles/sentence adverbs with the ability to function as scoping (focusizing) expressions (očividně, slyšitelně, očekávatelně, logicky, předpokládatelně) and reportive particles (prý, údajně). Other expressions, e.g., sentence constructions with verbs of perception in the matrix sentence or with adjectives related to sentence adverbs express evidentiality as incorporated into prospositions or, with modal verbs, as context-bound (pragmatically anchored) interpretations.
In similar sentences, expressing evidentiality acquires properties of subsidiary illocutions.