epistemic modality and evidentiality in brazilian portuguese

[Juliano Desiderato Antonio]

Hi all.
I have a doubt about items like "eu acho que..." (I think that...), "é óbvio que..." (it's obvious that...". It seems to me that these items are markers of epistemic modality, but there are papers which treat them as evidentiality markers because they might present an inference of the speaker.

. é óbvio que não tem colesterol,
. porque é de origem vegetal.

(... it's obvious that it does not contain cholesterol
. because it comes from plant.)

. eu acho que o deficiente mental sofre muito preconceito,

(... I think that mentally disabled people go through a lot of prejudice)

I'd like to know if it is possible to consider these items only epistemic modality markers.

Thanks.

Juliano

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