30.390, Confs: Tibetic; Typology/Germany

Wed Jan 23 22:06:46 UTC 2019

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-390. Wed Jan 23 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.390, Confs: Tibetic; Typology/Germany

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Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2019 17:06:17
From: Bettina Zeisler [zeis at uni-tuebingen.de]
Subject: International Workshop: 'Evidentiality' in Tibetic languages and Beyond – A Closer Look

International Workshop: 'Evidentiality' in Tibetic languages and Beyond – A Closer Look 

Date: 16-Feb-2019 - 17-Feb-2019 
Location: Tuebingen, Germany 
Contact: Bettina Zeisler 
Contact Email: zeis at uni-tuebingen.de 

Linguistic Field(s): Typology 

Subject Language(s): Gahri (bfu)
                     Ladakhi (lbj)
                     Persian, Iranian (pes)
                     Tajik (tgk)
                     Tibetan (bod)
                     Tibetan, Amdo (adx)
                     Wutunhua (wuh)

Language Family(ies): Chinese Subgroup; Tibetic; Western Himalayish; Western Iranian 
Meeting Description: 

Evidentiality is commonly described as the marking of the source of
information (firsthand vs. non-firsthand) or also as the discrimination
between direct knowledge through sense perception, on the one hand, and
indirect knowledge, namely inference and hearsay, on the other. The complex of
indirect knowledge has also been addressed in the French literature with the
term ‘médiative’.

The modern Tibetic languages are known to have developed a particular type of
‘evidential’ marking. The basic principles have been described for quite a few
of the Tibetic languages, see here the recent volume Evidential Systems of
Tibetan Languages, ed. by Lauren Gawne and Nathan W. Hill. (Trends in
Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] 302, De Gruyter Mouton, 2017) as
well as the earlier collection in Person and evidence in Himalayan languages,
ed. by Balthasar Bickel. (Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 23.1-2,
2000). One of the key features is the subjective involvement of the epistemic
source or ‘ego’ (the speaker in statements and the addressee in questions) in
the events reported. 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 ‘evidential system’ is far from being a
‘frozen’ grammatical system, but is extremely flexible, allowing, in
principle, 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/ hearsay) or the access channels
(self-centred knowledge, perception, and inferences), but also or even
predominantly with the subjective assessment of the situation and/or the
socio-pragmatic situation.

In this workshop, we want to discuss the ‘unsystematic’ aspects of this
‘system’. A closer look into the genesis of these systems (Zemp, Widmer) and
into the hierarchical structure of the markers (Tournadre) may help to explain
the idiosyncrasies. The subjective involvement of the epistemic source and the
pragmatic restrictions in the speech situation may define the attitude or
Stance the speaker is willing or allowed, and the addressee in questions is
expected, to take (Sandman, Oisel, Zeisler). We will also look at languages at
the periphery of the Tibeto-sphere, that is at languages that have been under
the influence of Tibetic languages (Sandman, Widmer). The contrast with the
closest ‘evidential’ neighbours, the Iranian languages (Pezechki), with their
mediative system will help to improve our understanding of the specificness of
the Tibetic system. As suitable for a workshop, there will be plenty time for
the presenters to develop their arguments and for discussions.

Abstracts will be posted soon on our workshop site.
Researchers and students interested in this research area are invited to join
the discussion. Please contact the workshop organiser Bettina Zeisler when you
want to join us.

Visti the website for more information: 

https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/philosophische-fakultaet/fachbereiche/aoi
/indologie-vgl-religionswissenschaft/mitarbeiter/bettina-zeisler/international
-workshop-16-17022019-evidentiality-a-closer-look-tibetic-languages-and-langua
ges-in-the-tibeto-sphere/

Program:

Saturday 16.2.2019

09:30-10:00: 
Introduction, Bettina Zeisler, Universität Tübingen

10:00-11:30: 
The genesis of evidentiality in Tibetan, Marius Zemp, Universität Bern

11:30-11:45: Coffee Break

11:45-13:15: 
The evolution of epistemic categories in Bunan, Manuel Widmer, Universität
Zürich

13:15-14:45: Lunch Break

14:45-16:15: 
Evidential accessibility hierarchies, Nicolas Tournadre Université
d'Aix-Marseille  

16:15-16:30: Coffee Break

16:30-18:00: 
Evidential categories in Iranian languages: The core categories of inferential
and hearsay, Homa Lessan Pezechki, Université d'Aix-Marseille

Sunday 17.2.2019:

09:00-10:30: 
Ego evidential -yek as a stance marker in Wutun: evidence from conversational
data, Erika Sandman, Helsingin Yliopisto (University of Helsinki) 

10:30-12:00: 
Negociating the facts: interactional functions of factual evidential markers
in Amdo-Tibetan, Camille SimonLacito/CNRS, Universität Heidelberg

12:00-12:15: Coffee Break

12:15-13:45: 
Evidential Freaks in Lhasa Tibetan – Redefining Evidentiality in Tibetic
Languages, Guillaume Oisel, Universidad Nacional Intercultural de la Amazonia,
Peru

13:45-15:00: Lunch Break

15:00-16:15:
Speaker Attitude (Stance) and other 'freaks' in the Ladakhi 'evidential'
system, Bettina Zeisler

16:15-16:30: Coffee Break

16:30-18:00 Further discussion

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