Reportative and quotative marker in Atayal: The problem of source


2019. №4, 85-105

Irina M. Gorbunova
Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia;
ABBYY Production, Moscow, Russia; kmara63@gmail.com

Abstract:

The quotative index mha in Atayal has been analyzed by L. Huang as a grammaticalized speech verb. The typologically trivial path proposed for this grammaticalization process, however, seems to be inconsistent with Atayal data presented in this paper. There is evidence for mha being a predicate of generalized action and probably never having been a proper speech verb. Predicates of such generalized semantics also tend to evolve into quotative indexes, as can be seen in some African languages.

For citation:

Gorbunova I. M. Reportative and quotative marker in Atayal: The problem of source. Voprosy Jazykoznanija, 2019, 4: 85–105.

Acknowledgements:

This is a part of a bigger project funded by RFBR grant No. 16-06-00226.