Evidentiality markers in Brazilian Portuguese

This paper is about evidentiality markers in Brazilian Portuguese. Portuguese does not have obligatory and grammaticalised evidentiality markers. From a geolinguistic perspective, however, the question arises as to whether contact with languages that have such markers has an influence on the nature...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Haßler, Gerda
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2021
Country:Brasil
Institution:Instituto de Língua Portuguesa do Liceu Literário Português
Repository:Confluência (Rio de Janeiro. Online)
Language:Portuguese
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.emnuvens.com.br:article/511
Online Access:https://revistaconfluencia.org.br/rc/article/view/511
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Evidentiality
markers
linguistic contact
grammaticalization.
Evidencialidade
marcadores
contacto linguístico
gramaticalização.alidade
gramaticalização
Description
Summary:This paper is about evidentiality markers in Brazilian Portuguese. Portuguese does not have obligatory and grammaticalised evidentiality markers. From a geolinguistic perspective, however, the question arises as to whether contact with languages that have such markers has an influence on the nature and frequency of the marking of evidentiality in Brazilian Portuguese. First, some expressions of evidentiality in indigenous languages on the territory of Brazil will be discussed. Then, some evidentiality markers, especially diz que and parece que, are presented and their functions are discussed. Many uses of these evidentiality markers do not allow for attribution to specific types of evidentiality. Overall, it can be concluded that contact with languages with grammaticalised evidentiality may have contributed to the high frequency of markers of evidentiality in Brazilian Portuguese, but has not led to borrowings of forms or to the greater delineation of types of evidentiality.