evidentiality (n.)

A term used in SEMANTICS for a type of EPISTEMIC MODALITY where PROPOSITIONS are asserted that are open to challenge by the hearer, and thus require justification. Evidential constructions express a speaker’s strength of commitment to a proposition in terms of the available evidence (rather than in terms of possibility or necessity). They add such nuances of meaning to a given sentence as ‘I saw it happen’, ‘I heard that it happened’, ‘I have seen evidence that it happened (though I wasn’t there)’, or ‘I have obtained information that it happened from someone else’. Tuyuca (Brazil) has a complex system of five evidentials; English, by contrast, has none, relying instead on judgements (propositions which are asserted with doubt, and for which challenge and evidence is irrelevant).