Evidentials
Verbal auxiliaries, affixes, adverbs, and particles that indicate evidentials.
-
direct evidence: the speaker claims to have witnessed the situation, but does not specify the type of sensory evidence.
-
visual evidence: the speaker claims to have seen the situation described.
-
auditory evidence: the speaker claims to have heard the situation described.
-
indirect evidence: the speaker claims not to have witnessed the situation, but does not specify further whether the evidence is reported or simply inferred.
-
reported evidence: the speaker claims to know of the situation described via verbal means, but does not specify whether it is second-hand, hearsay, or via folklore.
-
evidence from hearsay: the speaker claims to have heard about the situation described, but not from a direct witness.
-
evidence from folklore: the speaker claims that the situation described is part of established oral history (e.g., mythology).
-
inference from results: the speaker infers the situation described from the evidence at hand (i.e. from the observable results of the causing event/action.)
-
inference from reasoning: the speaker infers the situation described on the basis of intuition, logic, a dream, previous experience, or some other mental construct.