Epistemic modality and evidentiality. Issues and proposal

Abstract

After several decades of research on epistemic modality and evidentiality, a problem still present in the literature is that there is no consensus on how to define these two categories as linguistic phenomena and, consequently, the terms epistemic modality and evidentiality are used to refer to the divergent linguistic realities by each researcher. This paper aims to clarify the conceptual and terminological confusions that persist regarding epistemic modality and evidentiality through a crosslinguistic reflection based on a general review of previous proposals and empirical data documented in different languages. It will be also questioned the categorization of evidentiality as modal category and it will be proposed considering it as an attitudinal category jointly with the epistemic modality. This paper will provide a general theoretical basis of the categories in question for their application to particular languages.