evidentialitycan

Evidentialitycan is a proposed linguistic term describing a hypothetical single-marker system that encodes both evidentiality and modality of verifiability in a clause. The name combines evidentiality with the English modal verb can, signaling that the information is based on a particular source and is potentially checkable or verifiable.

In a theory of evidentialitycan, a single morpheme or clitic attached to the verb would encode both the source of information (direct perception, inference, reported speech, or hearsay) and the speaker's stance toward certainty (possible, probable, certain, or verifiable). The system could interact with tense, aspect, and mood, and may appear as affixes, clitics, or internal changes. Cross-linguistic predictions include a compact inventory of source categories paired with a scale of verifiability.

Example (hypothetical): 1st person singular, direct evidence with verifiability could be glossed as 1SG-DIRECT-EVCAN: I saw it and it can be checked. Similarly, 3PL-HEARSAY-PROVABLE-EVCAN would mean “They say X, and it is likely to be verifiable.” These are schematic illustrations used to show potential combinatorics, not attested sentences from any known language.

Status and reception: Evidentialitycan is a theoretical construct rather than a widely established category in the linguistic literature. As a proposed synthesis of evidentiality and modality, it faces critique about clarity, cross-linguistic validity, and empirical testability. It is discussed mainly in theoretical or pedagogical contexts for illustrating possible interactions between source and certainty markers.