evidentials

Evidentials are grammatical markers that encode the source or reliability of the information a speaker presents about a proposition. They indicate how the speaker came to know something, rather than just how certain the speaker is about it. In many languages, evidentials are integrated into the verb or used as separate words or clitics, and they can be mandatory or optional.

Typical categories of evidentials include direct or sensory evidence (information obtained through the speaker’s senses, such as seeing or hearing), and non-direct forms such as inferential evidence (concluded from evidence other than direct perception) and reportative or quotative evidence (information reported from others). Some systems also distinguish non-visual evidentials, reducing the likelihood that the speaker personally witnessed the event. The cross-linguistic inventory of evidentials is diverse: languages may have one or several evidential markers and may distinguish how the information was acquired, the degree of certainty, or its source.

Evidentials can be realized as affixes to verbs, as separate particles, or as independent words, and their use can affect narrative structure and discourse strategy. In many languages, evidential systems interact with mood and aspect and can constrain what speakers can claim in conversation. They are a central topic in typology and historical linguistics, illustrating how languages encode epistemic and evidential information differently across communities.

See also evidentiality, epistemic modality, hearsay.