Keywords

Quechua, linguistics, Deictic Selves

Abstract

This article clarifies the perspectival, deictic nature of evidentiality in Pastaza Quichua, a dialect of Quechua spoken in Amazonian Ecuador. I examine the discourse patterning of what have been called the direct and in direct experience morphemes and argue that a source-based characterization of these morphemes cannot be supported by the data. Using insights from liana Mushin's notion of epistemological stance, I outline the Quechua evidential system, identifying perspectives that may be divided into three main categories: the speaking self of a speech event, the speaking self of a narrated event, and a variety of stances that may categorized by a quality of "otherness."

Original Publication Citation

“Deictic selves and others in Pastaza Quichua utterances” Anthropological Linguistics, volume 50, number 1.