The Local Grammar Of Reported Evidentiality In English:A Corpus-based Approach

Evidentiality is a linguistic category which specifies the source of information,such as observation,inference,hearsay or pure belief,and meanwhile indicates the speaker's attitude toward his/her knowledge of a situation.A wide range of aspects of evidentiality(e.g.grammatical or lexical realizations,semantics,functions,the acquisition of evidentiality)have been investigated from varied approaches,including typology,cognitive linguistics,and pragmatics,yet few studies to date have probed into the lexicogrammatical patterns in relation to evidentiality and how is evidentiality used in different modes(written language vs.spoken language)and genres(e.g.academic prose,non-academic prose,fiction,news,etc.).The study extends the concept of local grammar to evidentiality in English,aiming to explore the possibility and feasibility of developing a set of local grammars to account for the lexicogrammatical patterns associated with evidentiality both grammatically and functionally,and demonstrating the features of the patterns across modes and genres.Special attention was paid to the verb reported evidentiality patterns.Using corpora compiled of instances associated with seven reported evidentials that are frequently used and semantically convergent,i.e.say,tell,ask,write,suggest,describe,and report,from different modes and genres in the British National Corpus(BNC),namely written language(including academic prose,non-academic prose,fiction,news)and spoken language,the present study assisted with both quantitative and qualitative analysis addresses three research questions:(1)What are the lexicogrammatical patterns associated with reported evidentials?(2)What do the local grammar patterns of reported evidentiality reveal about the instantiation of the meaning potential associated with reported evidentiality?(3)How are reported evidentials used in different modes/genres?First and foremost,data analyses suggest 7 functional categories and 19 basic local grammar patterns in total.Functional category labels,including Reported Speaker(RS),Reported Addressee(RA),Reported Evidential(RE),Hinge,Reported Information(RI),Manner,and Circumstance,were created to directly reflect the discourse functions of the formal elements.The local grammar patterns are described in terms of four factors:(1)whether the reported information is present or absent(overt vs.covert reported evidentiality);(2)whether the reported speaker is clearly stated or not(speaker-oriented vs.nonspeaker-oriented reported evidentiality);(3)whether an addressee is present or absent(targeted vs.untargeted reported evidentiality);(4)whether the information is presented in a verbatim or modified form(direct vs.indirect reported evidentiality).Each local grammar pattern specifies corresponding functions and meanings.Based on the frequency statistics,the present study identifies the canonical pattern of the local grammars of reported evidentiality: Pattern 9(“RS-RE-RI”).Then the results show that the local grammar patterns of reported evidentiality can be seen as the intermediate patterns along the instantiation cline of meaning potential associated with reported evidentiality which unites the formal organization of language and the functions together.The patterns reveal the instantiation through specifying the combinations of meanings and the commitment degree of the message.As regards the last research question,some local grammar patterns prove to be especially important for a given mode/genre while they are infrequently used in the other/another.Some patterns and functions may occur very commonly across all the corpora,but there are still differences.The study contributes to the research of evidentiality as well as local grammar,as it provides an alternative approach to model the framework of the evidential system and affirms that adopting the local grammar perspective facilitates the analyses of a specific language meaning or function.