The linguistic term for this is evidentiality :)
The Witnessing System
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I saw? Someone told me they saw?
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 20 Feb 2017, 10:22.
[comments] aghgrammar This is a feature
EDIT - It's called evidentiality! Thanks Canonym (=´∀｀)人(´∀｀=)
Maybe it'll be best if I gave an example - In Piraha, there are these certain conjugations stemming from the infinitive, to see-
seen
someone told me they have seen
i've figured out there is ... which one can see
I was quite like a 12 year old when I heard this, because I thought that it was so cool. And conlanging is fun, so I decided to implement this as a feature in
Aghidi!| English | Aghidi Suffix |
|---|---|
| Someone told me they ... | ~as |
| Someone told me they ... (Something) and told me to tell everyone | ~asis |
| I've figured out with few/no assumptions there is ... | ~yt |
| I've figured out based on many assumptions that there is ... | ~ytax |
So, for the sentence - I saw a dog
It can be
- É hrałd en çełe - I saw a dog
- É hrałdas en çełe - I was told by someone that they saw a dog
- É hrałdasis en çełe - I was told by someone that they saw a dog and they told me to tell everyone
- É hrałdyt en çełe - I've figured out there is a dog to see based on few/no assumptions
- É hrałdytax en çełe - I've figured out there is a dog to see based on many assumptions/there might be a dog to see
This only really works for the word to see, but I suppose it can work for other sensory verbs, like to feel, to look (at), to hear
But there we go! This article will probably only be used by me for reference, but I hope you enjoyed ;) ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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