Forest Nenets Evidential -mæ: Evidence Contra Double Scope
Forest Nenets Evidential -mæ: Evidence Contra Double Scope

Summary/Abstract: Nenets indirect evidential suffix -mi / -mæ is in most cases phonologically indistinguishable from the past participle suffix -mi / mæ. It has been reported that the -mæ element may occupy two morphological slots, either preceding the suffix -λ°xa / -rəxa or following it [Burkova 2010; Burkova 2022]. The precise semantic interpretation of the two orderings has received mixed characterizations. In this paper I present novel empirical data from Forest Nenets regarding the semantic properties of -mæ, its temporal interpretations and possible adjunction site. The epistemic marker -λ°xa is homonymous with the similative marker -λ°xa, which attaches to nominals. The V-mæ-λ°xa ordering was previously described both as an epistemic-evidential construction and as a past tense participle bearing similative marking (approximately paraphrased as ‘Like the one who V-ed’). Using targeted semantic elicitation, I show that V-mæ-λ°xa lacks both evidential and epistemic meanings. I argue that both semantic and morphosyntactic properties of the V-mæ-λ°xa construction indicate that it consists of a past tense participle and a similative marker. Consequently, it makes no claim towards the truth of the embedded proposition. Unlike constructions with evidential -mæ, V-mæ-λ°xa restricts the temporal localization of its prejacent to events in the past. Its agreement patterns are also characteristic of nominal rather than verbal predication. Overall, the data indicates that a supposed reverse ordering of epistemic and evidential morphemes is, in fact, a similative construction made up of distinct homonymous morphemes.

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