Abstract
The Nuosu future clitic encodes future time reference but exhibits a "firstperson" constraint that is reminiscent of evidential markers. We argue in support of the tense hypothesis but demonstrate with pan-Yi data that the evidential constraint is historically inherited from a quotation clitic which in turn can be traced back to a verb of speech (SAY). Several Yi languages display SAY-future tenses like Nuosu. Still other Yi languages derive future tense from the diachronic sources of WANT, FOLLOW and (probably) GET.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 167-192 |
| Journal | Language and Linguistics |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2013 |
Research Keywords
- Evidential
- Future tense
- Nuosu
- Yi