The embedding puzzle: Constraints on evidentials in complement clauses

Natasha Korotkova

Abstract: Languages vary in whether evidentials can appear in attitudinal complements. In some languages, e.g. Georgian (South Caucasian; Boeder 2000), syntactic embedding of evidentials is possible, while in some others, e.g. Abkhaz (Northwest Caucasian; Chirikba 2003), it is not. The semantic literature largely views the variation in embeddability of evidentials as evidence for the semantic heterogeneity of evidentiality as a category. I show that even though (non-)embeddability is a matter of cross-linguistic variation, it is not a case of genuine semantic variation in evidentiality. Drawing on data from Turkish, where evidentials can appear in tensed but not in nominalized complements, I propose that restrictions on embedding of evidentials are due to the syntax of clausal complementation. I put forth the following generalization: evidentials are embeddable only in those languages that have such complements that have enough structural space to host them.