Egophoric Attitudes and Questions in Kathmandu Newar

Abstract

Kathmandu Newar (Sino-Tibetan) has an egophoric verb marking system: an egophoric (or conjunct) verb form co-occurs with first person in declaratives and second person in inter- rogatives. Egophoric marking is restricted to predicates of intentional action and also interacts with evidential markers. This paper examines the distribution of egophoric marking in reports of speech and attitudes, extending to this domain the analysis of egophoric marking as indicating self-ascription by the epistemic authority for the utterance. This distribution reveals that egophoric marking of a clause further introduces an implication that the epistemic authority believes the proposition denoted by the clause.