An Exploration of "certain vs. uncertain mood" in Bao'an from the Evidential Perspective

This paper examines the phenomenon labeled "certain vs. uncertain mood" by Liu Zhaoxiong & Lin Lianyun (1980) in discussing the Bao'an language of the Gansu-Qinghai linguistic area. It is explored here through the lens of evidentiality and egophoricity. The distribution of related markers in Bao'an is discussed at the semantic and pragmatic levels. Our analysis shows a binary egophoric system which is manifested in the copula, the existential verb, as well as the durative and progressive markers of the copula, while the resultative, terminative, and habitual markers can be better explained as expressing direct, indirect, and factual evidentials.