Evidentiality in Uzbek and Kazakh

participals, and converbs (e.g. the perfect participle -gan/-GAn, the agentive/future -mochi/-
UwšI). These may occur both in predicative position and in other positions and take a form of 
agreement called pronominal agreement, as the forms of the markers resemble the independent 
pronouns (see Tables 12-14 in Chapter 2). 
This distinction is important to make in Uzbek and Kazakh, as non-finite paradigms of 
the verb pattern with non-verbal predicates. Like non-verbal predicates (nouns, adjectives, etc.), 
non-finite paradigms are found in non-predicative positions and take pronominal agreement 
marking. Most importantly, when non-finite forms of the verb act as predicates, they differ from 
the finite ones described above in that they may co-occur with copular paradigms, creating 
complex verb forms. Uzbek and Kazakh each possess five copular paradigms: the past edi/edi, 
the negative emas/emes, the conditional esa/ese, the non-confirmative ekan/eken, and the 
reportative emish/-mIs. While these paradigms do exhibit certain peculiarities in their 
distribution, by positing a finite/non-finite distinction we are able to fairly accurately predict 
where these copular forms will and will not occur. 
The starting point for the analysis of 
EVIDENTIAL
meaning in Uzbek and Kazakh, as well 
as in most other languages of the Eurasian evidentiality belt is the simplex past tenses. In both 
Uzbek and Kazakh, three forms of the verb express past tense: the simple, finite past tense in 
-di/-DI, the participial perfect past tense in -gan/-GAn, and the converbial past tense in -(i)b/ 
-(I)p. While previous analyses of Uzbek, Kazakh, and related languages often discuss these past 
tense paradigms in terms of evidential meaning, I have shown in Chapter 3 that forms differ 

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mainly in terms of markedness for confirmativity. The simple past -di/-DI is marked as 
confirmative, and is therefore only used when the speaker wishes to vouch for, or confirm the 
contents of the utterance. The converbial past tense in -(i)b/-(I)p is marked as non-confirmative, 
and is therefore employed when the speaker does not wish to vouch for or confirm the contents 
of the utterance; this non-confirmation may indicate non-firsthand information source, surprise, 
doubt, or non-volitionality. The perfect in -gan/-GAn is unmarked for confirmativity, and may 
therefore be employed in a wide variety of contexts. A number of other features distinguish 
these forms from one another; these are summarized in Table 31. 
Table 31: Features of Past Tense Forms in Uzbek and Kazakh