DOI: https://doi.org/10.36719/2663-4619/130/41-54
Evidentility in Azerbaijani and Other Turkic Languages: A Comparative Typological Study
Arzu Abbasova1* , Elburus Veliyev1 ,
Qanira Asgarova1 , and Arife Zeynalova1
Abstract. This article examines the comparative and typological characteristics of the category of evidentiality in Azerbaijani and other Turkic languages. The primary objective of the study is to identify the similarities and differences in the grammatical and semantic means used to express the source of information in Turkic languages, as well as to clarify the place of the evidentiality category within the functional-semantic system of these languages. Evidentiality is analyzed as an important semantic and grammatical category that indicates how a speaker has acquired the information being conveyed, whether through direct observation of an event, hearsay, inference, or assumption. The article discusses the theoretical foundations of evidentiality, its relationship with modality, and the various means by which it is expressed across languages. The research employs comparative-typological, descriptive, and analytical methods. In addition to Azerbaijani, evidential markers in Turkish, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek were examined, and their morphological structures and functional-semantic characteristics were compared. The findings reveal that although evidentiality in Turkic languages shares common historical and linguistic foundations, its means of expression have developed distinct structural and semantic features in different languages. In particular, indirect evidentiality occupies an important place in the vast majority of Turkic languages and is realized through various morphological devices. The study further demonstrates that evidentiality functions not only as a marker of grammatical temporal relations but also as a functional system reflecting the speaker’s attitude toward information, the source of knowledge, and their communicative stance.
Keywords: evidentiality, evidential category, Turkic languages, Azerbaijani language, indirect evidentiality, typological comparison, morphological markers, semantic features