ABSTRACT

Type of construction that expresses a value for the grammatical parameter of evidentiality and marks the content of a statement as being inferred from various premises. In English, constructions with the modal verb must are sometimes used inferentially, e.g. in That must be Philip, when the doorbell rings and if no one other than Philip is expected. The so-called inferential in Turkish (meaning ‘one says’ or ‘I presume’) is actually both an inferential and a quotative.