ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the source of information acquired from inference in Saaroa. The salient characteristics of inferential evidentiality in Saaroa are first investigated. Its extended uses are then explored, including co-occurrences with other evidentials or markers of related categories and manifestations in different clause types, which produce additional semantic overtones or connotations. This chapter moves on by comparing the inferential evidential ‘ai and another inferential element, ausi, and the similarities and dissimilarities between the inferential marker ‘ai in Saaroa and in Kanakanavu. Finally, information sources are represented by different mental distances in terms of egocentricity from the most inner internal experience to the middle perception to the higher cognition inference and to the most outer from other conceptualizers’ reports. This chapter concludes with a brief review of the results of the versatility of inferential evidentiality in Saaroa, together with a hope that this study can pave the way for the future study of information sources and a thought that the existence of inferential evidentials or inferential evidential-like meanings may be found in other Austronesian languages in and outside Taiwan.
