158 Nocu doctor-on
yora hiin -xon -non hizin-mahiz -ra
non-hqui. us
doctor-ERG body see -BENEF.DS.TR-PURP pain -without-QUEST we -DECL ‘The doctor examined us lit.: our bodies to see whether we might not be sick.’
159 Moha -mun -cara
jan ca-xo -hqui.
now -FO -INFER he go-3PAST.PFTV -DECL ‘By now he possibly left. Immediate context: The person is not present, and it is late, i.e. the sun
has gone down. 160
Huhu -mun-i -hqui -nu.
Ruvoqui-mura hovi hi -cax
5
-qui. rise -FO -PRES-ACT -DECL upriver -ASSUM rain do -PAST.PF -DECL
‘The river is rising. It has probably rained upriver.’ The inferred knowledge clitics -cara and -mura appear to be frozen forms that are composed of two
morphemes, the second of which is the question marker -ra. While the origin of -ca in -cara remains a puzzle to me, there is reason to believe that -mura is a fusion of -mun ‘focus’ with the loss of the final
nasal plus -ra ‘question’. Compare example 161 with 162–164. 161
¿Hizin -ya -ra jan?
pain -with-QUEST he ‘Does he hurt?’’Is he sick?’ lit:Is he with pain?
162 Tzaha,
hizin -ya -ra jan-hnu.
not.know pain -with -QUEST.KNOWL he -DECL ‘I don’t know. He could be hurting.’
163 Hizin -ya -cara -mun jan -hnu.
pain -with-INFER -FO he -DECL
‘It is likely that he is hurting.’ ‘He seems to have pain.’ ‘to be sick.’ 164
Jaan-mun jan muox-nico -hnu. Hizin-ya -mura
jan -hqui. he -FO he pale -endearment -DECL pain -with-ASSUM he -DECL
‘He someone dear to the speaker is pale. It is very likely that he is hurting.’
5.4 Mirativity
Although none of the evidential markers express mirativity, by semantic extension a suffix exists that expresses surprise: -cari. Like the evidential markers -cari is a clitic and can be attached to different
word classes verbs, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. It is, however, distinct from the evidential category in that it does not appear in the declarative mode. Instead it contrasts with the declarative
mode markers. Compare examples 165 and 166. 165
Machi maton -conon-xon -murocon -cara hiya nincaa-hax
haa -hcari.
rock hill -LOC -SQ.SS.TR-truly -INFER me hear -PAST.PF. tapir -MIR
‘To my surprise the tapir possibly has been hearing me from the top of a rock.’ 166
Moha -cara -mun hiya nincaa-hax haa -hqui -nu.
by.now -INFER -FO me hear -PAST.PF tapir-ACT -DECL ‘By now the tapir possibly has been hearing me.’
As example 165 shows, mirativity and inference can appear in the same sentence.
5.5 Conclusions
I have not found evidential markers in questions or commands, and it does not seem to me that Amahuaca speakers use evidentials as a stylistic device. Furthermore it does not appear that the semantic
type of the verb influences the use of evidentials. These questions as well as questions about the origin of the evidentials need further investigation.
Evidentiality is an important feature in Panoan languages. Yet it is different enough to merit separate analysis in the different ones. Where Eugene Loos 1999:246, for instance, reports evidential markers
for visible evidence in Capanahua, Amahuaca does not include this feature in its system. Likewise, other Panoan languages report evidential markers for audible andor olfactory evidence, as well as direct
experience, but Amahuaca does not specify these. There is no question, however, that Evidentiality is an obligatory grammatical category in Panoan
languages. In Amahuaca it is linked to declarative speech acts. It is employed in narrative discourse such as folktales and myths, historical accounts, personal experiences, and dialogues. There are three
distinctions in the evidential system: direct knowledge, reported information, and conjecture. The system thus falls into the B3 category as outlined by Aikhenvald 2004.
Evidentials appear to be a safeguard for survival particularly for ethnic groups that have a history of living a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle.
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6 I Want to But I Can’t: The Frustrative in Amahuaca
When I first studied the language, I thought there were no conjunctions because I could not find any
and, or, but, etc. and, indeed, those are absent. However, now I realize that the IRMs and -pana- but,
however, although, which mainly expresses some type of frustration, function as conjunctions. Among other idiosyncrasies the IRMs reflect singularplural, transitivity, case markings, time sequence, and also
movement towards or away from the speaker. The frustrative -pana- reflects singularplural subject, case ergativenominative; it often receives the theme marker, and at times also IRM affixes indicating that
the subjects of two clauses are coreferent, and in rare cases that the subject of a clause is coreferent with the direct object of the clause that follows.
The frustrative marker in Amahuaca falls into the framework of Pragmatics. It is a speech act which cannot be negated. The native speaker employs it to communicate his feelings to his addressee with the
hope to not only air his disappointment or disgust, but also to bring about a change in the knowledge or belief pragmatic information Dik, 1980:16 andor action of the addressee. The marker is affixed to
the verb of a dependent clause with the specific function of expressing a certain type of frustration as defined below. I propose to investigate the meaning of -pana- in different contexts. The morpheme
expresses an unrealizable action in two or three adjoining clauses that can be preceded or followed by an indefinite number of clauses. Where the first clause states the complaint, the second one states the
reason and the third one, which is optional, the result. As mentioned above, -pana- most often expresses frustration: the actor’s desires or intentions cannot be satisfied due to some preceding action, event or
circumstance 167. At times it also expresses a pleasant state of affairs, i.e. an accident is prevented due to some fortunate happening 171, 181. Most of the illustrative sentences are taken from folktales,
myths, legends, and narratives of daily activities that I collected over a fifteen-year period.
6.1 Definition of the term “frustration”
