Detail #93: Evidentiality-related taboos

In a language with several degrees of evidentiality, the following taboos regarding its use could apply:

• marking for hearsay is avoided when in the presence of deaf people
• marking for evidentiality by sight, however, is permissible in the presence of the blind, as this is seen as giving them indirect sight
• marking for knowledge by inference in the presence of people who are on suspicion of having committed a crime, as the legal system of the culture only really permits witnesses, not reasoning to lead to a verdict
• marking for hearsay while pregnant, so that the child not grow up to be a telltale
• all future tense markings are taboo in the presence of a newly died corpse, and to a lesser extent they are avoided in the presence of an elderly person who is about to die. A young person who is about to die is not afforded this protection from hearing of the future.
• marking for evidentiality by sight in the presence of someone who has been sentenced to death, as it is by that evidentiality his or her death has been established. This is violated only by liturgies related to the death sentence being carried out. Future tense and related evidentialities are, however, permitted and even desirable, to instill a sense of shame and loss in the convict.