Stereotypes and Evidentiality

AbstractEvidentiality and stereotyping are two highly productive concepts that have recently generated interesting, and in the case of stereotypes, often politically intense, research agendas. This paper initially outlines how some of this productivity relies on a certain indeterminacy concerning the key terms. After outlining debates about the key characteristics of evidentiality and stereotypes the paper considers recent work that links evidentiality to stereotypes. Such works are found primarily in linguistics rather than in other discipline and analytical emphasis is on evidentiality rather than stereotyping. Reluctant to make claims based on ‘Western’ psychology, the linguists approach stereotyping primarily as a social process. Supporting such an approach this review highlights the need for greater analysis of the interactional contexts that deploy both evidentials and pejorative social categories. In addition, there is a need to further investigate the histories of changes in local use of evidentials and stereotypes understood as interrelated social processes.