TYPOLOGICAL INDICES OF EVIDENTIAL PARADIGMS IN MODERN BULGARIAN

Abstract

The research article compares typological indices for estimating the degree of analyticity and syntheticity as well as the degree of composition and markedness of fourteen evidential micro paradigms in modern Bulgarian. The theoretical basis is rooted in G. Gerdzhikov's views on typological indices and laws (Gerdzhikov 1983, 1990, 1997, 2013). The research provides arguments that evidentiality as a grammatical category is not yet entirely grammaticalized. The close investigation of indices also confirms the hypothesis that in the presence of competing variants and a high degree of composition, a tendency for condensation of forms is being observed in some variants: reducing the degree of composition while achieving a relatively higher degree of synthesis.