Explanation
Mirativity covers linguistic devices that present information as unexpected, surprising, newly discovered, or contrary to a prior assumption. Such meanings may arise through particles, affixes, verbal forms, intonation, or constructions. It remains controversial whether mirativity is always an independent grammatical category or often develops from evidentiality, perfect aspect, focus, and context. Surprise belonging to the speaker, addressee, or a represented character must also be distinguished. The conceptual movement reconstructs expectations and access to knowledge, compares minimal contexts, and tests which portion of the interpretation is conventionally encoded.
Movement of thought
1. The marked form is compared across new, expected, and surprising information contexts. 2. The analysis identifies whose expectation or knowledge state is affected. 3. Evidentiality, tense, aspect, focus, and exclamation are controlled as alternatives. 4. Cancellation and embedding test whether surprise is encoded or pragmatically inferred. 5. Language-specific paradigms decide whether an independent category is justified.
Scientific use case
Typology, semantics, pragmatics, and language documentation study mirativity through contextual tests, paradigms, and corpora. Particular care is needed in separating evidentiality and the perspective of quoted characters.
Example
A speaker unexpectedly sees that a house believed empty is inhabited and uses a dedicated verbal form. The same form is inappropriate in neutral confirmation and signals newly discovered counter-information.
Counterexample
An utterance spoken with surprised intonation does not establish grammatical mirativity. If the reading disappears without a supportive context and no stable form meaning can be shown, it may be purely pragmatic or prosodic.
Distinction
Distinguish mirativity from evidential source marking, exclamation, mere new-information status, and emotional surprise. It concerns conventional marking of a revision in expectation or knowledge.
Effect on thought and perception
Mirative forms make the break between expectation and perception linguistically visible. They enliven narrative, focus attention, and signal that a knowledge model is being revised.
Resonance
A new fact strikes an existing expectation and sets it in motion. The form holds the instant when world model and perception no longer coincide.
Cite this entry
Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Mirativity“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-134-014. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-134-014The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.
Historical background
Hengeveld and Olbertz 2012 defend mirativity as a category distinct from evidentiality while revising DeLancey’s 1997 account, cited indirectly. Their definition admits newsworthiness for an addressee as well as a speaker. The directly read debate documents competing analyses rather than an uncontested universal category or a verified German borrowing history.
How conceptual history changes the analysis
Unexpectedness, information source, and exclamation remain distinct even when a language uses overlapping forms.
References for the historical section
- HC-C-HENGEVELD · §1–2 pp487–490 (including exclamativity paragraphp490) and§5 pp500–501; author preprint, PDF1–4 and14–15 (1-based)