Grammaticalization of the similative marker in Pech

International audienceThis paper focuses on the multifaceted marker -kán in Pesh, a Chibchan language spoken in Honduras. This marker exhibits significant polysemy, including the expression of similarity, 'how' and 'in which direction' interrogative markers, comparison of equality, and some epistemic modalities such as simulative meaning, epistemic possibility, hypothetical doubt, and irrealis predictive conditionals and time meanings. It seems reasonable to think that this synchronic diversity not only indicates different contexts of use separate from each other but may also reveal diachronic relations between them. The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, in order to understand this polysemy pattern I will describe each context of use of the marker -kán in synchrony. I will analyze the contexts in which -kán is suffixed to a nominal expressing similarity, interrogative markers, and comparison of equality, then go on to describe the contexts in which -kán is suffixed to a verb in a dependent adverbial clause, displaying the function of a subordinating conjunction. With this function, -kán always appears in an irrealis context to express different types of epistemic modality - simulative, epistemic possibility, hypothetical doubt, and irrealis predictive conditionals and time clauses. Secondly, I will analyze the relations between these contexts of use and propose routes of grammaticalization. The hypothesis is that -kán is basically a similative or manner marker, meaning 'like'. Later -kán came to be used in conjunction with a demonstrative pronoun or a nominal for two WH-questions, 'how' and 'in which direction'