We have explored how processes unfold, participants exist, space situates them, influence flows, and time patterns events. Now we examine the deepest cut languages make: how experience itself is partitioned, distinguishing between internal states, perceptual access, and epistemic evidence.
Relational ontology reminds us: there is no fixed “inner world” or “outer world.” Languages actualise phenomena, structuring what counts as known, seen, felt, or inferred.
1. Evidentiality and source marking
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Tibetan / Quechua: mandatory marking of direct observation, inference, or hearsay.
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Turkish: evidentiality distinguishes firsthand vs. reported knowledge.
Cognitive payoff: Speakers habitually monitor the source and reliability of information, integrating epistemic stance into perception and reasoning.
2. Internal states as relational phenomena
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Japanese / Korean: emotions and mental states are described as occurring to a participant, not as inherently possessed.
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Habitual construal blurs inner/outer boundaries, situating internal experience relationally.
Insight: Internal states are cognitively foregrounded in relation to context, situation, and others.
3. Accessibility, visibility, and inference
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Dyirbal / Kalaallisut: distinctions based on perceptual accessibility; entities/events are foregrounded only if perceivable.
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Classical Chinese / Newar: inference is grammatically encoded, foregrounding deductive reasoning.
Cognitive payoff: Phenomena are encoded according to perception, attention, and inferential access, structuring memory and expectation.
4. Narrative implications
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Evidential languages: narratives highlight speaker perspective, source of knowledge, and certainty.
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Relational internal-state languages: narratives foreground emergent mental and emotional dynamics.
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Accessibility-sensitive languages: narratives structure attention around what can be perceived or inferred.
Takeaway: Internal vs. external construal preconfigures narrative perspective, epistemic reasoning, and relational attention.
5. Concluding Reflection
Habitual construal of internal vs. external phenomena shapes:
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Attention — what is accessible, visible, or inferable
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Memory — what is encoded as experienced or known
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Reasoning — how evidence and perspective are weighted
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Narrative focus — whose experience, knowledge, or inference drives the story
Languages thus provide cognitive horizons of experience, structuring how phenomena are accessed, interpreted, and shared.
Series-wide Reflection
Across all six domains — process, participant, space, agency, time, and internal/external phenomena — we see that languages:
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Pattern cognition and attention
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Structure memory, reasoning, and prediction
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Open distinct narrative and experiential horizons
Habitual construal is not stylistic; it is ontologically generative, providing alternative ways to inhabit, perceive, and narrativize the world.
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