He’s not lying, according to what I heard —彼は嘘をついていない・・・私が聞いたところによると。—

I recently listened to a series of lectures on linguistics.

It was interesting to hear of how the grammar of languages differs around the world.  Some languages have a subject – verb – object word order, like English.  Others have a subject – object – verb word order, like Japanese.  A few unusual languages put the object first and the subject at the end. 

There were also some kinds of grammar which I had never heard of, because they do not appear in any languages which I have studied. 

One of these unfamiliar grammar choices is called evidential markers.  In a language which has evidential markers, speakers must indicate from where they got the information that they are communicating.  For example, you might want to say, “A monkey stole your lunch.”  But that would be an incomplete and grammatically incorrect sentence.  To make a correct sentence, you have to put in a marker which indicates how you know that the monkey stole the other person’s lunch.  So you have to add, “according to what I saw,” or “according to what I heard,” or “according to traditional belief,” or “according to what I feel”, et cetera. 

What an interesting thought.  Imagine how different politics would be if politicians always had to indicate clearly where they got their information from, in order to make correct sentences. 

“Since we became the government, the country has gotten stronger, according to my own feelings.  If you vote for the other party, they will wreck the economy, according to what I have heard.  The other party will raise your taxes, according to rumor.” 

You could still tell lies in a language with evidential markers.  But you couldn’t tell lies in a subtle or a sly way quite as easily as you can in English or in Japanese.