Evidentiality and focus in Colombian Spanish: a comparative analysis of <em>dizque</em> and <em>como que</em>

This paper addresses matrix declarative sentences with the evidential markers dizque and como que in Colombian Spanish. We concentrate on cases where these evidentials combine with both clausal- and subclausal constituents, and provide a unified analysis that likens them to focus-sensitive items, such as Spanish solo ‘only’. We thus argue that dizque and como que are mixed elements combining evidentiality and focus marking. We further discuss question-answer congruence in connection to these markers, and show that sentences with them must be congruent with prior discourse. We provide a syntactic analysis that accounts for the distribution of dizque and como que. We further provide a semantic analysis of dizque and como que that captures their evidential meaning in combination with focus, which is tied to the implication of lack of certainty that sentences with these markers have.