Evidential practices in interaction: transforming perception into corroborative evidence

Abstract

This study explores the evidential use of the Hebrew particle hine in spoken interaction. Traditionally described as a presentative particle that directs attention to entities in the immediate speech situation, hine has recently been reanalyzed as more fundamentally marking a change in the speaker’s perceptual access to a relevant entity. Building on that proposal, the current study investigates how this perceptual shift can be mobilized to frame entities as corroborative evidence for speakers’ claims in interaction. The analysis is based on video-recorded data from naturally occurring spoken Hebrew interactions. The findings show that hine can frame as evidence both physical objects in the immediate environment and interactional phenomena that emerge within the unfolding encounter. In cases involving material objects, hine registers the noticing of a perceptually accessible entity and presents it as supporting a previously expressed claim. In other cases, the particle targets interactional events such as physical actions or stretches of talk, treating them as perceptually apprehended objects that can serve as evidence. More broadly, the analysis demonstrates how evidential practices in conversation may arise from linguistic forms whose primary function concerns the organization of perceptual access.