Explaining point variability in the eastern Victoria river region, northern territory

This paper constructs a reduction sequence model for north Australian points from the eastern Victoria River region, and identifies a single continuum linking unifacial and bifacial point forms, with some divergence from this single reduction trajectory dependent upon artefact size. Chronological changes in reduction intensity between 5,000BP and the present are found to coincide with typological variation in points as well as changing emphasis on the extendibility of point reduction. It is suggested that changes in the extendibility of point reduction can be linked to intensified ENSO-driven climatic variability in the late Holocene that likely increased economic risk and warranted a substantial technological response, including the use of retouched toolkits with potential for longer use-lives.

Epistemic marking and multiple perspective : an introduction

This paper discusses forms of epistemic marking that instantiate multiple perspective constructions (see Evans 2005). Such forms express the speaker’s and the addressee’s simultaneous epistemic perspectives from the point of view of the speaker, crucially relying on the assumptions of the speaker with regard to the addressee’s knowledge. The analysis of forms considers established semanto-pragmatic concepts, such as semantic scope, mitigation strategies and communicative intention (as marked by sentence-type) in the exploration of forms. In addition, the notion of knowledge asymmetry is discussed alongside the concepts of epistemic status and stance as tools for a semantic analysis of investigated forms