Pragmatics
Pragmatics concerns how expressions are used in situations, including presupposition, implication and what the writer assumes a reader can recover. A rhetorical question can have a communicative function beyond requesting information. Ancient evidence rarely gives direct access to the original performance; identify the linguistic form first, then argue for a contextual use from the surrounding text and genre.
Information source
Evidential systems mark how information was obtained, for example by report or inference. WALS illustrates a Kannada quotative -ante associated with reported information. It should not be reduced to a tense or to a simple certainty scale. A translation may need an English phrase such as “reportedly”, but the grammatical status of the source-language marker remains different.
Across sentences
Pronouns, repetition, topic shifts and connective particles help a text cohere. When a pronoun could refer to several people, compare agreement, discourse prominence and the next sentence. Avoid resolving an ambiguity merely to make the English smoother. A transparent translation can preserve a note that the reference remains disputed.
Modern-language examples on this page clarify a linguistic pattern. They do not establish unattested sounds or forms for an ancient language. Follow the cited sources below and keep editorial readings separate from the surviving trace.