1. Introduction
2. The suffix -ess as a perfect
2.1. Is -ess a perfective?
2.2. Is -ess a past tense?
2.3. -Ess is a perfect
3. -Ess is also an indirect evidential
3.1. Evidentials and the suffixes -te and -ney
3.2. Two related functions: perfect and indirect evidential
4. Izvolski’s(1997) analysis of the indirect evidential
5. Analysis of the perfect -ess and the indirect evidential -ess
6. Conclusion
References