LINGUIST List 23.1314
|
Thu Mar 15 2012
Qs: External Necessity, Epistemic/Deontic Possibility
Editor for this issue: Zac Smith
<zac linguistlist.org>
|
New!  Visit LL's Multitree project for over 1000 trees dynamically generated from scholarly hypotheses about language relationships:
http://multitree.linguistlist.org/
We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.
In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have taken the trouble to respond to the query.
To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm.
|
Date: 14-Mar-2012
From: Igor Yanovich <yanovichmit.edu>
Subject: External Necessity, Epistemic/Deontic Possibility
 E-mail this message to a friend
The older works on grammaticalization of modality (Bybee et al. 1994,
van der Auwera and Plungian 1998) do not list a development of an
epistemic possibility sense from a circumstantial/deontic necessity
sense. Potentially, such a development occurred in some Dinka
dialects (such ambiguity is manifested in the speech of a speaker of
Dinka Bor I'm working with at the moment), and in Adyghe
(Kimmelmann 2010, field notes). I do not know much more at the
moment; even the direction of change is not supported by evidence,
though from the general considerations of how grammaticalization of
modal meanings works, I'd be surprised if the development went in the
other direction.
Here are two examples from Dinka Bor illustrating the phenomenon (I
omit tones and phonations):
Auxiliary ''dhil'', DEONTIC NECESSITY:
(1) Majok dhil riN thaal
Majok dhil meat cook
''Majok _must_ cook meat'' (can be used as a command)
Auxiliary ''dhil'', EPISTEMIC POSSIBILITY:
(2) a luel Dau, ye Majok a dhil riN thaal
AGR say Dau COMP? Majok AGR dhil meat cook
''Dau says that Majok _maybe_ is cooking meat''
Would anyone know of other languages which would have such
polysemy, or maybe even had a recorded history of such historical
change?
Linguistic Field(s):
Historical Linguistics
Semantics
Syntax
Typology
Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue
|
|
Page Updated: 15-Mar-2012
|
|
About LINGUIST
|
Contact Us
While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed
on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.
|
|
