Modal Meanings Research Articles

On the modal functions of Lithuanian verbs of coming

The verbs of coming and going as a means of modality have been investigated in a number of languages: Russian (Majsak 2005; Bourdin 2014), Latvian (Wälchli 1996, 2000), Estonian (Penjam 2006), Finnish (Kangasniemi 1992) and others. However, with the exception of some observations made by Wälchli (1996) or Nau (2012), the realization of modality by ‘come’ or ‘go’ verbs in Lithuanian has not been thoroughly examined. Thus, the present paper is concerned with a diachronic as well as synchronic variation pertaining to two Lithuanian verbs of motion that contain the root ‘go’, i.e. pareiti ‘come home, return’ and prieiti ‘approach on foot’ as well as their reflexive counterparts. The article seeks to establish to what extent the verbs under analysis have developed modal meanings in Contemporary Lithuanian as well as the earliest period of the language (16th–17th centuries) and to account for the possible diachronic evolution of modal meanings. It focuses on both qualitative as well as quantitative parameters. The data have been collected from the old written Lithuanian texts (16th–17th centuries) and the corpus of the Contemporary Lithuanian Language, namely its subcorpus of fiction texts. The text sample on which the study is based shows that the modal constructions with the Lithuanian verbs of motion based on the root ‘go’ appear in the 16th century. It is only the reflexive forms pareitis(i) (‘PREF-go-REFL’) and prieitis(i) (‘PREF-go-REFL’) that have potential to realise non-epistemic modality: the analysed material did not reveal any instances where non-reflexive forms pareiti and prieiti are used to convey modality. The predominant modal meaning of the reflexive verbs pareitis(i) and prieitis(i) concerns the meaning of participant-external as well as deontic necessity. As for Contemporary Lithuanian, the ‘go’-derived necessive constructions are rather marginal in the contemporary system of modality: the verbs under analysis are more common in spoken Lithuanian or dialects than in written Lithuanian. Moreover, semantic distribution among the reflexive verbs under consideration differs in Old and in Contemporary Lithuanian. Deontic necessity takes the leading position among the reflexive verb pareitis(i) in Old Lithuanian, whereas participant-external necessity predominates among the reflexive verb prisieiti in Contemporary Lithuanian.

The modal verb galėti ʻcan/could/may/mightʼ in academic Lithuanian: distribution, frequency and semantic properties

The aim of the present paper is to investigate the frequency and distribution patterns as well as the spectrum of modal meanings conveyed by the Lithuanian modal verb of possibility galėti ‘can/could/may/might’ in academic Lithuanian. The study is based on Corpus Academicum Lithuanicum (www.coralit.lt), a specialized synchronic corpus of written academic Lithuanian (roughly 9 million words). In order to allow a disciplinary comparison, the paper analyses the use of this modal verb in academic texts from three science fields: the humanities, the biomedical sciences and the technological sciences. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are employed alongside corpus-based analysis to reveal the ways in which this modal verb of possibility is used in academic language. The first part of the paper investigates the frequency patterns of various forms of galėti ‘can/could/may/might’ in the three science fields. The second part looks at the variety of meanings this modal verb can convey in Lithuanian specialised language. The results show that there is a fairly similar distribution of this modal verb across different science fields. In terms of its semantic functional capacities, galėti ‘can/could/may/might’ is used to convey all three types of modality (epistemic, deontic and dynamic), however, the most frequent use in Lithuanian academic discourse seems to be that of dynamic modality.

How L2 learners of French and English express modality using verbal means: A crosslinguistic and developmental study

AbstractThis study describes and analyzes how native and non-native speakers express modality using verbal means during oral retellings. Participants included native speakers of French and English, as well as English-speaking learners of French and French-speaking learners of English at three levels of language proficiency. All participants performed the same short film retelling, which was then transcribed and analyzed in terms of modalization. Results show that all groups use verbal modal means, although rates, meanings and types of modal forms used vary across the two languages, and especially as a function of second language proficiency.

АВТОРСКАЯ МОДАЛЬНОСТЬ КАК МАРКЕР ЭТАПА СТАНОВЛЕНИЯ ТЕРМИНА

The relevance of this work is caused, firstly, by the selection of study material, which is the English-language nanotechnology discourse. The selected discipline segment is developing at a quick pace that causes the dynamism of the term formation processes and the possibility to trace them in real-time mode. Moreover, the parameters of the author’s modality in the scientific text were being studied only fragmentarily that proves the necessity of their analysis. The paper covers the consideration of the author’s modality actualization in the text and its direct relationship with the stages of the term formation. During the study, the author carried out the chronological analysis of the English-language scientific articles covering a single subject matter (in particular, related to the scanning tunneling microscopy) in order to identify the means of expressing the author’s modality used in them. At the same time, the author makes an attempt to associate logically the application of these means with the period of development of a scientific object and, consequently, with the stage of formation of a term nominating it. In the paper, special attention is paid to the application of modal verbs, modal adjectives and adverbs characterized by the highest frequency of use in the English-language nanotechnology text. During the analysis, the author identified the means of expressing the author’s modality marking the specific stage of a term development and proposed the model of scientific article text construction based on the used author’s modality means. It is concluded that the new knowledge and the terminological unit actualizing it undergo the identical stages of formation that, in the text of scientific work, is reflected in the semantics of means used to express the author’s modality and their concentration in the structure of the text.

ВІДНОШЕННЯ У СИСТЕМІ МОДАЛЬНИХ ЗНАЧЕНЬ КОГНІТИВНО-СЕМАНТИЧНОГО ПОЛЯ НЕОБХІДНОСТІ (на матеріалі італійської мови)

The article focuses on correlation in the system of modal meanings of cognitivesemantic modal field of necessity in Italian. The system of modal meanings of modal field of necessity is organized in according to the principle of continuality and gradualism: 1) privative necessity; 2) negative willing; 3) necessity contaminated by emotiveness; 4) necessity contaminated by willing; 5) dispositive necessity (necessity contaminated by disposition); 6) deontic necessity; 7) deontic necessity of totality quantor. These modal meanings reflect a different proportion of subjective and objective factors, of synthesis and analysis during modal evaluation that influence on the opposition of the modal field “indefiniteness vs definiteness” according to increasing of a degree of definiteness. Taking down of indefiniteness realizes as a result of contamination of dominant willing modus by other ones: perceptive, emotional, epistemic, axiological. A proportion of subjective factors is maximum for the modal meanings of necessity contaminated by emotiveness and necessity contaminated by willing. A proportion of objective factors is maximum for the modal meaning of deontic necessity of totality quantor: emotions, willing, system of evaluation of specific subject lose importance being subordinated to the common axiological values.

Future tense in Serbian: A fuzzy linguistic category

In the world we live in, and more so in natural languages, it is rarely possible to offer strict and precise categorisations. In light of discussions on the semantic status of the future tense in linguistic theory, this paper aims to investigate further the possibilities of treating the Serbian future tense within a modal category and thus provide an elucidating account of its fuzzy nature. The modal-temporal semantics of the future tense is viewed from the perspective of prevailing standpoints presented in the relevant literature on tense and modality. Therefore, the provided account focuses on three components of utterance meaning (the modal, performative and propositional). In order to present a systematic and detailed description, the following semantic pragmatic features of future reference utterances have been investigated: non-factuality and non-assertiveness, modal meanings (epistemic and volitive), a speaker's commitment to the propositional content of an utterance and its higher-level, illocutionary, potential. The authentic examples of the future tense in simple sentences extracted from the Corpus of Contemporary Serbian Language (SrpKor) have been used in the analysis. As my analysis has shown, future tense utterances are necessarily modally nuanced by additional information, which is not related to the localization of time but to the modal attitude conveyed. This, in turn, is directly related to the illocutionary potential of utterances and non-factuality of propositions. Accordingly, it is possible to treat the future tense in Serbian within the category of modality. The paper has shown that modality and tense are intertwined to such an extent in future reference that the crucial issue of the future tense categorization could hardly be fully resolved. In this regard, my analysis has confirmed the fuzziness of the examined linguistic category and the existence of a modality-non-modality continuum.

Evidential coding in Lezgi

Evidentiality is “grammatical marking of how we know something” (Aikhenvald 2014:3). As evidentiality is a well-known feature in many Nakh-Daghestanian languages, this paper investigates the expression of evidential meanings in Lezgi, a language which has received less attention in this area. This paper compares evidential meanings of verb forms with the existing findings in a related language, Aghul (Majsak & Merdanova 2002a), and then considers other ways of conveying evidential meanings non-lexically. The language data were collected through elicitation and study of natural texts. Following Aikhenvald (2004), semantic labels were established for different evidential meanings.Regarding indirect evidentiality, the Lezgi Perfect was found to display the meaning of inference, thus largely coinciding with the inferential use of the Aghul Resultative. In addition, a verb construction involving a nominalized predicative and an equative particle conveys the meaning of inference accompanied by epistemic uncertainty. The Lezgi Aorist is in general evidentially neutral, but can acquire readings of direct, witnessed information source, accompanied by the modal meaning of reliability. However, the opposition displayed in Aghul between witnessed and reported meanings does not find reflection in the Lezgi past tense forms.In the area of speech reports, evidential meanings can be displayed in Lezgi by two markers, originating from the speech verb luhun: a grammaticalised clitic expressing hearsay, and a converb form expressing the meaning of quotative. Discourse particles display evidential and mirative meanings.

Left Ventral Stream White Matter Connectivity Predicts Response to Semantic Feature Analysis Treatment in Chronic Aphasia

Left Ventral Stream White Matter Connectivity Predicts Response to Semantic Feature Analysis Treatment in Chronic Aphasia

The Comparison of Modal Meaning and Grammatical Phenomena between the Interrogative ‘-gess-’ and ‘-eulkka’

The Comparison of Modal Meaning and Grammatical Phenomena between the Interrogative ‘-gess-’ and ‘-eulkka’

ВІДНОШЕННЯ У СИСТЕМІ МОДАЛЬНИХ ЗНАЧЕНЬ КОГНІТИВНО-СЕМАНТИЧНОГО ПОЛЯ ІМОВІРНОСТІ (на матеріалі італійської мови)

The article focuses on the correlation in the system of modal meanings of the cognitive-semantic modal field of probability in Italian. The system of modal meanings of probability modal field is organized according to the principle of continuality and gradualism: 1) epistemic possibility; 2) contamination of epistemic possibility and epistemic probability; 3) epistemic probability (prototype); 4) contamination of epistemic probability and epistemic necessity; 5) epistemic necessity. The analysis of microtext functioning of modal means that express each of modal meanings permit to state that the modal field of probability is structured according to the principle of continuality. This principle consists in the progressive growing of definiteness of epistemic state of subject (from virtual indefiniteness to definiteness). In the interpretation of a fragment of reality by a subject of modal evaluation it is possible to observe a gradual displacement from polycausality to monocausality that rises as the dependence of epistemic modus on subjective factors (emotional state, design emotionally contaminated) diminishes, and the proportion of objective factors (evaluation made from a neutral position, support on the logical conditionality) rises.

Verbal inflectional morphology and modality in compound clause-linkage markers in Japanese

Japanese has many compound clause-linkage markers (hereafter “CLMs”). Some of them consist of a verbal inflectional suffix and (up to three) particles. They include eleven compound CLMs that have the Concessive conditional meaning (‘even if’) and/or the Concessive meaning (‘even though, although’). In these eleven compound CLMs, different inflectional categories of verbs (i.e. conjugational categories) combined with different particles indicate different degrees of the speaker’s belief or confidence regarding the likelihood of the existence or occurrence of a situation. That is, verbal inflectional morphology plays a crucial role in expressing modal meanings. Such a phenomenon does not seem to have been recognized for Japanese or any other language.

Expletive agreement, evidentiality, and modality in Logooli

We discuss and analyze two subject agreement markers in Logooli (Bantu,Kenya). We show that e- (class 9 subject agreement) and ga- (class 6 subjectagreement) give rise to a variety of apparently evidential or modal meanings whenthey occur in constructions translated with "expletive" subjects. We propose atreatment of the Logooli data following Matthewson, et al. (2007)'s and Rullmann,et al. (2008)'s choice function analysis of modality and evidentiality in St'át'imcets,and extend their original proposal to account for novel data in Logooli. We showthat these two morphemes occur only with verbs that introduce modal bases, andpropose that they differ from one another in the size of the subset of possible worldsthat their associated choice functions select from the modal base. This in turn resultsin different interpretations based on the size of the subset of worlds that they select,the speaker's ordering source, and the modal base provided by the verb.

MODALITY OF SCIENTIFIC (MEDICAL) TEXT (AS BASED ON THE OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGICAL TEXTS)

This article presents the author’s view on the category of modality in the scientific (medical) text. The systematic presentation of modality expression means in the aspect of pragmatics of the text is in the center of attention. Utilization of methods of scientific description, observation and statistic analysis allows to receive reliable information about the degree of distribution and of the semantics of modal means in the scientific (medical) text. The working results are important in the pedagogical practice: the education of foreign students-doctors in the language of specialization.

On the Semantic Differences between nikka and ese Clauses in Korean: Focused on Their Modal Meaning

On the Semantic Differences between nikka and ese Clauses in Korean: Focused on Their Modal Meaning

Грамматическое выражение модального значения желания в тувинском языке

Грамматическое выражение модального значения желания в тувинском языке

From possession to obligation via shifting distributions and particular constructions

Studies of grammaticalization have identified a tendency for verbs of possession to develop modal meanings (Bybee et al. 1994, Heine & Kuteva 2002). I present evidence of the mechanisms contributing to both semantic and structural change in one such instance, the Modern Spanish deontic modal construction [tener que+Inf] “to have to”. Quantitative analysis of a corpus of written texts confirms that this process is gradual and layered, exhibiting semantic changes measurable in the ratio of lexical infinitive types to total tokens of the constructions,changing tendencies in the construction’s internal structure and the presence of highly frequent, lexically particular instances oftener que. This study presents quantifiable manifestations of grammaticalization processes that do not adhere to a linear, uniform cline and are consistently variable, even on a small scale.

Modal meaning in Construction Grammar

Within the framework of Construction Grammar, modality remains a rather underexplored linguistic domain. This observation led to the organization of a workshop on modal meaning in Construction Grammar at ISLE 3, the third conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English, held in Zurich in 2014. While attempts to analyse modal (and/or future) auxiliaries from this theoretical perspective are relatively scare, they are definitely not non-existent, and we could mention at least work by Bergs (2010), Boogaart (2009), Cappelle and Depraetere (2013), Cappelle and De Sutter (2010), Diewald (2006), Diewald and Smirnova (2011a, 2011b), Goldberg and Van der Auwera (2012), Hilpert (2008, 2013a, 2013b), Mortelmans (2000) and Warnsby (2002). Boogaart and Fortuin (2016) provides a succinct general treatment of the subject and an overview of the literature. For the ISLE 3 workshop, we invited some of the authors who had analysed facets of modal meaning from the point of view of Construction Grammar, including those who were critical of its potential. We asked the speakers to look back and forward: five to ten years later, what was their view on the ways in which Construction Grammar could push the analysis of modal meaning further ahead? Likewise, we were interested to find out what Construction Grammar could gain from available analyses of modal meaning. The debate was enlightening and we decided to share the views put forward with the wider community. Each of the papers in this thematic issue addresses one or several of the following questions: (a) Is Construction Grammar, with its holistic approach in terms of form-function pairings, suitable for the analysis of modal meaning in general and modal verbs in particular, which typically involve meaning in context? How can the pragmatics of modals be captured in this model? And if there is a way to do so, what can be gained from this endeavour, that is, how can the analysis of modals be improved? (b) Do ‘modal constructions’ (constructions with modals) exist? If so, how can we identify them (and their development) empirically? And how can constructional meaning be represented or formalized? (c) What does the analysis of modal meaning teach us about constructions? What can Construction Grammar gain from the analysis of modality?

Change in modal meanings

This paper discusses how modal auxiliaries fit into a constructional view of language and how this view allows us to think in new ways about diachronic meaning change in modal auxiliaries. These issues will be illustrated on the basis of a diachronic corpus-based study of the modal auxiliary may, specifically focusing on changes in its collocational preferences during the past 200 years. The main point of this paper is the claim that a constructional view needs to take account of the mutual associations between modal auxiliaries and the lexical elements with which they occur. Changes in these mutual associations are usefully understood as change in a complex network of constructions.

Swedish <i>hinna</i> viewed through its English correspondences – <i>have time</i> or <i>be able to?</i>

This article considers the Swedish verb hinna and its English correspondences in the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus – both in the direction Swedish original to English translation and in the direction English original to Swedish translation. Swedish hinna lacks a straightforward equivalent in English; thus its English correspondences in parallel corpora can shed light on its meaning and use, as described in the method ‘seeing language through multilingual corpora’ (Johansson 2007). The results for hinna suggest that hinna is monosemous, but that its core meaning is enriched by implied ones (presupposition and conversational implicature). Based on the observed translations and sources of hinna, we propose that in the majority of our data hinna denotes time sufficiency and also presupposes ability and conversationally implicates actualization. We relate our discussion of hinna to van der Auwera and Plungian’s (1998) semantic map of modality, in which ability and sufficiency are seen as contiguous modal meanings.

Contract automata

Deontic logic as a way of formally reasoning about norms, an important area in AI and law, has traditionally concerned itself about formalising provisions of general statutes. Despite the long history of deontic logic, given the wide scope of the logic, it is difficult, if not impossible, to formalise all these notions in a single formalism, and there are still ongoing debates on appropriate semantics for deontic modalities in different contexts. In this paper, we restrict our attention to contracts between interactive parties, which are both general enough to be an interesting object of study but specific enough so as to narrow down the debates regarding the meaning of modalities, and present a formalism for reasoning about them.