scholarly journals Evidentials as epistemic modals: Evidence from St'át'imcets

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 201-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Matthewson ◽  
Henry Davis ◽  
Hotze Rullmann
Keyword(s):  
Modal Analysis ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Intrinsic Property ◽  
Epistemic Modals ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Interior Salish

This paper argues that evidential clitics in St’át’imcets (a.k.a. Lillooet; Northern Interior Salish) must be analyzed as epistemic modals.We apply a range of tests which distinguish the modal analysis from the main alternative contender (an illocutionary operator analysis, as in Faller 2002), and show that the St’át’imcets evidentials obey the predictions of a modal analysis. Our results support the growing body of evidence that the functions of encoding information source and epistemic modality are not necessarily distinct. The St’át’imcets data further provide a novel argument against the claim that evidentiality and epistemic modality are separate categories. Many authors argue that evidentials differ from modals in that the former do not encode speaker certainty (see, e.g., de Haan 1999; Aikhenvald 2004).We argue that modals are also not required to encode speaker certainty; we provide evidence from St’át’imcets that marking quantificational strength is not an intrinsic property of modal elements.

St’át'imcets intonation contours: a preliminary study

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-155
Author(s):  
Marion Caldecott
Keyword(s):  
Information Structure ◽  
Northwest Coast ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Intonational Meaning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Interior Salish

AbstractAcoustic research on the prosody and intonation of Northwest Coast languages has until recently been under-researched. This paper joins the growing body of research on the subject and reports on the results of the first study of intonation in St’át'imcets (Lillooet Salish; Northern Interior Salish). It tests the generalization proposed by Davis (2007) that information structure is not correlated with prosody in Salish languages by comparing the intonation contours of declaratives and yes/no questions. Specifically, I ask two questions: is nuclear accent rightmost? And are yes/no questions associated with higher pitch, as predicted by the Universality of Intonational Meaning? Results are comparable to those reported for other Salish languages, namely Koch (2008, 2011) on Nɬeʔkepmxcín, Jacobs (2007) on Skwxwú7mesh and Benner (2004, 2006) and Leonard (2011) on SENĆOŦEN. Nuclear accent is associated with the rightmost stressed vowel, regardless of focus, and while no speaker signals yes/no questions with a final rise, each has higher pitch within typologically common parameters.

scholarly journals Evidentiality In Romance Languages. Explanatory Potential of a Concept and Its Applications In Pragmatics

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. e337
Author(s):  
Gerda Hassler
Keyword(s):  
Epistemic Justification ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Romance Languages ◽  
Superordinate Category ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Sources Of Knowledge ◽  
Factual Claim ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
Linguistic Means

Defined narrowly, evidentiality pertains to the sources of knowledge or evidence whereby the speaker feels entitled to make a factual claim. But evidentiality may also be conceived more broadly as both providing epistemic justification and reflecting speaker’s attitude towards the validity of the communicated information, and hearer’s potential acceptability of the information, derived from the degree of reliability of the source and mode of access to the information. Evidentiality and epistemic modality are subcategories of the same superordinate category, namely a category of epistemicity. Since the first seminal works on evidentiality (Chafe and Nichols 1986), studies have for the most part centred on languages where the grammatical marking of the information source is obligatory (for example Willett 1988; Aikhenvald 2004). Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the study of the domain of evidentiality in European languages, which rely on strategies along the lexico‐grammatical continuum. Assuming a broad conception of evidentiality and defining it as a functional category, we study linguistic means that fulfil the function of indicating the source of information for the transmitted content of a certain proposition in Romance languages.

What the Future ‘Might’ Brings

Mind ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (515) ◽  
pp. 809-829
Author(s):  
David Boylan
Keyword(s):  
Information Loss ◽  
Epistemic Modals ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
States Of Mind ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
The Future ◽  
Tight Connection

Abstract This paper concerns a puzzle about the interaction of epistemic modals and future tense. In cases of predictable forgetfulness, speakers cannot describe their future states of mind with epistemic modals under future tense, but promising theories of epistemic modals do not predict this. In §1, I outline the puzzle. In §2, I argue that it undermines a very general approach to epistemic modals that draws a tight connection between epistemic modality and evidence. In §3, I defend the assumption that tense can indeed scope over epistemic modals. In §4, I outline a new way of determining the domain of quantification of epistemic modals: epistemic modals quantify over the worlds compatible with the information accumulated within a certain interval. Information loss can change which interval is relevant for determining the domain. In §5, I defend the view from some objections. In §6, I explore the connections between my view of epistemic modality and circumstantial modality.

scholarly journals Don’t feel obligated, lest it be undesirable: the relationship between prohibitives and apprehensives in Papapana and beyond

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Smith-Dennis
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Language Change ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Semantic Change ◽  
Oceanic Languages ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This paper analyses the preverbal morpheme te, used in both apprehensive ‘precautioning’ sentences and in one of two prohibitive constructions in Papapana (papa1265, Austronesian, Oceanic; Papua New Guinea). I aim to establish whether there is a diachronic relationship between the two functions of te, and in which direction, how and why semantic change may have occurred. This requires consideration of the synchronic differences between Papapana prohibitives, comparisons with apprehensive and prohibitive constructions in other Oceanic languages, and an investigation of other languages where apprehensive and prohibitive morphemes are formally similar/identical. I argue that the two functions of te are diachronically related, but not polysemous, and that the prohibitive meaning developed from the apprehensive meaning via insubordination. This supports Pakendorf, Brigitte & Ewa Schalley’s proposed pathway of development from possibility to prohibition, via apprehension and warning. However, I argue that their pathway does not, as claimed, run counter to the proposed grammaticalisation path of deontic to epistemic modality, because prohibitives are arguably not deontic. This paper contributes to the growing body of research on apprehensives, demonstrates that the pathway from apprehension to prohibition is perhaps not as rare as Pakendorf and Schalley thought, and contributes to research on language change and modality.

On modal grounding, reference points, and subjectification

2005 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 56-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert Cornillie
Keyword(s):  
Reference Point ◽  
Epistemic Modals ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Point Function ◽  
Theoretical Underpinning ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Epistemic Modal ◽  
Modal Auxiliaries ◽  
Definition Of

In this paper it is argued that Langacker’s definition of grounding predications is problematic for languages other than English. The idea that in English tense and modal auxiliaries are mutually exclusive grounding elements leads Langacker (1990, 2003) to consider both deontic and epistemic modal auxiliaries as grounding predications, whereas he excludes German modals from being so on the basis of their tense inflection. In this paper I contend that, unlike the deontic modal verbs, and despite their tense marking, Spanish epistemic modals deber ‘must’, poder ‘may’ and tener que ‘have to’ are certainly appropriate for modal grounding due to their reference point function and to the subjectification they undergo. I show that deontic modality is more affected by temporal grounding than epistemic modality. Moreover, the impossibility of inserting an inchoative verb such as ir a ‘to be going to’ corroborates the theoretical underpinning that Spanish epistemic modals effect an epistemic grounding similar to that of the grounding predications in English.

scholarly journals Epistemic modals in early Modern English history texts. Analysis of gender variation

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Álvarez Gil
Keyword(s):  
Epistemic Modals ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Negotiation Of Meaning ◽  
English History ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Modal Verbs ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Female Authors ◽  
History Texts ◽  
Late Modern

<p>In the present study, samples of late Modern English scientific texts have been analysed to evaluate cases of epistemic modality as realised by modal verbs. The aim of this research was to detect if there exist variances in the way modals are used in historical texts from a gender perspective. For this, I have interrogated the Corpus History English Texts (1700-1900) which is part of The Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Texts, which contains history texts written by male and female authors. I have used the Coruña Corpus Tool for retrieval, although manual analyses have been carried out as well. Each of the occurrences found have been categorised according to their contextual meanings. The results obtained account for a high frequency on the usage of these modal verbs according to gender and the diverse pragmatic functions these modal verbs accomplish in the communicative process, such as mitigation and negative politeness. From a pragmatic perspective, epistemic modals have the potential to allow negotiation of meaning between writers and their audience among other functions.</p>

Evidentiality and Information Source in Signed Languages

2018 ◽  
pp. 740-754
Author(s):  
Sherman Wilcox ◽  
Barbara Shaffer
Keyword(s):  
American Sign Language ◽  
Sign Language ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Perceptual Information ◽  
Reported Speech ◽  
Signed Languages ◽  
Manual Signs ◽  
Brazilian Sign Language ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines evidentiality in signed languages. Data comes primarily from three signed languages—American Sign Language (ASL), Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), and Catalan Sign Language (LSC). The relationship between evidentiality, epistemic modality, and mirativity is examined across the expression of perceptual information as an evidential source, inference, and reported speech. It is suggested that evidentiality relies on simulation and subjectification. Finally, a proposal is offered that evidentiality, epistemic modality, and mirativity are primarily expressed through grammaticalized facial markers in signed languages, rather than by means of manual signs. These markers allow for simultaneous expression of grammatical markers. In signed languages, therefore, not only are the semantic components of evidentiality, epistemic modality, and mirativity integrated, so too are the phonological means of expression.

Evidentials and Epistemic Modality

2018 ◽  
pp. 84-108
Author(s):  
Björn Wiemer
Keyword(s):  
Information Source ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Conversational Implicatures ◽  
Linguistic Patterns ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Linguistic Units ◽  
The Way

This chapter deals with the relation between the notional domains of information source and epistemic modality. It surveys various approaches to this relation and the cross-linguistic patterns of the way in which linguistic units (of diverse formats) with evidential or epistemic meanings develop extensions whereby they encroach into each other’s domains. Meaning extensions in either direction can adequately be captured, and confusion between both domains can be avoided, only if in the analysis of the meaning of such units (a) an onomasiological and semasiological perspective and (b) a coded-inferred divide are distinguished. Thus, epistemic extensions often arise as Generalized Conversational Implicatures (GCIs). Concomitantly, reliability functions as a mechanism that mediates between, but cannot be identified with, the contributions of evidential and epistemic meanings. Reliability, together with the predictability of specific markers and discourse expectations, is considered responsible for the rise of epistemic GCIs.

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