Mood and Modality


Book Description

Palmer investigates the category of modality, drawing on a wealth of examples from a wide variety of languages.




The Oxford Handbook of Modality and Mood


Book Description

This handbook offers an in depth and comprehensive state of the art survey of the linguistic domains of modality and mood. An international team of experts in the field examines the full range of methodological and theoretical approaches to the many facets of the phenomena involved. Parts 1 and 2 of the volume present the basic linguistic facts about the systems of modality and mood in the languages of the world, covering the semantics and the expression of different subtypes of modality and mood respectively. The authors also examine the interaction of modality and mood, mutually and with other semantic categories such as aspect, time, negation, and evidentiality. In Part 3, authors discuss the features of the modality and mood systems in five typologically different language groups, while chapters in Part 4 deal with wider perspectives on modality and mood: diachrony, areality, first language acquisition, and sign language. Finally, Part 5 looks at how modality and mood are handled in different theoretical approaches: formal syntax, functional linguistics, cognitive linguistics and construction grammar, and formal semantics.




Japanese Mood and Modality in Systemic Functional Linguistics


Book Description

This book is a cross-linguistic and interdisciplinary exploration of modality within systemic functional linguistics (SFL). Drawing upon the broad SFL notion of modality that refers to the intermediate degrees between the positive and negative poles, the individual papers probe into the modality systems in English and Japanese. The papers cover issues such as the conceptual nature of modality in both languages, the characterization of modulation in Japanese, the trans-grammatical aspects of modality in relation to mood and grammatical metaphor in both languages, and the modality uses and pragmatic impairment by individuals with a developmental disorder from a neurocognitive perspective. The book demonstrates a functional account of Japanese within an SFL model of language with a fresh perspective to Japanese linguistics. It also refers to cross-linguistic issues concerning how the principles and theories of SFL serve to empirically elaborate descriptions of individual languages, which will lead to the enrichment of the theory and practice of linguistics and beyond.




Modality and Mood in Romance


Book Description

Over the past few decades, the book series Linguistische Arbeiten Linguistic Studies], comprising over 500 volumes, has made a significant contribution to the development of linguistic theory both in Germany and internationally. The series will continue to deliver new impulses for research and maintain the central insight of linguistics that progress can only be made in acquiring new knowledge about human languages both synchronically and diachronically by closely combining empirical and theoretical analyses. To this end, we invite submission of high-quality linguistic studies from all the central areas of general linguistics and the linguistics of individual languages which address topical questions, discuss new data and advance the development of linguistic theory.




Mood, Aspect, Modality Revisited


Book Description

What is a linguistic category and what kinds of categories do the labels subjunctive, imperative, future, aspect, and modality refer to? The current literature assumes a straightforward mapping between grammatical category and semantic function, and descriptions of well-studied languages cultivate a sense of predictability in patterns. However, as the editors and contributors of "Mood, Aspect, Modality Revisited" show, this predictability and stability vanish once lesser known patterns and languages are studied. While it is feasible to retain certain distinctions among tense, aspect, and mood (TAM) in analysis of specific issues in specific languages, ongoing formal and experimental research seems to indicate that these traditional grammatical distinctions may ultimately be illusionary. "Mood, Aspect, Modality Revisited" seeks more general or fundamental grammatical structures that can encompass the breadth of related concepts traditionally placed in the TAM categories."




The Oxford Handbook of Modality and Mood


Book Description

This handbook offers an in depth and comprehensive state of the art survey of the linguistic domains of modality and mood. An international team of experts in the field examine the full range of methodological and theoretical approaches to the many facets of the phenomena involved. Following an opening section that provides an introduction and historical background to the topic, the volume is divided into five parts. Parts 1 and 2 present the basic linguistic facts about the systems of modality and mood in the languages of the world, covering the semantics and the expression of different subtypes of modality and mood respectively. The authors also examine the interaction of modality and mood, mutually and with other semantic categories such as aspect, time, negation, and evidentiality. In Part 3, authors discuss the features of the modality and mood systems in five typologically different language groups, while chapters in Part 4 deal with wider perspectives on modality and mood: diachrony, areality, first language acquisition, and sign language. Finally, Part 5 looks at how modality and mood are handled in different theoretical approaches: formal syntax, functional linguistics, cognitive linguistics and construction grammar, and formal semantics.




The Handbook of English Linguistics


Book Description

The Handbook of English Linguistics is a collection ofarticles written by leading specialists on all core areas ofEnglish linguistics that provides a state-of-the-art account ofresearch in the field. Brings together articles from the core areas of Englishlinguistics, including syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, aswell as variation, discourse, stylistics and usage Written by specialists from around the world Provides an introduction to a key area of English Linguisticsand includes a discussion of the most recent theoretical anddescriptive research, as well as extensive bibliographicreferences




Modality, Mood and Aspect in Spoken Arabic


Book Description

First published in 1995. Part of the library of Arabic Linguistics series which devotes itself to all issues of Arabic linguistics in all its manifestations on both the theoretical and applied levels. The results of these studies will also be of use in the field of linguistics in general, as well as related subjects. This book is Monography 11 and looks at modality, mood and aspect in spoken Arabic with special reference to Egypt and the Levant.




Mood and Modality in Hurrian


Book Description

In a long dead language isolate such as Hurrian, grammatical studies are replete with difficulties. The paucity of material and our inability to compare it to modern, well-documented languages typically results in more questions than answers. Many posited answers to these questions lead inevitably to dead ends. Studies in languages such as Hurrian run the risk of either stagnating due to an adherence to the status quo by scholars or fragmenting when no two scholars can (or will) agree on any point. In this book, Campbell has in many ways broken with tradition in an attempt to go beneath the surface and reveal further complexities in Hurrian grammar. This work, the first English-language monograph on Hurrian since 1941, is not a dogmatic treatise meant to counter the status quo but an exploration of the complexities of the Hurrian language from a new perspective. His conclusions may challenge present perceptions, but the hope is that they will in turn inspire challenges, for it is only in this way that our understanding of this wonderful language and the people who spoke it can be furthered. Mood and Modality in Hurrian provides a formal and functional analysis of the Hurrian modal morphemes. Unlike the better-known Semitic and Indo-European languages of the ancient Near East, Hurrian has a rich complement of modal endings. This at-times bewildering variety in form and function of modal morphemes in Hurrian has been a largely unstudied topic. Although it has been touched upon in a number of studies, it has not received a detailed treatment until now. Beyond a philological treatment of a dead language, Campbell also adds to the accumulated knowledge of ergativity. This book explores the interplay between ergativity and modality in Hurrian. Furthermore, Campbell explores the issue of voice in Hurrian and its relation to modality.




Mood and Modality


Book Description

'Mood' (subjunctive, etc.) and 'modality' (can, may, must, etc.) are familiar terms in linguistics, but this is the first book to present a systematic and principled description, across a wide variety of languages, of what can be considered a single grammatical category. The notion of modality is notoriously vague and a number of definitions have been proposed, encompassing the attitude or opinion of the speaker, speech acts, subjectivity, non-factivity, non-assertion, possibility and necessity. Often such definitions have been language-specific. By examining data (including data on evidentials) from many different languages - native American and Australian languages, for example, as well as Latin, Greek, English and others - F. R. Palmer is able to compare and contrast the ways in which modality is grammaticalized, its various functions, and its relation to other grammatical categories. From this typological approach arise cross-linguistic generalisations and theoretical conclusions that will interest the specialist as much as the advanced student. Written with F. R. Palmer's characteristic clarity and attention to detail, Mood and modality is a major contribution to our understanding of a basic topic in language studies.