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On the logic of generalizations about cross-linguistic aspect-modality links

  • Werner Abraham✝
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Modality–Aspect Interfaces
This chapter is in the book Modality–Aspect Interfaces

Abstract

In what follows the attempt is made, in all due brevity and succinctness, to gain more solid insight into links between aspect and modality as observed to hold in German and other West and North Germanic languages in Abraham (1990a, b, 2001, 2002, 2005). The basic idea (developed in more detail in the Introduction to this volume) is that there are such logical relations at the basis of the hypothesis, but that they are subject to markedness influences to the extent that the linking generalizations may be under demise in the context of a set of welldefined exceptions to the default links. The directions of the solutions under non-default contexts are those predictable by the A(spect)-T(ense)-M(odality) Hierarchy according to which, under specific markedness conditions, aspect form gives way to tense form, which in turn gives way to modal form if the default form is given up (Leiss 2000, 2002).

Abstract

In what follows the attempt is made, in all due brevity and succinctness, to gain more solid insight into links between aspect and modality as observed to hold in German and other West and North Germanic languages in Abraham (1990a, b, 2001, 2002, 2005). The basic idea (developed in more detail in the Introduction to this volume) is that there are such logical relations at the basis of the hypothesis, but that they are subject to markedness influences to the extent that the linking generalizations may be under demise in the context of a set of welldefined exceptions to the default links. The directions of the solutions under non-default contexts are those predictable by the A(spect)-T(ense)-M(odality) Hierarchy according to which, under specific markedness conditions, aspect form gives way to tense form, which in turn gives way to modal form if the default form is given up (Leiss 2000, 2002).

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface ix
  5. Introduction: Aspect-modality interfaces and interchanges across languages xi
  6. General
  7. On the logic of generalizations about cross-linguistic aspect-modality links 3
  8. The silent and aspect-driven patterns of deonticity and epistemicity: A chapter in diachronic typology 15
  9. Propositional aspect and the development of modal inferences in English 43
  10. Towards an understanding of the progressive form in English: The Imperative as a heuristic tool 81
  11. Epistemic modality and aspect contingency in Armenian, Russian, and German 97
  12. Slavic
  13. Indefiniteness and imperfectivity as micro-grammatical contexts of epistemicity in German-Slovene translations 119
  14. The connections between modality, aspectuality, and temporality in Modern Russian 147
  15. Aspectual coercion in Bulgarian negative imperatives 175
  16. Russian modals možet 'can' and dolžen 'must' selecting the imperfective in negative contexts 197
  17. African
  18. Tense, mood, and aspect in Gungbe (Kwa) 215
  19. The modal system of the Igbo language 241
  20. Asian
  21. The aspect-modality link in the Japanese verbal complex and beyond 279
  22. The aspect-modality link in Japanese: The case of the evaluating sentence 309
  23. Amerindian
  24. The Lakota aspect/modality markers - kinica and tkhá 331
  25. Creole
  26. A note on modality and aspect in Saramaccan 359
  27. Diachronic
  28. Aspects of a reconstruction of form and function of modal verbs in Germanic and other languages 371
  29. The autopsy of a modal – insights from the historical development of German 385
  30. Index of authors 417
  31. Index of subjects 419
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.79.05abr

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Preface ix
  5. Introduction: Aspect-modality interfaces and interchanges across languages xi
  6. General
  7. On the logic of generalizations about cross-linguistic aspect-modality links 3
  8. The silent and aspect-driven patterns of deonticity and epistemicity: A chapter in diachronic typology 15
  9. Propositional aspect and the development of modal inferences in English 43
  10. Towards an understanding of the progressive form in English: The Imperative as a heuristic tool 81
  11. Epistemic modality and aspect contingency in Armenian, Russian, and German 97
  12. Slavic
  13. Indefiniteness and imperfectivity as micro-grammatical contexts of epistemicity in German-Slovene translations 119
  14. The connections between modality, aspectuality, and temporality in Modern Russian 147
  15. Aspectual coercion in Bulgarian negative imperatives 175
  16. Russian modals možet 'can' and dolžen 'must' selecting the imperfective in negative contexts 197
  17. African
  18. Tense, mood, and aspect in Gungbe (Kwa) 215
  19. The modal system of the Igbo language 241
  20. Asian
  21. The aspect-modality link in the Japanese verbal complex and beyond 279
  22. The aspect-modality link in Japanese: The case of the evaluating sentence 309
  23. Amerindian
  24. The Lakota aspect/modality markers - kinica and tkhá 331
  25. Creole
  26. A note on modality and aspect in Saramaccan 359
  27. Diachronic
  28. Aspects of a reconstruction of form and function of modal verbs in Germanic and other languages 371
  29. The autopsy of a modal – insights from the historical development of German 385
  30. Index of authors 417
  31. Index of subjects 419
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