3 To want, to think, to say: The development of WANT in German from volitional to reportative modal
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Eva-Maria Remberger
Abstract
In this paper, I claim that the development of want in German from a volitional modal verb to a reportative modal is multidimensional, requiring discussion on all grammatical levels, including pragmatics. I first discuss the properties of some propositional attitude verbs such as think and believe, say and want. I then describe the main grammatical properties of volitional and reportative want-constructions in German, at the levels of both semantics and morphosyntax. Particular attention is then paid to two dimensions of pragmatics, at-issueness and eventiveness. I apply some tests proposed in the literature to the reportative modal want, which in German clearly encodes a not-at-issue and non-eventive reportative component. Finally, I sketch a grammaticalisation as well as pragmaticalisation path for reportative want. The most important finding is that in want-constructions a doxastic conversational background is present, connected to volitional modality (sitting in the appropriate functional category). This doxastic conversational background then takes over and leads, in the final step, to a reportative evidential interpretation.
Abstract
In this paper, I claim that the development of want in German from a volitional modal verb to a reportative modal is multidimensional, requiring discussion on all grammatical levels, including pragmatics. I first discuss the properties of some propositional attitude verbs such as think and believe, say and want. I then describe the main grammatical properties of volitional and reportative want-constructions in German, at the levels of both semantics and morphosyntax. Particular attention is then paid to two dimensions of pragmatics, at-issueness and eventiveness. I apply some tests proposed in the literature to the reportative modal want, which in German clearly encodes a not-at-issue and non-eventive reportative component. Finally, I sketch a grammaticalisation as well as pragmaticalisation path for reportative want. The most important finding is that in want-constructions a doxastic conversational background is present, connected to volitional modality (sitting in the appropriate functional category). This doxastic conversational background then takes over and leads, in the final step, to a reportative evidential interpretation.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- 1 Introduction 1
-
Part I: Contrasting reported speech and reported thought
- 2 The morphosyntax of reported speech and reported thought: A preliminary survey 15
- 3 To want, to think, to say: The development of WANT in German from volitional to reportative modal 41
- 4 Reporting speech and thought in Upper Napo Kichwa 73
- 5 On the emergence of quotative bueno in Spanish: A dialectal view 107
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Part II: Pathways from saying to thinking
- 6 Thinking out loud? Je me suis dit ‘I said to myself’ and j’étais là ‘I was there’ in French talk-in-interaction 141
- 7 Self-quotations of speech and thought, and how to distinguish them 171
- 8 When saying becomes thinking: A case of the Georgian autonomous quotative metki 207
- 9 Reported thought embedded in reported speech in Thai news reports 239
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Part III: Reported thought as a category in its own right
- 10 Complementizer deletion in structures of reporting on thinking in Argentinian Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese 263
- 11 Towards a typology of reported thought 291
- Index 317
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- 1 Introduction 1
-
Part I: Contrasting reported speech and reported thought
- 2 The morphosyntax of reported speech and reported thought: A preliminary survey 15
- 3 To want, to think, to say: The development of WANT in German from volitional to reportative modal 41
- 4 Reporting speech and thought in Upper Napo Kichwa 73
- 5 On the emergence of quotative bueno in Spanish: A dialectal view 107
-
Part II: Pathways from saying to thinking
- 6 Thinking out loud? Je me suis dit ‘I said to myself’ and j’étais là ‘I was there’ in French talk-in-interaction 141
- 7 Self-quotations of speech and thought, and how to distinguish them 171
- 8 When saying becomes thinking: A case of the Georgian autonomous quotative metki 207
- 9 Reported thought embedded in reported speech in Thai news reports 239
-
Part III: Reported thought as a category in its own right
- 10 Complementizer deletion in structures of reporting on thinking in Argentinian Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese 263
- 11 Towards a typology of reported thought 291
- Index 317
