30.3900, Diss: Typology: Sepideh Koohkan: ''The Typology of Modality in Modern West Iranian Languages''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-3900. Tue Oct 15 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.3900, Diss: Typology: Sepideh Koohkan: ''The Typology of Modality in Modern West Iranian Languages''

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Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2019 16:07:26
From: Sepideh Koohkan [sepideh.koohkan at gmail.com]
Subject: The Typology of Modality in Modern West Iranian Languages

 
Institution: Antwerp University Association 
Program: Joint PhD program with University of Tarbiat Modares (Iran, Tehran) 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2019 

Author: Sepideh Koohkan

Dissertation Title: The Typology of Modality in Modern West Iranian Languages 

Linguistic Field(s): Typology


Dissertation Director(s):
Jan Nuyts
Mohammad Dabir Moghaddam
Arsalan Golfam

Dissertation Abstract:

Modality concerns with the modifications and semantic changes, which the
speaker makes in the proposition to indicate his/her commitment and assessment
to the state of affairs. On the other hand, typology deals with the varieties
in languages to achieve generalizations cross-linguistically. This thesis
studies modality, as a semantic notion and typology, as mostly a formal
category, in eleven New West Iranian languages, including Balochi (Bamposht),
Gerashi, Gilaki (Shaft), Hawrami (Hawraman Takht), Kahangi, Kurdish
(Sanandaj), Lori (Balaguariveh), Persian, Semnani, Tati (Takestan) and Vafsi
based on Nuyts (2005 and furthermore). The main goal of this dissertation is
to examine the possibility of categorizing languages based on a semantic
feature, which is modality here, and to discover the differences between this
type of classification of languages and the other available categorizations
which mostly have a morphological or syntactic basis. The results reveal that
all these languages, enjoy different types of expressions to express modality,
including modal auxiliaries, nouns, adjectives, adverbs and main verbs (mostly
complex verbs). However, this enjoyment is systematic, i.e. first, in all the
above languages, these are the modal auxiliaries which not only have a high
frequency in the languages, but they are also the more native elements.
Secondly, some languages, including Balochi (Bamposht dialect) and Hawrami
(Hawraman Takht dialect) apply adverbs to express those dimensions of modality
which prototypically is on modal auxiliaries in other languages to express and
that is why they contain less modal auxiliaries comparing to other languages.
Finally, modal nouns and adjectives (and consequently modal main verbs, which
are mostly complex verbs, constructed with modal nouns/adjectives and a light
verb), directly or indirectly are loan words from Arabic. Furthermore, modal
auxiliaries, and also some of the other modal elements, are polysemous, that
is, they are used to state several meanings in the domain of modality. In the
search for classifying languages based on a semantic feature, besides the
semantic map of modality in these languages, two other methods were also
suggested. One, classifying languages, according to the number of the elements
they apply to express modality. In this method, instead of presenting branches
that a language is or is not a member of, a continuum was proposed where all
languages laid on it based on the number of modal auxiliaries and modal
adverbs. The other classifies languages, based on their origin, where the
modal auxiliaries with the same source, are grouped as one category.

Keywords: modality, typology, Modern West Iranian languages, semantic map,
polysemy, grammaticalization, (inter)subjectification.




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