19.1466, Qs: Conditionals Instead of Must/Should/May Modals

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LINGUIST List: Vol-19-1466. Fri May 02 2008. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 19.1466, Qs: Conditionals Instead of Must/Should/May Modals

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1)
Date: 29-Apr-2008
From: Stefan Knoob < sk95 at soas.ac.uk >
Subject: Conditionals Instead of Must/Should/May Modals

 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 02 May 2008 02:14:18
From: Stefan Knoob [sk95 at soas.ac.uk]
Subject: Conditionals Instead of Must/Should/May Modals
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In some languages (e.g. Japanese and Korean), conditional constructions are
the only option for the expression of deontic modalities. 
That is, there are no MUST/SHOULD/MAY-type functors and instead OPTATIVE,
OBLIGATIVE, PROHIBITIVE, PERMISSIVE and similar modalities are exclusively
expressed through constructions such as

IF X then GOOD (If you help, that would be great = Could you help me?)
ONLY IF X then BECOME (Only if I go will it do = I have to go)
EVEN IF X then OK (Even if you eat it's OK = You may eat)

My queries then are: 
(1) Apart from Korean & Japanese, are there any other languages where
deontic modalities are exclusively or predominantly expressed with
conditionals?
(2) Are there any languages where deontic modalities are only/predominantly
expressed through subjunctives?

Even 1-word answers with the language name would be appreciated, references
would be great. As usual, a follow-up summary will be posted. 

Stefan Knoob 
School of Oriental and African Studies, London 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
                     Typology






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