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Universal 1677:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1677:

Original
There is a strong tendency for agent-oriented modality to be expressed by verbs, auxiliaries or non-bound particles, whereas speaker-oriented and epistemic modalities are often expressed inflectionally.
Standardized
There is a strong tendency for agent-oriented modality to be expressed by verbs, auxiliaries or non-bound particles, whereas speaker-oriented and epistemic modalities are often expressed inflectionally.
Keywords
modality, verb, auxiliary, mood
Domain
inflection, syntax
Type
no genuine implication; rather: provided that
Status
achronic but presumably diachronically motivated
Quality
statistical
Basis
50 languages of Bybee 1985b sample; see Bybee 1985b: 215-6
Source
Bybee 1985b: 165ff.
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    1. Definitions: AGENT-ORIENTED MODALITY encompasses all modal meanings that predicate conditions on an agent with regard to the completion of an action referred to by the main predicate, e.g. obligation, desire, ability, permission, and root possibility.EPISTEMICS are clausal-scope indicators of a speaker’s commitment to the truth of a proposition. Markers of directives, such as imperatives, optatives or permissives, which represent speech acts through which a speaker attempts to move an addressee to action, are called SPEAKER-ORIENTED. (Bybee & Fleischman 1995: 6)2. This correlation suggested a diachronic scenario whereby as agent-oriented modalities grammaticalize, they develop into other types and gradually take on inflectional expression. (Bybee 1985: 197, Bybee, Perkins, & Pagliuca 1994: 181)

    1. May 2020

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