K'tlê – A Constructed Language

gqe/ Mood, Modality, and Polarity

This chapter covers modality, including the imperative mood.

  1. Modals
    1. Morphological Considerations
    2. Modality and Polarity
    3. Modals as Independent Words
  2. Imperative Mood
    1. Prohibitives

Modals

A modal prefix adds to the verb an implicit argument which refers to the speaker when used in declarative statements and to the addressee(s) when used in either kind of question. The modal prefixes happen to occur in pairs, as show in the table following:

The Modals
Row Tag Root Description Tag Root Description Type
1 Ded- nem- nem- Logical Necessity Pos- cin- cin- Possibility Epistemic
2 Exp- za/- za̅- Expectation Unc- hil- hil- Uncertainty
3 Obl- loz- loz- Social Necessity Prm- poh- poh- Permission Deontic
4 Nec- tex- tex- Physical Necessity Cap- mak- mak- Capability

A modal prefix specifies a modality and indicates that the implicit referent has an opinion of a kind according the modality concerning the situation. The time of the opinion is that of the utterance, unless the clause is displaced by appearing in a noun clause which is the object of a communication or mental state verb.

For both of these, a temporal adverb or other time cue specifies the time of the situation.

With these two, a temporal adverb or other time cue specifies the time of the permission, obligation, capability, or inevitability rather than the time of the situation. However, the latter will be relatively non-past to the former.

The modalities in row 1 (and row 2 here) are called epistemic, while those in row 3 (and row 4 here) are called deontic.

The temporal relations are shown in the following figure: 
  Deontic       O              Epistemic     O           O = opinion
               /|\                          /|\          P = permission etc.
              / | \                        / | \         S = situation
             /  |  \                      /  |  \        T = time indicator
            /   |   \                    /   |   \
           /    |    \                  /    |    \
          /     |     \                /     |     \
  T -->  P      P      P       T -->  S      S      S
          \      \      \
           \      \      \
            S      S      S

        past  present future        past  present future

Morphological Considerations

A modal prefix is placed after any argument or location prefix, but before any incorporated noun, and precludes imperative argument prefixes.

Modality and Polarity

The presence of the negative suffix {y-an} |y-an| (-Neg) logically negates the situation and not the modality.

Polar questions are marked with the interrogative suffix {w-ax} |w-ax| (-Int). Each polar question has two expected answers: an affirmative one and a negative one. The affirmative expected answer to a modal polar question lacks the negative suffix and has the same modality as the question. But the negative expected answer, in addition to having the negative suffix, replaces the modality with the one in the opposite column (according to the table).

Modals as Independent Words

Besides being used as prefixes, the modals may be used as separate words. When they are, the negative suffix {y-an} |y-an| (-Neg) may be used; in this case, the modality is negated (e.g. {lozqi} |loz£i| "when obligated", {li/zanqi} |li̅zan£i| "when not obligated"). These words are impersonal and highly defective: there are no unmarked forms and the affirmative and negative stems can take only the nominalizer suffix {-z<o>} |-z(o)| (-Nom) and the adjunctivizer suffix {-q<i>} |-£(i)| (-Con).

The secondary forms are used in specifying the circumstances or time of the matrix situation and the nominal forms are used as arguments for a limited set of words.

Possibly, the nominal forms can be incorporated?
The complete set of forms is listed here:

Tag Secondary Nominal Description Type
Ded nen£i ne̅man£i nemzo ne̅manzo Logical Necessity Epistemic
Pos cin£i ci̅nan£i cinzo ci̅nanzo Possibility
Exp za̅£ za̅can£i za̅z za̅canzo Expectation
Unc hil£i hi̅lan£i hilzo hi̅lanzo Uncertainty
Obl loz£i li̅zan£i lozzo li̅zanzo Social Necessity Deontic
Prm poh£i pi̅han£i pohzo pi̅hanzo Permission
Nec tex£i te̅xan£i texzo te̅xanzo Physical Necessity
Cap mak'£i macan£i makzo macanzo Capability

Imperative Mood

The imperative mood forms are constructed like other verb forms, except that the imperative prefixes are used instead of the usual non-imperative ones. Imperative forms can appear only in primary clauses (including those of direct quotations) and in the main clause of an indirect quotation. Also, imperative forms of stative verbs are very rare.

The imperative mood and the modal prefixes preclude each other. Imperative forms can be used in echo questions, but not in other kinds of questions.

Imperative mood forms have the following interpretations in primary clauses, based on the personal marking for the agent:

Forms with coreferential arguments (Cor) can't appear in primary clauses, but can appear in the main clause of an indirect quotation. When Cor is the agent of such a nominalized imperative, the verb is a true imperative and Cor has the same referent as the recipient of the matrix clause. When 1S, 1XP, and 1NP are used in the same circumstances, that is as agents of the imperative and recipients of the communication verb, the verb is also a true imperative (otherwise, verb with 1S, 1XP, and 1NP as agents have the same interpretations as for primary clauses).

Prohibitives

A prohibitive verb form is simply one with an imperative personal prefix and the negative suffix {y-an} |y-an| (-Neg). As above, the action is negated, not the modality.

page started: 2009.Mar.09 Mon
prior version: 2009.Mar.13 Fri
prior version: 2009.Oct.21 Wed
last modified: 2010.Mar.20 Sat
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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