Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics - Fachbereich 10 ...

Workshop 1 – Abr 139
3. Progressive ASP + deontic M:
Kimi-wa [TP [MP1 [ASPP [soko-de mat]tei] (a)nakereba narana] i]
you-TOP there-LOC wait-GER IPFDEO -NPST
‘You must be waiting there’ (unambiguously deontic)
4. Progressive ASP + epistemic M:
Kimi-wa [MP2 [TP [ASPP [ soko-de mat]te i] ru daroo]
you-TOP there-LOC wait-GER IPF-NPST EPI
‘You’ll probably be waiting there’ (epistemic)
Nevertheless, an effect of aspectuality on modality may be observed which might support the
general status of the connection between (im)perfectivity and type of modality. Concretely, in
specific contexts, sentences with progressive ASP and deontic M can carry the implication of
epistemicity. The possibility of an implicature here has already been pointed out by some
authors (Tamura 1999, Amamiya 2000). However, actual examples with epistemic readings in
empirical data are vanishingly rare. Apparently, the conventionalization of this implicature is
blocked by the rich extant system of epistemic modal marking.
Modality, negation and aspect:
the case of the Russian mozhet and nado
Paducheva , Elena V.
Moscow
avenul@atom.ru
It is a well known fact that in Slavic languages there is a strong tendency to use imperfective
in negative contexts. However, linguistic mechanisms that lead to correlation between
negation and imperfective are still poorly known and need further investigation. This paper
deals with modal contexts. The term modality is meant here to refer to contrasts in the sphere
of possibility and necessity (as in Auwera, Plungian 1998).
Two particular instances are considered: the Russian verb moch’ in its epistemic use, when it
expresses two alternative possibilities, and the modal word nado expressing necessity.
1. The verb moch’ in its epistemic use, both in the present and in the past tense, expresses
lack of knowledge: two mutually excluded possibilities are accepted as plausible. Two
ontological categories of verbs may enter the construction moch’ + infinitive, and the aspect
of a verb is determined by its category.
1.1. Verbs of happening combined with moch’ in the past tense are in the perfective aspect:
(1) On mog[past] oshibit’sya ‘he could make a mistake’, obmanut’ ‘deceive’, opozdat’ ‘to be
late’, nayabednichat’, donesti, ‘to peach’ sovrat’ ‘tell a lie’ uklonit’sya, ‘avoid’,
promaxnut’sya, ‘to miss the target’ etc.
The same is true about the present tense of moch’, when the event refers to the future:
(2) On mozhet[present] oshibit’sya, obmanut’, opozdat’, nayabednichat’, donesti, sovrat’,
uklonit’sya, promaxnut’sya, etc.
Verbs with a negative connotation evidently predominate in this construction. In fact, the
negative connotation makes the interpretation in the sense of objective possibility (» ability)
highly improbable, so that epistemic meaning becomes the only one plausible. But verbs with
a positive connotation or evaluationally neutral ones are possible as well, especially with the
past tense of the modal verb: