Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics - Fachbereich 10 ...

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Aspect choice is relevant also in independent infinitive clauses with constituent negation.
Here, again, pf. verbs are correlated with participant-internal or epistemic modality (6a), ipf.
verbs with deontic modality (6b):
(6a) Ne ej rešit‘ ėtot vopros!
neg her.dat solve:pf.inf this.acc.m.sg question.acc.m.sg
,She is not capable of solving this question.’
(6b) Ne ej rešat‘ ėtot vopros!
neg her.dat solve:ipf.inf this.acc.m.sg question.acc.m.sg
,She is not allowed / supposed to solve (deal with) this question.’
(More lit. for both 6a-b: ,It is not for her to solve this question.’)
Thus, data from Russian amply show that deontic modality is by no means strongly linked to
perfective aspect; rather it is imperfective aspect that shows affinities with deontic modality.
Wherever in Russian a “modality-split” can be noticed in which aspect choice plays a role, it
is a split between deontic (® ipf.) vs. non-deontic (® pf.) modality. Likewise, Russian data do
not sustain the claim of “a strong affinity between non-finiteness and deontic meaning”.
I want to take up these issues by first clarifying the facts w.r.t. Russian, before I would like to
have a look on other Slavic languages. This broader look shall allow us to make conclusions
concerning the question of how aspect and modality are intertwined. My guess is that the
Russian situation reflects general tendencies in the whole Slavic-speaking world and that
these tendencies must have a cognitive motivation. Differences between Slavic languages
would concern rather the degree of “tightness” between aspect choice and the predictability of
a given modal function, i.e. the degree to which modal functions have been integrated into the
set of grammatical functions of two opposed aspect classes.
References
Maurice, F. (1996): Der modale Infinitiv in der modernen russischen Standardsprache.
München: Sagner.
Padučeva, E.V. (1996): Sematičeskie issledovanija (Semantika vremeni i vida v russkom
jazyke – Semantika narrativa). Moskva: Jazyki russkoj kul’tury. [ch. **]
van der Auwera, J., Plungian, V.A. (1998): Modality’s semantic map.Linguistic Typology 2-1,
79-124.
Wiemer, B. (2001): Aspect choice in non-declarative and modalized utterances as extensions from
assertive domains (Lexical semantics, scopes, and categorial distinctions in Russian and
Polish). In: Bartels, H., Störmer, N., Walusiak, E. (Hgg.): Untersuchungen zur Morphologie
und Syntax im Slavischen. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag, 195-221. [with further references]
Propositional aspect in the development of modal inferences in
English
Ziegeler, Debra
Manchester
dz@debraziegeler.me.uk
Evidence from grammaticalisation sources has shown a strong tendency for the gradual
development of epistemic meanings from deontic meanings in English, usually by the
pragmatic processes of the strengthening of pragmatic meaning (see Traugott 1989; Traugott