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Title From conditionality to modality in Luganda (Bantu, JE15): a synchronic and diachronic corpus analysis of the verbal prefix -andi-
Full text https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8532099; http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8532099
Date 2018
Author(s) Kawalya, Deo; de Schryver, Gilles-Maurice; Bostoen, Koen
Abstract This article offers a synchronic and diachronic analysis of the use and meaning of the Luganda verbal prefix -andi-. On the basis of a text corpus of 4 million tokens, we show that the prefix, commonly described as a conditional marker, is mostly involved in the expression of modal meanings, specifically deontic necessity and epistemic possibility. Our thirteen-decade diachronic corpus analysis shows that there is a relationship between the increased use of -andi- outside syntactically complex conditional constructions, i.e. those having both a protasis and an apodosis, and an increase in its expression of modal meanings. Moreover, a reduction in the use of -andi- in complex conditional constructions goes hand in hand with a reduction in its expression of conditional meanings. It is further revealed that contrary to the common cross-linguistic tendency to rely on modality as a source for conditionality, the conditional meaning of andi- is not post-modal. It rather was primarily a conditional marker, which subsequently developed different modal meanings.
Subject(s) Languages and Literatures; modality; conditionality; protasis; apodosis; diachronic corpus study; Luganda
Language eng
Type of publication journalArticle; info:eu-repo/semantics/article; info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
Source JOURNAL OF PRAGMATICS; ISSN: 0378-2166
Repository Gent - University of Gent
Added to C-A: 2019-01-25;14:17:30