Chapter published in:
Afroasiatic: Data and perspectives
Edited by Mauro Tosco
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 339] 2018
► pp. 131–149

The semantics of modals in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic

This paper aims at describing the forms and the meanings of modal items in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic, a Western Sudanic Arabic dialect spoken in Southwestern Sudan. It presents a polysemic analysis of modal items in light of the participant-oriented approach, and it shows how modality can be described in terms of gradable scales rather than discrete meanings. Beyond that, the paper deals with the hypothesis of the unidirectional development of modal meanings according to which deontic meanings precede epistemic ones and it eventually argues that Kordofanian Baggara Arabic presents an atypical path of grammaticalization from a participant-external possibility to a deontic possibility.

Keywords: modality, grammaticalization, Baggara Arabic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The classification of Kordofanian Baggara Arabic
  • 3.Tense, aspect and mood in KBA
  • 4.The forms and the semantics of modals in KBA
    • 4.1 gídir, b=i-gdar “can, be able”
    • 4.2 dāyir “want, need”
    • 4.3 mimkin, imkin “it’s possible”
    • 4.4 ille “except”
    • 4.5 lāzim “it’s necessary”
    • 4.6 la buddi “inevitably”
    • 4.7 axēr lē “had better, ought to”
    • 4.8 min la buddi “it’s likely”
    • 4.9 bukūn (epistemic) “must”
  • 5.Conclusions
  • List of symbols and glosses
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 01 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.339.08man
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