Existential possessive modality in the emergence of Modern Hebrew
Aynat Rubinstein | Department of Hebrew Language and Department of Linguistics | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
This paper documents the evolution of existential possessive
modals in a literary corpus of Emergent Modern Hebrew (EMH). Modal uses of
the existential element yeš are shown to have changed their
form and their meaning during this period. Morphosyntactically, the
possessive variant declined, and it became impossible to inflect modal
yeš. Semantically, a special meaning of ability that
was available in the classical Hebrew variants of the construction was lost,
and modal yeš turned into an expression that exclusively
conveys impersonal deontic necessity. Language contact, primarily with
Russian, is suggested to have shaped the morphosyntax of existential
possessive modals in EMH, whereas internally-motivated processes based on
the inherited semantics may explain the meaning modal yeš
ultimately developed. On this view, the grammar of Modern Hebrew exhibits recombination of
features from languages in contact at the time of language revival.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Existential possessive modality in EMH: A construction in flux
- 2.1Research questions
- 2.2Procedure
- 2.3Corpus findings
- 2.3.1Frequencies of the constructions
- 2.3.2Modal force
- 2.3.3Modality type
- 3.Continuity and forces of change
- 3.1Existential possessive modality in classical Hebrew
- 3.2The role of contact
- 3.3The exceptionality of modern Hebrew
- 4.Theoretical implications
- 4.1Theoretical implications: Meaning
- 4.2Theoretical implications: Form
- 5.Conclusion
-
Acknowledgments
-
Notes
-
References
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