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Modes of Modality: Modality, typology, and universal grammar
Edited by Elisabeth Leiss and Werner Abraham
[Studies in Language Companion Series 149] 2014
► pp. 219–260

Epistemic, evidential and attitudinal markers in clause-medial position in Cantonese

ORCID logo | Hong Kong Polytechnic University
ORCID logo | The Open University of Hong Kong
This paper examines two types of clause-medial stance markers in Cantonese.* We trace the evolution of these stance markers from their lexical origins as complement-taking psych verbs and directional verbs. Similar to English I think parentheticals, the evolution of the Cantonese psych verbs (e.g. gok3dak1 ‘feel/think’; paa3 ‘fear’; m4zi1 ‘don’t know’) involves ‘insubordination’ of the embedded complement clause. However, in Cantonese, subject ellipsis and topic constructions play an important role in the reanalysis of psych verbs into epistemic and negative attitudinal markers in clause-medial position.1 Directional verbs in Cantonese (e.g. faan1 ‘return’ and maai4 ‘approach’), on the other hand, develop into attitudinal particles via verbal complementation and a disjunctive strategy. Central to the development of both types of stance markers is the first person subject ngo5, whether explicitly or implicitly expressed, which makes the process of subjectification possible.
Published online: 24 January 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.149.08yap
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