Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables, schemes and diagrams
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Organisation and cross-referencing
- List of abbreviations
- Map
- 1 The language and its speakers
- 2 Phonology
- 3 Word classes
- 4 Nominal morphology and noun structure
- 5 Noun classes and classifiers
- 6 Possession
- 7 Case marking and grammatical relations
- 8 Number
- 9 Further nominal categories
- 10 Derivation and compounding
- 11 Closed word classes
- 12 Verb classes and predicate structure
- 13 Valency changing and argument rearranging mechanisms
- 14 Tense and evidentiality
- 15 Aspect, Aktionsart and degree
- 16 Mood and modality
- 17 Negation
- 18 Serial verb constructions and verb compounding
- 19 Complex predicates
- 20 Participles and nominalisations
- 21 Clause types and other syntactic issues
- 22 Subordinate clauses and clause linking
- 23 Relative clauses
- 24 Complement clauses
- 25 Discourse organisation
- 26 Issues in etymology and semantics
- Appendix. The main features of the Tariana dialects
- Texts
- Vocabulary
- References
- Index of authors, languages and subjects
16 - Mood and modality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables, schemes and diagrams
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Organisation and cross-referencing
- List of abbreviations
- Map
- 1 The language and its speakers
- 2 Phonology
- 3 Word classes
- 4 Nominal morphology and noun structure
- 5 Noun classes and classifiers
- 6 Possession
- 7 Case marking and grammatical relations
- 8 Number
- 9 Further nominal categories
- 10 Derivation and compounding
- 11 Closed word classes
- 12 Verb classes and predicate structure
- 13 Valency changing and argument rearranging mechanisms
- 14 Tense and evidentiality
- 15 Aspect, Aktionsart and degree
- 16 Mood and modality
- 17 Negation
- 18 Serial verb constructions and verb compounding
- 19 Complex predicates
- 20 Participles and nominalisations
- 21 Clause types and other syntactic issues
- 22 Subordinate clauses and clause linking
- 23 Relative clauses
- 24 Complement clauses
- 25 Discourse organisation
- 26 Issues in etymology and semantics
- Appendix. The main features of the Tariana dialects
- Texts
- Vocabulary
- References
- Index of authors, languages and subjects
Summary
Tariana distinguishes interrogative and imperative moods. Interrogative mood is marked through a separate set of evidentials fused with tense (see §14.2). Imperatives are discussed in §16.1. Modalities include: frustrative (§16.2), intentional (§16.3), apprehensive (§16.4), uncertainty (§16.5), conditional (§16.6), purposive (§16.7) and counter-expectation (§16.8). Declarative-assertive – which can combine with most modalities – is discussed in §16.9. Modalities expressed with complex predicates are the admirative and the epistemic construction – see §19.6 and §19.1.
Imperatives
Tariana has the following distinctions in the positive imperative:
• simple (unmarked) – §16.1.1;
• proximate (‘do here’) – §16.1.2;
• distal (‘do there’)- §16.1.2;
• postponed (‘do some time later’) – § 16.1.2;
• detrimental (‘do to your own detriment’) – § 16.1.3;
• by proxy (order on someone else's behalf) – § 16.1.4;
• conative precative (‘please try and do’) – §16.1.5;
• cohortative (‘let's do’) – §16.1.6;
• polite suggestion (‘please do’) – § 16.1.7.
There are two more imperatives, possibly, borrowed from Tucano – see §16.1.8. The negative imperative is discussed in §17.3. It has just three distinctions: a general prohibitive marked with mhãida, a reported form marked with -pida, and polite suggestion -nha. Two imperative markers are also used in interrogative clauses – the polite suggestion -nha (§16.1.7) and the postponed imperative -wa (§16.1.2).
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- A Grammar of Tariana, from Northwest Amazonia , pp. 371 - 399Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003