Covert Patterns of Modality PDF Download

Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Covert Patterns of Modality PDF full book. Access full book title Covert Patterns of Modality by Werner Abraham. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.

Covert Patterns of Modality

Covert Patterns of Modality PDF Author: Werner Abraham
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443842915
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 450

Get Book

Book Description
This typological overview compares the degree to which different languages have means to give expression to modality (possibility, necessity) without lexical and direct inflectional means. The criterial patterns derive from a variety of languages such as German, English, Chinese, French, Scandinavian, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Polish, and Gothic as well as Old High German. They encompass mainly the auxiliaries HAVE and BE, together with either an infinitival embedding of a full verb linked by the infinitival preposition TO, or other aspectual means. It is demonstrated that what appears as typical covert modal expressions in the Germanic languages, and the Indo-European ones in a wider sense, cannot be seen as a recurrent pattern in non-Indo-European languages. Yet, there are recurrent and plausible forms that allow for generalizations.