The thesis deals with epistemic modality and its realizations in English and Lithuanian. It focuses on the quantitative and qualitative parameters of equivalence between the lexical exponents of epistemic modality in the two languages. The axis of contrast is laid on the auxiliary and adverb strategies (van der Auwera et al. 2005): a probe is made into the cross-linguistic distribution and behavior of the central English modal auxiliaries of possibility and necessity and epistemic stance adverbials as opposed to their counterparts in Lithuanian. It is a contrastive analysis based on the data obtained from a self-compiled bi-directional parallel corpus of fiction texts and their translations into Lithuanian and English. The findings show that, despite the existence of the same adverbial and verb strategies for epistemic meaning realization in the two languages, their implementation differs. Lithuanian shows a significantly higher frequency of adverbials as opposed to English. Due to the high degree of grammaticalization, English usually favors modal auxiliaries for expressing epistemic modality. The findings show that epistemic meaning can be determined by various constraints, the most important of which are complement stativity and subject specification. The analysis of the translational paradigm could suggest that the boundaries between low and high degree of probability can be blurred in Lithuanian. The abundance of inserted modal adverbials and the phenomenon of zero... [to full text] / Disertacijoje tiriamas episteminis modalumas ir jo raiškos priemonės anglų ir lietuvių kalbose. Abiejose kalbose esama įvairių kalbinių priemonių episteminiam modalumui reikšti, tačiau darbe daugiausia dėmesio skiriama episteminį modalumą koduojančių modalinių veiksmažodžių ir modalinių adverbialų bei jų vertimo atitikmenų analizei. Pagrindinis šio darbo tikslas – taikant lygiagrečiųjų ir palyginamųjų tekstynų metodiką aptarti kiekybinius ir kokybinius episteminio modalumo raiškos ekvivalentiškumo parametrus anglų ir lietuvių kalbose. Remiantis van der Auweros et al. (2005) tyrimo modeliu, bandoma nustatyti, kokia episteminio modalumo raiškos strategija – modalinių veiksmažodžių ar adverbialų – vyrauja anglų ir lietuvių kalbose. Tuo tikslu buvo sudarytas dvikalbis dvikryptis paralelusis tekstynas iš grožinės literatūros originalių tekstų ir jų vertimų į lietuvių ir anglų kalbas. Išanalizavus empirinę medžiagą, prieita prie tokių išvadų: episteminio modalumo raiška anglų ir lietuvių kalbose skiriasi. Anglų kalboje dėl palyginti didelės gramatiškėjimo įtakos episteminis modalumas dažniausiai reiškiamas modaliniais veiksmažodžiais, o lietuvių kalboje vyrauja adverbialinė raiškos strategija. Episteminė reikšmė glaudžiai susijusi su veiksmažodžių komplementų ir subjekto specifikacija. Vertimų paradigmų analizė rodo, kad lietuvių kalboje modalinės tikimybės laipsniai skiriami ne taip griežtai ir jos ribos ne tokios ryškios, o praleidimo ir įterpimo atvejai vertime gali būti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

Disertacijoje tiriamas episteminis modalumas ir jo raiškos priemonės anglų ir lietuvių kalbose. Abiejose kalbose esama įvairių kalbinių priemonių episteminiam modalumui reikšti, tačiau darbe daugiausia dėmesio skiriama episteminį modalumą koduojančių modalinių veiksmažodžių ir modalinių adverbialų bei jų vertimo atitikmenų analizei. Pagrindinis šio darbo tikslas – taikant lygiagrečiųjų ir palyginamųjų tekstynų metodiką aptarti kiekybinius ir kokybinius episteminio modalumo raiškos ekvivalentiškumo parametrus anglų ir lietuvių kalbose. Remiantis van der Auweros et al. (2005) tyrimo modeliu, bandoma nustatyti, kokia episteminio modalumo raiškos strategija – modalinių veiksmažodžių ar adverbialų – vyrauja anglų ir lietuvių kalbose. Tuo tikslu buvo sudarytas dvikalbis dvikryptis paralelusis tekstynas iš grožinės literatūros originalių tekstų ir jų vertimų į lietuvių ir anglų kalbas. Išanalizavus empirinę medžiagą, prieita prie tokių išvadų: episteminio modalumo raiška anglų ir lietuvių kalbose skiriasi. Anglų kalboje dėl palyginti didelės gramatiškėjimo įtakos episteminis modalumas dažniausiai reiškiamas modaliniais veiksmažodžiais, o lietuvių kalboje vyrauja adverbialinė raiškos strategija. Episteminė reikšmė glaudžiai susijusi su veiksmažodžių komplementų ir subjekto specifikacija. Vertimų paradigmų analizė rodo, kad lietuvių kalboje modalinės tikimybės laipsniai skiriami ne taip griežtai ir jos ribos ne tokios ryškios, o praleidimo ir įterpimo atvejai vertime gali būti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The thesis deals with epistemic modality and its realizations in English and Lithuanian. It focuses on the quantitative and qualitative parameters of equivalence between the lexical exponents of epistemic modality in the two languages. The axis of contrast is laid on the auxiliary and adverb strategies (van der Auwera et al. 2005): a probe is made into the cross-linguistic distribution and behavior of the central English modal auxiliaries of possibility and necessity and epistemic stance adverbials as opposed to their counterparts in Lithuanian. It is a contrastive analysis based on the data obtained from a self-compiled bi-directional parallel corpus of fiction texts and their translations into Lithuanian and English. The findings show that, despite the existence of the same adverbial and verb strategies for epistemic meaning realization in the two languages, their implementation differs. Lithuanian shows a significantly higher frequency of adverbials as opposed to English. Due to the high degree of grammaticalization, English usually favors modal auxiliaries for expressing epistemic modality. The findings show that epistemic meaning can be determined by various constraints, the most important of which are complement stativity and subject specification. The analysis of the translational paradigm could suggest that the boundaries between low and high degree of probability can be blurred in Lithuanian. The abundance of inserted modal adverbials and the phenomenon of zero... [to full text]

The core of the present master's thesis is a comparative analysis of means of expressing epistemic modality on the background of Spanish and Czech journalistic texts. Initially, the discourse analysis and the concept of theory of enunciation are presented. Secondly, the author defines the term modality and its concept in terms of modal logic and linguistics. She concentrates on different typologies of modality presented by foreign and Czech authors as well. Further, the works focuses on the category of evidentiality and means of expression (especially lexical) of epistemic modality. The proper research is based on qualitative and quantitative analysis. The aim of this investigation is to compare the frequency of occurrence of the epistemic markers between the aforementioned languages.

This corpus based diploma thesis takes stock of Finnish epistemic modal verbs voida, saattaa, taitaa and mahtaa and surveys their translational counterparts as they can be found in the parallel corpus InterCorp. The aim of the thesis is to find out what tendencies there can be found in the translation of the modals in question. In the theoretical part, there is, firstly, a description of both modality and modal verbs in Finnish and Czech, secondly, of the differences between the approaches to modality in both languages and, thirdly, of the features of translated language. In the analytical part, the translations are sorted out into categories based on the particular modal specifiers. The description of the different modal specifier categories follows.

This thesis deals with the analysis of the epistemic modality of selected French adverbs in -ment. After a theoretical introduction of basic terms and characterizations of the epistemic modality and the principal means of its expression, it focuses on the very epistemic adverbs. At first, for the purpose of the following research, we specify the syntactically and semantically homogenous group of epistemic adverbs in -ment, defining it by dictionaries and constituent works. Afterwards, this group is analyzed quantitatively - on the French corpora Frantext, L'Est républicain and frWac - as well as qualitatively - on the parallel corpus InterCorp - with an emphasis on the post-verbal position of the adverb in the sentence, on the certainty degree and the Czech translation equivalents. The final part of the study is constituted by a reversed analysis of acquired Czech equivalents. Key words: French, epistemic modality, modal specificators, modal adverb, corpus linguistics.

This thesis examines a set of three utterance particles—ge3, laak3, and lo1—in Hong Kong Cantonese in terms of evidentiality, epistemic modality, and mirativity. Cantonese utterance particles have long been studied; however, close investigation of evidentiality and mirativity on a small set of particles is relatively rare. Previous accounts claim that ge3 and laak3 convey certainty. On the other hand, linguists also claim that the use of the utterance particle lo1 assumes a high level of knowledge from a hearer. This thesis has two main purposes: to untangle the differences between the utterance particles ge3 and laak3 in terms of epistemic modality and evidentiality and to reveal the mirative meanings of the utterance particle lo1. I postulate that the utterance particle ge3 conveys both epistemic modality and evidentiality. For epistemic modality, ge3 concerns a speaker’s knowledge. The evidential meaning—access to prior knowledge—is realized through implicature. This pragmatic reading is highly context dependent. In contrast, the utterance particle laak3 conveys only epistemic modality which concerns a state of affairs and signifies a change of state. Lastly, this study also reveals that the utterance particle lo1 has mirative values of sudden realization and counterexpectation under certain conversational contexts.

This diploma thesis deals with modality in German and highlights possible problems which can arise when modal formulations are translated from German into Czech. It focuses on modal verbs, which are presented as a special verb group. Knowledge of modal verbs is the basic prerequisite for accurate translation as far as semantics, grammar and stylistics are concerned. Since the correct identification of modality in a sentence essentially influences the accuracy of a translation, modality is considered exhaustively. Data was gathered from the parallel corpus Intercorp (project of parallel corpuses of The Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague), the Coocurrency Database (CCDB) IDS Mannheim which competes with the parallel corpus InterCorp, and original German fiction texts and their Czech translations and was the subject of comparative critical analysis. These analyses demonstrate the problematic phenomena encountered when German modal formulations are translated into Czech.

This dissertation investigates the expression of the indirect evidential subdomain in two languages in contact, i.e. the northern variety of Central Aymara and the variety of Spanish spoken in La Paz (Bolivia). For this aim, the study uses first-hand data collected in La Paz and El Alto (Bolivia) during 2014 and 2015. Data was elicited through: the “Family Problems Picture” task (San Roque et al. 2012), formulated by the members of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and created specifically for the activation of cognitive categories such as evidentiality and mirativity; the “Pear Story” designed for Wallace Chafe, professor at the University of California, to collect narrative texts that show how humans perceive, elaborate and verbalize experience; and, finally, personal narratives, traditional narratives and interviews. Thirty-three recordings (12h 48’) of 48 Spanish-Aymara bilingual speakers (17 males, age range: 18-64) were fully transcribed and annotated. The resulting corpus consists of 33 transcriptions of which 14 are in Aymara (c. 19 154 words), whereas 19 are in Spanish (c. 46 245 words). The dissertation is built around four research questions. First, the dissertation shows the functions of the forms identified in the data in both languages. The study identifies for each form both evidential and non-evidential functions. Indirect evidential functions are systematically analyzed and classified by combining Willett’s (1988) and Aikhnvald’s (2004) classifications. The analysis shows evidential functions of forms that have not been previously studied as such, i.e. digamos and diciendo in Spanish and sañani and sapxi in Aymara, but it also reveals unnoticed evidential functions for previously described forms. Second, the dissertation provides a clear view of the relationship between the evidential and the epistemic modal domain involved in the use of the forms identified. Two types of correlation are found. Both languages, indeed, show forms that only point out the way in which speakers acquired information and forms where the two domains overlap. Third, the dissertation investigates speakers’ epistemic stance, in terms of commitment, towards information involved in the use of the evidential forms identified. The study shows that the forms which convey merely evidential information express mainly a medium-high commitment degree, whereas the forms in which the distinction between the evidential and the epistemic modal domain is blurred indicate a low degree of commitment. Forth, the dissertation sheds light on the relationship between the expressions of the indirect evidential subdomain in the two languages. The study proposes a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the evidential types and subtypes in both languages. The results show a high degree of convergence between the two languages, suggesting also situations of influence of one language on the other.

<p>This work investigates into the semantic domain of evidentiality and its grammatical expression in Spanish. A model for describing the evidentiality domain is outlined, which emphasises the scalar nature of the proposed parameters: information source (subject-internal ↔ external), access to information (exclusive ↔ universal) and mode of access (sensory ↔ cognitive), all of which are construed as bipolar continua. Support is also provided for the relevance of using the notions of deixis and perspective in describing evidentiality.</p><p>The prevailing view in current research is that of evidentiality being a grammatical category to be analysed separately from other evidential strategies. The present study challenges this view as it attempts to broaden the perspective on how evidential meanings, expressed by various grammatical means, fit into an overall picture of human cognition and communication patterns. The theoretical framework adopted is that of Cognitive Grammar, which, it is argued, is particularly suited for investigating evidentiality, in particular due to the central role given to perspective, metaphor and category fuzziness in describing grammar and grammatical structures.</p><p>Four articles constitute the body of this work, in which four different prototypical aspects of the encoding of evidentiality into grammatical devices in Spanish are addressed. In the first, the marking of common knowledge in consecutive connectives is argued to depend on a perspective shift; the second proposes the evidential values of tense morphemes to be their core meaning, time deixis being an inference; in the third and the forth it is claimed that the evidential and modal effects of both subject-raising and clitic climbing are determined through the attribution of varying degrees of prominence to the relational participants.</p>

This work investigates into the semantic domain of evidentiality and its grammatical expression in Spanish. A model for describing the evidentiality domain is outlined, which emphasises the scalar nature of the proposed parameters: information source (subject-internal ↔ external), access to information (exclusive ↔ universal) and mode of access (sensory ↔ cognitive), all of which are construed as bipolar continua. Support is also provided for the relevance of using the notions of deixis and perspective in describing evidentiality. The prevailing view in current research is that of evidentiality being a grammatical category to be analysed separately from other evidential strategies. The present study challenges this view as it attempts to broaden the perspective on how evidential meanings, expressed by various grammatical means, fit into an overall picture of human cognition and communication patterns. The theoretical framework adopted is that of Cognitive Grammar, which, it is argued, is particularly suited for investigating evidentiality, in particular due to the central role given to perspective, metaphor and category fuzziness in describing grammar and grammatical structures. Four articles constitute the body of this work, in which four different prototypical aspects of the encoding of evidentiality into grammatical devices in Spanish are addressed. In the first, the marking of common knowledge in consecutive connectives is argued to depend on a perspective shift; the second proposes the evidential values of tense morphemes to be their core meaning, time deixis being an inference; in the third and the forth it is claimed that the evidential and modal effects of both subject-raising and clitic climbing are determined through the attribution of varying degrees of prominence to the relational participants.