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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Epistemic modality in Ghanaian Pidgin English / Epistemisk modalitet i ghanansk pidginengelska

Nordén, Anton Harry January 2016 (has links)
This study investigates the expression of epistemic modality in a corpus of Ghanaian Pidgin English (GhaPE). The epistemic expressions are manually identified and thereafter distinguished from each other in terms of grammatical status and their indication of different epistemic and evidential notions. 7 different elements are found, ranging from 1 pre-verbal marker, 1 adverb, 2 particles and 3 complement-taking predicates. The results indicate, in line with existing research, that to differentiate between usage properties of individual modal expressions it may be necessary to subdivide them in terms of not only epistemic but also evidential meanings. Moreover, a functional parallel between the GhaPE particle abi, the Swedish modal particle väl and the Spanish adverbs a lo mejor and igual is demonstrated, with respect to their simultaneous function of expressing epistemic probability and asking the hearer for confirmation. Finally, the results suggest, contrary to previous accounts, that the pre-verbal marker fit may indicate epistemic possibility without the addition of a preceding irrealis marker go. It is proposed that future researchers should make use of bigger corpora in order to arrive at a more ample conception of both individual modal categories and their interrelations.

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