Cover not available

In:Afroasiatic: Data and perspectives
Edited by Mauro Tosco
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 339] 2018
► pp. 131–149

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

The semantics of modals in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic

Published online: 1 February 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.339.08man
Abstract
This paper aims at describing the forms and the meanings of modal items in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic, a Western Sudanic Arabic dialect spoken in Southwestern Sudan. It presents a polysemic analysis of modal items in light of the participant-oriented approach, and it shows how modality can be described in terms of gradable scales rather than discrete meanings. Beyond that, the paper deals with the hypothesis of the unidirectional development of modal meanings according to which deontic meanings precede epistemic ones and it eventually argues that Kordofanian Baggara Arabic presents an atypical path of grammaticalization from a participant-external possibility to a deontic possibility.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The classification of Kordofanian Baggara Arabic
  • 3.Tense, aspect and mood in KBA
  • 4.The forms and the semantics of modals in KBA
    • 4.1 gídir, b=i-gdar “can, be able”
    • 4.2 dāyir “want, need”
    • 4.3 mimkin, imkin “it’s possible”
    • 4.4 ille “except”
    • 4.5 lāzim “it’s necessary”
    • 4.6 la buddi “inevitably”
    • 4.7 axēr lē “had better, ought to”
    • 4.8 min la buddi “it’s likely”
    • 4.9 bukūn (epistemic) “must”
  • 5.Conclusions
  • List of symbols and glosses
  • Notes
  • References
References (27)
References
Ali, Mustapha & Catherine Miller. 1986. “Apercu sur le système verbal du dialecte du centre-nord soudanais: l’expression de la concomitance”. Matériaux Arabes et Sudarabiques 2.167–187.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Behnstedt, Peter. 1985. Die nord-jemenitischen Dialekte. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan & Suzanne Fleischman. 1995. “Modality in Grammar and Discourse: An Introductory Essay.” Modality in Grammar and Discourse, ed. by Joan Bybee and Suzanne Fleischman, 1–14. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cohen, David. 1984. La phrase nominale et l’évolution du système verbal en sémitique. Études de syntaxe de syntaxe historique. Paris: Peeters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Haan, Ferdinand. 2006. “Typological Approaches to Modality.” The Expression of Modality, ed. by William Frawley, 27–70. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eksell, Kerstin. 2006. “The Origin and Development of the Cursive b- Imperfect in Syrian Arabic”. Change in Verbal Systems: Issues on Explanation, ed. by Kerstin Eksell & Thora Vinther, 73–98. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frajzyngier, Zygmut. 2002. “System Interaction in the Coding of Modality.” Modality, ed. by Frits Beukema & Sjef Barbiers, 165–184. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ingham, Bruce. 1994. “Modality in the Arabic Dialect of Najd”. Actes des Premieres Journées Internationales de Dialectologie Arabe, ed. by D. Caubet & M. Vanhove, 185–200. Paris: Publications Langues’O.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Manfredi, Stefano. 2010. A grammatical description of Kordofanian Baggara Arabic. Napoli: Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’ dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. “Dialect Mixing and Dialect Levelling in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic (Western Sudan)”. Dynamiques langagières en Arabophonies: variations, contacts, migrations et créations artistique, ed. by Alexandrine Barontini, Christophe Pereira, Angeles Vincente and Karima Ziamari. Collección estudios de dialectología arabe., 141–162. Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mitchell, Terence F. & Shahir al-Hassan. 1994. Modality, Mood, and Aspect in Spoken Arabic with Special Reference to Egypt and the Levant. London: Paul Kegan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Narrog, Heiko & Johan van der Auwera. 2011. “Grammaticalization and Semantic Maps”. The Oxford Handobook of Grammaticalization, ed. by Heiko Narrong and Bernd Heine, 318–327. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nuyts, Jan. 2005. “The Modal Confusion: On Terminology and the Concepts behind It”. Modality: Studies in Form and Functions, ed. by Alex Klinge & Henrik H. Müller, 5–38. Oakville: Equinox Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Modality: Overview and Linguistic Issues.” The Expression of Modality, ed. by William Frawley, 1–26. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Owens, Jonathan. 1993a. A Reference Grammar of Nigerian Arabic. Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993b. “Nigerian Arabic in Comparative Perspective”. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 14.85–175.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palmer, Frank R. 2001. Mood and Modality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palva, Heikki. 2008. “Sendentary and Bedouin Dialects in Contact: Remarks on Karaki and Salṭi (Jordan)”. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 8.53–70.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Persson, Maria. 2008. “The Role of the b- Prefix in Gulf Arabic Dialects as Marker of Future, Intent and/or Irrealis”. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 8:4.26–52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reichmuth, Stefan. 1983. Der arabische Dialekt der Shukriyya im Ostsudan, Zürich: Georg Olms.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosenhouse, Judith. 2006. “Bedouin Arabic”. The Encyclopaedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. 1, ed. by Kees Versteegh, Mushira Eid, Alaa Elgibali, Manfred Woidich & Andrzej Zaborski, 259–269. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roth-Laly, Arlette. 1979. Esquisse grammaticale du parler arabe d’Abbéché. Paris: Geuthner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simeone-Senelle, Marie-Claude & Martine Vanhove. 2003. “Le fonctionnement d’auxiliaires en afar”. Mélanges David Cohen. Etudes sur le Langage, les Langues, les Dialectes, les Littératures, Offerts par ses Élèves, ses Collègues, ses Amis. Présentés à l’Occasion de son Quatre-Vingtième Anniversaire, ed. by Jêrome Lentin and Antoine Lonnet, 615–634. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tosco, Mauro. 1995. “A Pidgin Verbal System: The Case of Juba Arabic”. Anthropological Linguistics 37:4.423–459.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van der Auwera, Johan & Vladimir A. Plungian. 1998. “Modality’s Semantic Map”. Linguistic Typology 2.79–124. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vanhove, Martine, Miller, Catherine, & Dominique Caubet. 2009. “The Grammaticalization of Modal Auxiliaries in Maltese and Arabic Vernaculars of the Mediterranean Area”. The Grammaticalization of Modal Particles, ed. by Johan Van der Auwera, 325–362. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue