On the Temporal Interpretation of Epistemic Modals: Evidence from Palestinian Arabic

<p>This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of temporal interpretation of epistemic modals in Palestinian Arabic (PA), and develop a cross-linguistic analysis. The epistemic necessity modal <em>akeed</em> and the epistemic possibility modal <em>yimkin</em> in PA exhibit similar temporal configurations to English epistemic modals <em>must</em> and <em>might</em>, respectively. We argue for a unified underlying structure to account for the temporal configurations. The linearized combination of the epistemic modal, a silent present tense morpheme and an aspectual head morpheme derive either a present-oriented reading when the aspectual head is empty, or a future-oriented reading in presence of a silent prospective aspect. Further, interaction of these linearized combinations with the underlying viewpoint and lexical aspectual components set the constraints that block particular readings, including the bounded event constraint which blocks a present-oriented reading when the embedded predicate is associated with a perfective component. Thus, epistemic modals do not contribute directly to the temporal references, rather their interaction with the underlying tense and aspectual components is what determines the observed temporal configurations.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Master

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Linguistics

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2020

Author dc:creator

• Sharif, Alaa M

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Samer Al Khatib

• Semantics and Pragmatics
• Typological Linguistics and Linguistic Diversity
• Epistemic modality
• temporal perspective
• temporal orientation
• aspect
• bounded event constraint
• Palestinian Arabic

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3975

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-5030