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Eleven - Modality and Worlding

from Part III - Thresholds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

Paul Kockelman
Paul Kockelman
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
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Summary

Chapters 11 is about modality in Q’eqchi’-Maya – various resources speakers have for referring to entities and events that are nonactual, and hence notions like possibility, permission, necessity, and obligation. It focuses on the forms naru and tento, which are similar in function to the modal auxiliary verbs in English: naru doing work akin to English ‘may’ and ‘can’ (or deontic, dynamic, and circumstantial possibility), and tento doing work akin to English ‘must’. It offers a detailed examination of how speakers use such forms to represent and regiment what counts as obligatory, forbidden, permissible, and possible courses of action.

Keywords

Q’eqchi’Mayamodalitygrammatical categoriespossibilitynecessitysemanticspragmatics
Type
Chapter
Information
The Anthropology of Intensity
Language, Culture, and Environment
 , pp. 298 - 326
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Modality and Worlding
  • Paul Kockelman, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: The Anthropology of Intensity
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009024235.015
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  • Modality and Worlding
  • Paul Kockelman, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: The Anthropology of Intensity
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009024235.015
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Modality and Worlding
  • Paul Kockelman, Yale University, Connecticut
  • Book: The Anthropology of Intensity
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009024235.015
Available formats
×