Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T23:52:44.118Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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
Get access

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • 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 Dropbox

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 Dropbox.

  • 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
×