16+
DOI: 10.18413/2313-8912-2020-6-3-0-1

Epistemic modality and syntactical insubordination  in German and Russian

The article analyzes the correlation of such phenomena as 'syntactical insubordination' – 'the inner perspective' – 'deicticity' – 'epistemic modality'. Epistemicity is interpreted as deictic modality, whereas alethic modality is treated as a non-deictic modality. Deictic modality is an assessment of the factuality of a situation from Origo's position. The nondectic modality does not contain estimates of the degree of probability from the position of Origo, but states the objective possibility / impossibility of the existence of a fact. The deictic modality reflects the internal perspective of the speaking / propositional subject, i.e. it contains the assessment by the speaking / propositional subject of the irrelevance of the situation, the aletic modality – the external perspective. It is shown that modal words in the German language can convey the meanings of epistemic and aletic modality, are able to encode external and internal perspective, and have a one-sided deixis. They can be viewed as lexical units. The modal verbs sollen and müssen in the secondary meaning and modal particles have multifaceted deicticity. Their semantics can only be determined by context, they are syntactically insubordinate and carry epistemic meaning in combination with evidential meaning, which together allows us to speak about their belonging to the grammar system. Based on factual material, the phenomenon of syntactic insubordination is revealed: first of all, it depends on the type of expressed modal meaning. Epistemic markers are irreconcilable; indicators of aletic modality are able to occupy a position in the illocutionary dependent clause. The specificity of the German and Russian languages ​​is shown in the expression of epistemic modality and evidentiality: two-dimensional deicticity in Russian is transmitted in the system of modal particles, in German - in the system of modal verbs.

Number of views: 1402 (view statistics)
Количество скачиваний: 4285
Full text (HTML)Full text (PDF)To articles list
  • User comments
  • Reference lists

While nobody left any comments to this publication.
You can be first.

Leave comment: