A diachronic corpus-driven study of the expression of possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15)
- Author
- Deo Kawalya, Koen Bostoen (UGent) and Gilles-Maurice de Schryver (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- This article employs a 4-million-word diachronic corpus to examine how the expression of possibility has evolved in Luganda since the 1890s to the present, by focusing on the language’s three main potential markers -yînz-, -sóból- and -andi-, and their historical interaction. It is shown that while the auxiliary -yînz- originally covered the whole modal subdomain of possibility, the auxiliary -sóból- has steadily taken over the more objective categories of dynamic possibility. Currently, -yînz- first and foremost conveys deontic and epistemic possibility. It still prevails in these more subjective modal categories even though the prefix -andi-, a conditional marker in origin, has started to express epistemic possibility since the 1940s, and -sóból- deontic possibility since the 1970s. More generally, this article demonstrates the potential of corpus linguistics for the study of diachronic semantics beyond language comparison. This is an important achievement in Bantu linguistics, where written language data tend to be young.
- Keywords
- possibility, diachronic semantics, subjectification, Luganda, SUBJECTIFICATION, MODALITY
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8718326
- MLA
- Kawalya, Deo, et al. “A Diachronic Corpus-Driven Study of the Expression of Possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15).” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS, vol. 26, no. 3, 2021, pp. 336–69, doi:10.1075/ijcl.19119.kaw.
- APA
- Kawalya, D., Bostoen, K., & de Schryver, G.-M. (2021). A diachronic corpus-driven study of the expression of possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15). INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS, 26(3), 336–369. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.19119.kaw
- Chicago author-date
- Kawalya, Deo, Koen Bostoen, and Gilles-Maurice de Schryver. 2021. “A Diachronic Corpus-Driven Study of the Expression of Possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15).” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS 26 (3): 336–69. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.19119.kaw.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Kawalya, Deo, Koen Bostoen, and Gilles-Maurice de Schryver. 2021. “A Diachronic Corpus-Driven Study of the Expression of Possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15).” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS 26 (3): 336–369. doi:10.1075/ijcl.19119.kaw.
- Vancouver
- 1.Kawalya D, Bostoen K, de Schryver G-M. A diachronic corpus-driven study of the expression of possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15). INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS. 2021;26(3):336–69.
- IEEE
- [1]D. Kawalya, K. Bostoen, and G.-M. de Schryver, “A diachronic corpus-driven study of the expression of possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15),” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 336–369, 2021.
@article{8718326,
abstract = {{This article employs a 4-million-word diachronic corpus to examine how the expression of possibility has evolved in Luganda since the 1890s to the present, by focusing on the language’s three main potential markers -yînz-, -sóból- and -andi-, and their historical interaction. It is shown that while the auxiliary -yînz- originally covered the whole modal subdomain of possibility, the auxiliary -sóból- has steadily taken over the more objective categories of dynamic possibility. Currently, -yînz- first and foremost conveys deontic and epistemic possibility. It still prevails in these more subjective modal categories even though the prefix -andi-, a conditional marker in origin, has started to express epistemic possibility since the 1940s, and -sóból- deontic possibility since the 1970s. More generally, this article demonstrates the potential of corpus linguistics for the study of diachronic semantics beyond language comparison. This is an important achievement in Bantu linguistics, where written language data tend to be young.}},
author = {{Kawalya, Deo and Bostoen, Koen and de Schryver, Gilles-Maurice}},
issn = {{1384-6655}},
journal = {{INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CORPUS LINGUISTICS}},
keywords = {{possibility,diachronic semantics,subjectification,Luganda,SUBJECTIFICATION,MODALITY}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{336--369}},
title = {{A diachronic corpus-driven study of the expression of possibility in Luganda (Bantu, JE15)}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.19119.kaw}},
volume = {{26}},
year = {{2021}},
}
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