tailieunhanh - The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics Part 91

The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics Part 91. In the past decade, Cognitive Linguistics has developed into one of the most dynamic and attractive frameworks within theoretical and descriptive linguistics The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics is a major new reference that presents a comprehensive overview of the main theoretical concepts and descriptive/theoretical models of Cognitive Linguistics, and covers its various subfields, theoretical as well as applied. | 870 TANJA MGRTELMANS 2003 modal adjectives and adverbs . Nuyts 1994 2001 2002 mental state predicates . Nuyts 1994 2001 2002 Pelyvas 2001 evidential markers . Floyd 1999 Matlock 1989 Casad 1992 Lee 1993 lexical verbs acquiring episte-mic meanings . Verhagen 1995 1996 Cornillie 2005a which venture into languages other than English do exist but often lack a common core they are like scattered pieces of a highly complex puzzle. The main focus in this chapter on modality within Cognitive Linguistics will therefore also lie on modals at the same time however I will try to capture some of the basic insights that have arisen from research on other modal expression types in languages other than English and try to sketch possible future lines of research. Let us take up the initial question again what is modality A traditional extensional characterization is provided in Bybee Perkins and Pagliuca 1994 176 in which a distinction is made between grams with uses that are traditionally associated with modality for instance those indicating obligation probability and possibil-ity and those traditionally associated with mood imperative optative conditional and subordinate verb forms. 1 More schematically modality can be taken to signal the speaker s attitude toward the proposition Givon 1994 266 whereby attitude subsumes both epistemic relating to issues of truth belief certainty evidence and the like and valuative dealing with desirability preference intent ability obligation and manipulation attitudes. Givon s distinction between valuative and epistemic attitudes is reflected in the well-known polysemy of the modal verbs which carry at least two kinds of related meanings a basic root meaning and an epistemic meaning both of which are taken within Cognitive Linguistics to involve some element of force see section . The link between root and epistemic modality is usually regarded as metaphorical whereby the real-world sociophysical force associated with root .