UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Aspect, tense and modality: theory, typology, acquisition Boland, J.H.G. Publication date 2006 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Boland, J. H. G. (2006). Aspect, tense and modality: theory, typology, acquisition. LOT. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:02 Oct 2021 124 Annerieke Boland Annerieke Boland Annerieke Boland Aspect, tense and modality: Aspect, tense and modality: Theory, typology, acquisition Theory, typology, acquisition Volume I Volume I This study searches for similarities in adult and child language systems in the domains of tense, modality and aspect (TMA). It takes its starting point in Functional Grammar, in which grammatical TMA expressions are classified Theory, typology, acquisition Aspect, tense and modality: according to their scope. Wider scope correlates with an increase in cognitive complexity and a decrease in communicative motivation. This leads to the expectation that TMA expressions with wider scope behave differently from expressions with narrower scope both in adult and in child language. Several studies are conducted. A detailed analysis of TMA expressions in English serves to find out if their scope plays a role in synchrony and diachrony. A typological study is carried out to answer the question how scope differences are reflected in diachronic developments, synchronic configurations, frequency, and morphosyntactic properties of TMA expressions. The acquisition order of TMA morphemes is examined in detail for English and more generally for 24 other languages. Here the acquisition order of TMA expressions with different scopes, and the crosslinguistic similarities in the acquisition of TMA expressions are studied. The study provides new theoretical insights in TMA. It reveals remarkable similarities in the development of TMA expressions in diachrony, synchrony and first language acquisition that provide a strong argument for more interdisciplinary research on language and language use. The book is of interest to typologists, psycholinguists and those interested in functional models of language. Volume I Volume ISBN-10 90-76864-92-6 ISBN-13 978-90-76864-92-1 Aspect, tense and modality: Theory, typology, acquisition Volume I Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6006 Trans 10 fax: +31 30 253 6000 3512 JK Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://wwwlot.let.uu.nl/ Cover illustration : operators in Functional Grammar; world map; picture of Jozef Kes, by Hans Boland. ISBN-10: 90-76864-92-6 ISBN-13: 978-90-76864-92-1 NUR 632 Copyright © 2006 Annerieke Boland. All rights reserved. Aspect, tense and modality: Theory, typology, acquisition Volume I ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op vrijdag 3 maart 2006 te 14:00 uur door JOHANNA HENDRIKA GEERTRUIDA BOLAND geboren te Emmen Promotiecommissie Promotores: Prof. dr. A.E. Baker Prof. dr. P.C. Hengeveld Overige leden: Prof. dr. H. Behrens Prof. dr. O.C.M. Fischer Prof. dr. W. Klein Prof. dr. J.L. Mackenzie Prof. dr. F.P. Weerman Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen Universiteit van Amsterdam Voor Jan CONTENTS Volume I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................XV Chapter 1 Introduction ....................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction...........................................................................................1 1.2 Linguistic universals .............................................................................2 1.3 Universals in first language acquisition .............................................9 1.4 Relations between universals in adult and child language .......15 1.5 Functional linguistic theory...............................................................16 1.6 Structure of this thesis........................................................................21 PART I THEORY............................................................................ 23 Introduction to Part I.............................................................................................23 Chapter 2 An Outline of Functional Grammar................. 25 2.1 Introduction.........................................................................................25 2.2 Levels of analysis.................................................................................25 2.3 The representational level..................................................................26 2.3.1 The predicate and arguments.......................................................26 2.3.2 The predication ..............................................................................29 2.3.3 The proposition .............................................................................29 2.4 Modifiers ..............................................................................................30 2.5 The Scope Hierarchy..........................................................................33 Chapter 3 Tense, Aspect and Quantification.................... 35 3.1 Introduction.........................................................................................35 3.2 Situation types .....................................................................................36 3.3 Aspect...................................................................................................40 3.3.1 Introduction....................................................................................40 3.3.2 Defining aspect ..............................................................................42 3.3.3 Categories in detail.........................................................................44 3.3.4 Summary..........................................................................................51 3.4 Tense.....................................................................................................52 3.4.1 Introduction....................................................................................52 viii CONTENTS 3.4.2 Topic time.......................................................................................54 3.4.3 Defining tense ................................................................................55 3.4.4 Scope of tense ................................................................................57 3.4.5 Tense and aspect............................................................................58 3.4.6 Summary..........................................................................................60 3.5 Quantification......................................................................................61 3.5.1 Defining quantification.................................................................61 3.5.2 Property quantification .................................................................62 3.5.3 Event quantification......................................................................63 3.5.4 Summary..........................................................................................64 3.6 Conclusion ...........................................................................................65 Chapter 4 Modality, Evidentiality and Irrealis ................. 67 4.1 Introduction.........................................................................................67 4.2 Modality................................................................................................67 4.2.1 Sense: potentiality, disposition, weak necessity and necessity 68 4.2.2 Source: internal, external and epistemic.....................................70 4.2.3 Scope: participant-, event- and proposition-oriented ..............74 4.2.3.1 External, non-deontic modality............................................77 4.2.3.2 External, deontic modality....................................................77 4.2.3.3 Epistemic modality.................................................................79 4.2.4 Classification of modality .............................................................82 4.2.5 Summary..........................................................................................85 4.3 Related domains..................................................................................85 4.3.1 Future tense and prospective aspect...........................................85 4.3.2 Irrealis ..............................................................................................87