UNIVERSITE CHARLES UNIVERSITE PARIS 8 Faculté philosophique Cognition, Langage, Interaction THESE DE DOCTORAT - COTUTELLE Sciences du langage Linguistique Générale Zuzana VOKURKOVÁ EPISTEMIC MODALITIES IN SPOKEN STANDARD TIBETAN Thèse dirigée par M. Bohumil PALEK / M. Nicolas TOURNADRE Soutenue le 24 septembre 2008 Jury : Monsieur Jiří NEKVAPIL, Université Charles Monsieur Bohumil PALEK, Université Charles Monsieur Johan van der AUWERA, Université d’Anvers Monsieur Nicolas TOURNADRE, Université de Provence Madame Zlatka GUENTCHEVA, CNRS - LACITO Madame Lélia PICABIA, Professeur Emérite, Université Paris 8 2 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express thanks to my Ph.D. supervisors, Mr Bohumil Palek from Charles University, Prague, Czech republic, and Mr Nicolas Tournadre from the University of Paris 8, France (until 2007, currently Professor at the University of Provence), for their valuable help with my dissertation, their guidance, encouragement and commentaries. I am also grateful to Mr Tournadre for giving me the idea to study this part of the Tibetan grammar. Furthermore, I thank my Tibetan teachers and informants: Mr Dawa (teacher at Tibet University, Lhasa), Mrs Tsheyang (teacher at Tibet University, Lhasa), Mr Tanpa Gyaltsen (PICC insurance company, Lhasa), Mrs Soyag (teacher at Tibet University, Lhasa), Mr Sangda Dorje (Professor at Tibet University, Lhasa), Mr Ngawang Dakpa (teacher at Inalco, Paris), Mr Tenzin Samphel (teacher at Inalco, Paris), Mr Dorje Tsering Jiangbu (teacher at Inalco, Paris), Mr Tenzin Jigme (teacher at Charles University, Prague), Mr Thubten Kunga (teacher at Warsaw University), Mrs Pema Yonden (teacher, Dharamsala, India), and many others. Moreover, I would like to thank Mrs Lélia Picabia for accepting to be my first Ph.D. supervisor at the University of Paris 8 before Mr Tournadre’s habilitation. This dissertation would not have been possible without long-term fieldwork in Tibet and Tibetan communities of the diaspora. I am thankful to LACITO/CNRS (PICS 2554) and the French ministry of education for financing my research work in central Tibet and India between the years 2003 and 2005. The latter also granted me a scholarship for my doctoral studies in France. Likewise, I show gratitude to the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund for awarding me a grant allowing my studies at Tibet University in 2004-2005. I also owe many thanks to my friends and schoolmates for their suggestions and commentaries concerning Tibetan examples of epistemic modalities and their English equivalents. Equally important was the help in the final stage with editing and printing the dissertation. Last but not least, I want to thank my family for their priceless support, unceasing patience and tolerance. Without them, I would not have been able to persevere in my research work and to bring my dissertation to a close. 3 4 CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................................................ 9 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 11 APPROACHES AND FIELDWORK ........................................................................................................................ 12 CORPUS ............................................................................................................................................................ 13 STRUCTURE OF THE TIBETAN EXAMPLES.......................................................................................................... 14 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION................................................................................................................... 15 I. MODALITY AND THE RELATED CATEGORIES OF TENSE AND ASPECT .......................................... 17 1.1. THE CATEGORY OF TENSE................................................................................................................. 17 1.1.1. CONCEPT OF TENSE..................................................................................................................... 18 1.1.2. TEMPORAL REFERENCE AND DEICTIC VS. NON-DEICTIC TENSES...................................... 20 1.2. THE CATEGORY OF ASPECT............................................................................................................... 22 1.2.1. CONCEPT OF ASPECT .................................................................................................................. 23 1.2.2. GRAMMATICAL ASPECT VS. LEXICAL ASPECT......................................................................... 26 1.3. THE CATEGORY OF MODALITY ........................................................................................................ 29 1.3.1. CONCEPT OF MODALITY............................................................................................................. 30 1.3.1.1. Modality in logic....................................................................................................................................... 30 1.3.1.2. Modality in linguistics .............................................................................................................................. 31 1.3.1.3. Modality versus Mood .............................................................................................................................. 36 1.3.1.4. Subjectivity ............................................................................................................................................... 37 1.3.1.5. Factuality and commitment....................................................................................................................... 38 1.3.1.6. Modality and the theory of speech acts..................................................................................................... 39 1.3.2. TYPES OF MODALITY ................................................................................................................... 40 1.3.2.1. Epistemic modalities................................................................................................................................. 41 1.3.2.2. Evidential modalities................................................................................................................................. 44 1.3.2.3. Deontic modalities .................................................................................................................................... 50 1.3.2.4. Illocutionary modalities ............................................................................................................................ 51 1.3.3. NEGATION...................................................................................................................................... 52 1.3.3.1. Concept of negation .................................................................................................................................. 52 1.3.3.2. Classification of negation.......................................................................................................................... 55 1.3.4. INTRODUCTION TO THREE MODELS OF MODALITY.............................................................. 58 1.3.4.1. Palmer’s model of modality...................................................................................................................... 59 1.3.4.2. Dik’s model of modality ........................................................................................................................... 60 1.3.4.3. Gosselin’s model of modality ................................................................................................................... 62 1.3.4.4. Comparison of the models ........................................................................................................................ 66 1.3.5. LINGUISTIC MEANS OF EXPRESSING MODALITY.................................................................... 67 1.3.5.1. Lexical means ........................................................................................................................................... 67 1.3.5.2. Grammatical means................................................................................................................................... 69 1.3.5.2.1. From auxiliaries to affixes ............................................................................................................... 70 II. PRESENTATION OF MODERN STANDARD TIBETAN ........................................................................... 75 2.1. LINGUISTIC SITUATION...................................................................................................................... 75 2.1.1. SPOKEN TIBETAN AND THE DIALECTAL VARIATION.............................................................. 75 2.1.1.1. Groups of dialects ..................................................................................................................................... 76 2.1.1.2. Common features and differences among the groups of dialects .............................................................. 78 2.1.1.3. Sociolects.................................................................................................................................................. 79 2.1.2. LITERARY TIBETAN ....................................................................................................................... 79 2.1.3. STANDARD