Modality: kinds of modality
| Values: | Proh | Cond |
As Palmer (2001:1) states, modality is “closely associated with tense and aspect in that all three are categories of the clause and are generally, but not always, marked within the verbal complex.” Modality relates to the status of the proposition that describes an event. Cross-linguistically, it is usually expressed by different types of verbal mood or by modal verbs (Palmer 2001). By contrast, diverse languages express different nuances of modality by particles (Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca, 1994). This is the case of Nheengatu, where modality is most often expressed by particles (Cruz 2011).
Proh: prohibitive modality
In Nheengatu, prohibitive modality, or the expression of a negative imperative, is formed by modifying the main predicate with the particle te, with tenhẽ appearing in historical texts. This construction is used to indicate that an action should not be performed (Avila 2021; Cruz 2011).
Example
- [yrl] Merupiára reyuka i suí, te remunhã uyaxiú, unheẽ, paá, i aría. (Casasnovas 2006:89) “Take it out slowly, don’t make him cry, said the grandmother.”
Cond: hypothetical conditional modality
Hypothetical conditional modality is expressed in present day Nheengatu of the Negro river by the particle maã, historically also by amú in the varieties of the Solimões and Amazonas rivers (Avila 2021).
Examples
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[yrl] Amú ramé maã ixé, ti maã amaã ne pirasuasá. (Casasnovas 2006:93) “If I were someone else, I wouldn’t have felt sorry for you.”
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[yrl] Xe rimbawa, mira ramé maã indé, indé intí maã rexari ixé xamanú, indé resú-kwáu maã reyuuka meyú xambaú arama. (Amorim 1928:28) “My dear pet, if you were human, you wouldn’t let me starve; you could go get some beiju flatbread for me to eat.”
References
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Avila, M. T.(2021). Proposta de dicionário nheengatu-português [Doctoral dissertation, University of São Paulo]. doi:10.11606/T.8.2021.tde-10012022-201925
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Bybee, J. L., Perkins, R., & Pagliuca, W. (1994). The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
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Cruz, A. (2011). Fonologia e gramática do nheengatú: A língua falada pelos povos Baré, Warekena e Baniwa. LOT.
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Palmer, F. R. (2001). Mood and Modality (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Modality in other languages: [yrl]