The Expression of Modality

This book covers the essentials of modality and offers both foundational ideas and cutting edge advances. The book consists of what are essentially tutorials on modality and modal notions, covering definitions of modality, morphosyntactic form, conceptual and logical semantics, historical development, and acquisition. There are also specific chapters on modality in Zapotec and American Sign Language, which show the range of forms that modal notions can take. To assist its tutorial function, the book closes with a comprehensive conceptual outline of all the chapters. Key features:

• textbook
• covers the essentials of modality
• Well-known editor
• Cognitive categories are currently among the most important areas of research in linguistics and beyond (biology, psychology)

Auteur

William Frawley, University of Delaware, USA.

Résumé

"This attribute of EM, together with the quality of all the contributions, make the book a must for beginning researchers on modality, and highly recommendable for more experienced lecturers and researchers concerned with this aera."
Marta Carretero in: Functions of Language 1/2008

"Der Herausgeber dieses Bandes hat in der neu konzipierten Reihe über den Ausdruck kognitiver Kategorien die Messlatte recht hoch gelegt."
Ralf Klabunde in: Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 26/2007

"Eine schöne Übersicht zum Einstieg."
Werner Abraham in: Germanistik 1-2/2007