Feature GB312: Is there overt morphological marking on the verb dedicated to mood?

Patrons: Hedvig Skirgård

Description ⇫

Summary

This question is concerned with phonologically bound marking on the verb that indicates grammatical mood. Grammatical mood is concerned with (1) the relationship between an event/state/action expressed in a clause and its actualization in reality (e.g. realis or irrealis) and/or (2) the speaker’s attitude towards the actualization of this event/state/action. This feature covers all grammatical moods, including declarative. The mood marker may be polysemous with other markers.

There are instances where TAM can be expressed by a combination of an affix and auxiliary or particle. For example, some grammarians state that a mood is expressed by a certain form on the verbal root and an auxiliary. If this is a productive and obligatory way of expressing mood then such a construction triggers 1 for both this feature (GB312) and the features on free-standing mood marking (GB119 and/or GB519). If not all parts of the discontinuous marking are necessary for expressing a mood, then only consider the marking that is obligatory.

While negation or interrogation can be considered grammatical moods, they are not covered by this feature.

Procedure

  1. Code 1 if mood is marked on the verb or on auxiliaries by an affix, suppletion, tonal marking or reduplication.
  2. Code ? if mood is not described at all and the grammatical description is not comprehensive.
  3. Code 0 if mood is not described at all and the grammatical description is comprehensive.

Examples

Martuthunira (ISO 639-3: vma, Glottolog: mart1255)

Martuthunira has a suffix that denotes unrealized events, also known as irrealis. Martuthunira is coded as 1.

Ngawu, ngayu    puni-lha   nyina-lu    ngurrinyu-tha, kurnta-yaangu
Yes    1SG.NOM  go-PST     sit-PURP    swag-LOC       shame-IRR
‘Yes I went to sit on that swag, [I] ought to have felt shame.’ (Dench 1994: 151)

Further reading

Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Dahl, Östen. 1985. Tense and aspect systems. Oxford: Blackwell.

Palmer, Frank R. 2001. Mood and modality. Cambridge Univ. Press.

Narrog, Heiko. 2012. Modality, subjectivity, and semantic change: A cross-linguistic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

References

Dench, Alan. 1994. Martuthunira: A language of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. (Pacific Linguistics: Series C, 125.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.


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0 absent 584
1 present 1344
? Not known 205
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Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment