AN ACCOUNT OF EPISTEMIC MODALITY IN SHABAKI

Abstract

The present paper aims to propose a classificatory and descriptive account of epistemic modal expressions in Shabaki to recognize their syntactic categories and semantic interpretations. The corpus is based on the data excerpted from everyday communication. Results suggest that Shabaki makes a rich use of expressions to express epistemic modality. Modality in Shabaki is expressed differently from other languages. Shabaki language displays an interesting interaction between epistemic modal expressions and negation.