LSLT 36: The realis-irrealis distinction, events, propositions and speech acts

The realis-irrealis distinction, events, propositions and speech acts

Jackie Nordström

Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

This book shows through an extensive cross-linguistic investigation of 1051 languages that there are at least three distinct functions associated with the binary realis-irrealis distinction in the languages of the world, one more common one denoting event status (as in Elliot [2000], Foley and van Valin [1984]), another less common one denoting propositional modality (as in Givón [1994], Nordström [2010]) and a third, rare one involving speech act modality (as in Bybee and Fleichmann [1995], Palmer [2001]).

The first function has merely scope over the event, involving categories such as the plain future and event modality, but not propositional modality, whereas the second one has scope over the proposition, involving categories such as propositional modality but typically not the plain future. The third one involves the distinction between assertion vs. non-assertion. The division is supported by the findings that realis-irrealis markers denoting event status are morpho-syntactically less peripheral than realis-irrealis markers denoting propositional modality and that complement clauses introduced by event status realis-irrealis markers are more deranked than complement clauses introduced by propositional modal ones. As a consequence, one can never find a single unifying feature for all language-specific realis-irrealis distinctions, as opposed to what has been argued in previous accounts.

ISBN 9783969392676 (Hardbound). LINCOM Studies in Language Typology 36. 132pp. 2025.