Semantic maps and the identification of cross-linguistic generic categories: Evidentiality and its relation to Epistemic Modality
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Semantic maps and the identification of cross-linguistic generic categories : Evidentiality and its relation to Epistemic Modality. / Boye, Kasper.
In: Linguistic Discovery, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2010, p. 4-22.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Semantic maps and the identification of cross-linguistic generic categories
T2 - Evidentiality and its relation to Epistemic Modality
AU - Boye, Kasper
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Cross-linguistic generic categories like evidentiality, tense, aspect, number, and person are entrenched in linguistic theory. However, it is not clear whether there is much empirical substance to them. There is a remarkable lack of criteria for what counts as a category. This paper tries to show that semantic maps can be used to give empirical substance to claims about cross-linguistic generic categories. It is argued that, as falsifiable cross-linguistic generalizations, semantic maps provide us with a criterion for categorial status and category membership and also provide us with a basis for identifying relations between different categories. However, it is also argued that there are limits to the use of semantic maps in evaluating claims about cross-linguistic generic categories, and that the criterion for categorial status and category membership provided by semantic maps ultimately needs to be supplemented by other criteria. In its argumentation, this paper focuses on the category of evidentiality and on the relation between evidentiality and epistemic modality.
AB - Cross-linguistic generic categories like evidentiality, tense, aspect, number, and person are entrenched in linguistic theory. However, it is not clear whether there is much empirical substance to them. There is a remarkable lack of criteria for what counts as a category. This paper tries to show that semantic maps can be used to give empirical substance to claims about cross-linguistic generic categories. It is argued that, as falsifiable cross-linguistic generalizations, semantic maps provide us with a criterion for categorial status and category membership and also provide us with a basis for identifying relations between different categories. However, it is also argued that there are limits to the use of semantic maps in evaluating claims about cross-linguistic generic categories, and that the criterion for categorial status and category membership provided by semantic maps ultimately needs to be supplemented by other criteria. In its argumentation, this paper focuses on the category of evidentiality and on the relation between evidentiality and epistemic modality.
M3 - Journal article
VL - 8
SP - 4
EP - 22
JO - Linguistic Discovery
JF - Linguistic Discovery
SN - 1537-0852
IS - 1
ER -
ID: 10487855