Modality, Subjectivity, and Semantic Change: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective

This text is a cross-linguistic exploration of semantic and functional change in modal markers. With a focus on Japanese and - to a lesser extent - Chinese, it is a countercheck to hypotheses built on the Indo-European languages.

Heiko Narrog is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Tohoku University. His publications include Modality in Japanese (Benjamins 2009); and, with Bernd Heine, The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis (OUP 2010) and The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization (OUP 2011).