Language death, modality, and functional explanations

Bibliographic Data

ID21540763
AuthorsSune Gregersen (0000-0002-3387-4340, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume52
Issue1
Pages117-143
Publication date2020-01-02
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueActa Linguistica Hafniensia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0374-0463 • E-ISSN: 1949-0763
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03740463.2020.1743582
OpenAlexW3035592188
LanguageEN
References cited24

The article is an in-depth review of Petar Kehayov’s monograph The Fate of Mood and Modality in Language Death: Evidence from Minor Finnic (De Gruyter Mouton, 2017). The book investigates the development of mood and modality in four moribund Finnic languages spoken in the Russian Federation: Votic, Ingrian, Central Lude, and Eastern Seto. After a detailed summary of the book, I discuss a number of issues relating to (a) the semantic map used to analyze the modal meanings; (b) the difference between language death-related changes and “regular” language change; and (c) the explanation of the observed patterns in terms of conceptual complexity. On the last point, I suggest that usage frequency may provide a better explanation for some of the observed changes

Evidentiality · Linguistics · Mood · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence

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