Main types of modality in the Yukaghir language

Abstract

   The article examines the main types of modality in the Yukaghir language from a functional-semantic perspective.    The relevance of the study  is determined by the need for an integral description of the modal system of the Yukaghir languages, since existing works provide more detailed coverage of only some of its segments, such as indicative past forms, certain unreal forms, and means of expressing indirect evidentiality, while a systemic account of modal meanings as an interconnected complex remains insufficiently developed.    The purpose of the article  is to identify and describe the main types of modality in the Yukaghir language, to define their semantic parameters, and to show the means of their expression on morphological and lexical-syntactic levels.     The objectives  include clarifying the theoretical basis for distinguishing objective and subjective modality; characterizing the opposition of reality and unreality; analyzing evidentiality as a significant component of modal qualification; describing the modalities of supposition, necessity, possibility, inducement, and evaluation; and revealing the role of modal words, adverbs, and analytical constructions.    The research material consisted of published grammatical and lexicographic descriptions of the Yukaghir language, as well as examples from field data reflecting modal meanings in authentic context. The methods used are descriptive, functional-semantic, contextual, and interpretive. The study shows that modality in Yukaghir is a multilevel system whose nucleus is formed by mood forms and some tense forms used modally, while the periphery includes modal words, particles, adverbs, and analytical constructions. It is demonstrated that Yukaghir material is particularly characterized by a close interaction between modality and evidentiality: an event may be marked as directly witnessed, inferred from indirect evidence, or reported from hearsay. The findings can be used in descriptive grammar of Yukaghir, in lexicographic practice, in courses on the languages of the peoples of the North, and in typological studies of modality.