(Meadow Mari)
SitNecPartEp & SitNec~Ep
SitNecPartEp: Only a part of the strategies used to express situational necessity has an epistemic interpretation in the language.
SitNec~Ep: The strategies used for situational necessity partially overlap regarding situational and epistemic interpretations.
| (1) | keŋež-əm | žap-em | o-k | lij, | jal-əšte | lij-šaš | ul-am. |
|---|
| summer‑ACC | time‑1SG | NEG‑3SG | be.FUT.CNG | village‑INE | be.fut‑PTCP.FUT | be‑1SG |
| ’I won’t have time in the summer, I will be/should be in the village.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 264) |
| (2) | ergə-na | ves | ij-əm | armej-əške | kajə-šaš. |
|---|
| boy‑1PL | other | year‑ACC | army‑ILL | go‑PTCP.FUT |
| ’Our son has to go to the army next year.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 264) |
| (3) | tače | eše | emləmever-əške | kajə-šaš-em | ul-o. |
|---|
| today | still | hospital‑ILL | go‑PTCP.FUT‑1SG | be‑3SG |
| ’I still need to go to the hospital today.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 264) |
| (4) | tugeže | tə | eŋer-əšte | kol | šuko | lij-šaš. |
|---|
| so | this | river‑INE | fish | many | will_be‑PTCP.FUT |
| ’So there must be a lot of fish in this river.’ (Korp.) |
| (5) | maša | mal-aš | tiješ. |
|---|
| Masha | sleep‑INF | probably |
| ’Masha may already be asleep.’ (A. S.) |
| (6) | maša | mal-aš | tiješ | ul-eš. |
|---|
| Masha | sleep‑INF | probably | be‑3SG |
| ’Masha may already be asleep.’ (A. S.) |
| (7) | čən | ul-at | tiješ. |
|---|
| true | be‑2SG | probably |
| ’You may be right.’ (N. I.) |
| (8) | tema | lij-aš | tiješ | kalək-ən | jəlmə-štə-že | mo | ul-o, | mo-m |
|---|
| topic | will_be‑INF | must | folk‑GEN | language‑INE‑3SG | what | be‑3SG | what‑ACC |
| ojl-a | sade. |
| say‑3SG | so |
| ’The topic has to be what is there in folk language, what they say.’ (Arkhangelsky 2019) |
| (9) | mə-lan-na | möŋgə-štö | kod-man. |
|---|
| we‑DAT‑1PL | home‑INE | stay‑INF.NEC |
| ’We have to stay at home.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 258) |
| (10) | erla | er | küńel-aš | kül-eš. |
|---|
| tomorrow | early | get_up‑INF | must‑3SG |
| ’We need to get up early tomorrow.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 282) |
| (11) | tošto | kompjuťer | olmeš | u-m | nal-aš-na | pern-en. |
|---|
| old | computer | instead | new‑ACC | buy‑INF‑1PL | hit‑PST2.3SG |
| ’Instead of the old computer we had to buy a new one.’ (Riese et al. 2022: 283) |
| (12) | ənde | ik | šagat | vuč-aš! |
|---|
| well_now | one | hour | wait‑INF |
| ’Well, now we have to wait an hour!’ (elicited) |
In Meadow Mari, the future participle form -šaš combined with the verb ulaš ’be’, agreeing in person and number (optional in third person) can be used to express either situational necessity (1)─(3), or epistemic modality (4). In case person and number agreement is expressed by a possessive suffix on the -šaš participle, ulaš can only appear in its third person singular form, and interpretation is restricted to situational modality (3). In Eastern Mari dialects, the Tatar adverbial tiješ is also common and can be used either as an adverbial (7) or a quasi-verb: in first and second person it combines with the verb uleš ’be’, in third person uleš is optional. Most commonly, tiješ expresses situational necessity (8), but epistemic uses are also attested (5)─(6). Other affixes and constructions expressing situational necessity (for more details see Situational necessity) have no epistemic interpretations (9)─(12).
Author: Bogáta Timár
[🠐 back]
