ACQUISITION OF EPISTEMIC AND DEONTIC MODALITY IN SERBIAN

Authors

  • Željko Ljiljak-Vukajlović Univerzitet u Beogradu, Filološki fakultet

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18485/zivjez.2021.41.1.1

Keywords:

deontic modality, epistemic modality, first language acquisition, Serbian language, cross-linguistic differences

Abstract

This paper describes the results of an experimental study of the acquisition of deontic and epistemic modality performed on a sample consisting of adult and ten-year-old native speakers of Serbian. The results showed that at this age children had only partially acquired the system of modal meanings: although deontic modality constituted a separate group of meanings in their responses, the children were unable to distinguish epistemic from deontic and dynamic modal meanings. On the other hand, adult respondents were able to generate relatively homogeneous categories of meaning and describe them in abstract terms. However, the presence of marked context effect (to which younger respondents were particularly susceptible) may limit finding generalizability.

Downloads

Published

2021-12-30

How to Cite

Ljiljak-Vukajlović, Željko. (2021). ACQUISITION OF EPISTEMIC AND DEONTIC MODALITY IN SERBIAN. Živi Jezici: Journal for Foreign Languages and Literatures, 41(1), 13–40. https://doi.org/10.18485/zivjez.2021.41.1.1

Issue

Vol. 41 No. 1 (2021)

Section

Linguistics

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).