Modal verb ‘intend to’

16.47 phits-e [ døt ] ɕii-kuk. child-ERG sit.down[NPST] know-PROG;VIS ‘The child knows how to sit.’ Speaker has witnessed that the child is able to sit and he asserts this. When the ‘know how’ abilitive ɕii combines with the verbs of T2 or locational existential copular clause, the meaning may shift quite a bit. Consider the following examples the modal is underlined. 16.48 [le-mi-ja-la sa-ma thop ] ɕii-ken bet. work-man-HUM1-DAT eat-F2 receive know-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘The workman deserves to get his food.’ It is a fringe benefit of a workman, he deserves it. 16.49 [ toto khim-na jøt ] ɕii-ken bet. brother house-IN EXIST.EXP know-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘Possibly my brother is at home.’ Note also that the kinship relation of the speaker to the third person is shown in the complement- clause verb. The following pair of statements illustrate how the meaning changes when this ‘know how’ abilitive is negated: 16.50 t ɕik-ki roo lha-kaŋ-la soŋ-tuk si-kuk. INDF-ERG 3SG god-house-DAT go-PRF.VIS say-PROG;VIS ‘A person says, “He has gone to the temple.”’ joŋmaa-ki ɖo mit-ɕii-ken bet another-ERG go NEG-know-NMLZ;CONJ AUX hunto=raŋ jøk-kel-la. si-kuk. now=FOC EXIST-NMLZ;CONJ-DAT say-PROG;VIS ‘Another man says: “He cannot possibly have gone since he is still here.”’ Someone infers from circumstances that the person has gone to the temple. Another speaker knows better and he corrects the first speaker. Obviously the ‘know how’ abilitive verb here does not refer to knowing how to go to the temple because everybody knows where the temple is. Note also that the tense of the latter clause is nonpast.

16.2.4 Modal verb ‘intend to’

Intention marked by the modal verb joŋ ‘intend to’ 16.2.4.1 Intentive modal attitude modifies the main verb and indicates the intention of the subject or a definite opinion of the speaker about what is going to happen. The modal follows the verb which it modifies and the modified verb has past root without any affixation. The verb of the main clause is joŋ which can have only an emphatic marker or a question clitic. It cannot be negated. It occurs only in this intentive construction. The common verb juŋ ‘to come’ may have become grammaticalized and only the frozen form joŋ is left. If that is true then this modal verb has some lexical meaning, namely ‘to come’. This would explain why the movement is directed towards the deictic center. However I have used the lexical meaning ‘intend to’ in this contruction. • This modality combines with most clause types. • The verb of the complement clause is PST root. • The complement clause is nominalized. • The tense of the main clause is NPST. • The subject of the main clause is either ergative marked or absolutive marked depending on complement clause type. • The main clause and the complement clause are of the same type. The subject is shared and the rest of the complement clause is the object of the main verb. • There is no particular time frame as to when in future the event or state will happen. • As to the epistemic certainty scale this construction ranks fairly low. • The intentive modal joŋ entails the idea that the event, action, or motion is somehow directed towards the speaker or the hearer or that the speaker is otherwise involved with the coming event, action, or motion towards the deictic center. When this modal attitude verb is used with unvolitional verbs like ‘to die’ it naturally does not indicate intention but simply unavoidable destiny. Consider the following examples the modals and the main verbs are underlined. 16 .51 ŋit tuwa sa=tu lit joŋ. 1PL.EXCL food eat=PURP arrive[PST] intend ‘We’ll come to eat.’ Or: ‘It is our intention to come to eat.’ Speaker expresses the intention of his family to come to someone’s house for supper. 16.52 ki-i se joŋ. mat-ɕok. dog-ERG eat[PST] intend NEG-put.leave[IMP] ‘The dog is going to eat it Do not leave it there’ This is a warning to someone who is going to leave food where the dog would eat it. 16.53 s-e khok ʈhʏ-na ka tuwa noŋ-et ka. soil-GEN interior dig-NFNT1 CEP food get-INCH CEP mi-i khok ʈhʏ-ni khanʈ-e tuwa noŋ joŋ=a? man-GEN interior dig-NFNT2 what-GEN food get[PST] intend=Q ‘If a man digs the soil he will actually get food. But when he digs the interior of another man, what food is he intending to get?’ This is an idiom, a rhetorical question. The question word in the latter sentence actually negates the whole clause. 16 .54 ŋ-e tam ɕet joŋ. TE21 1SG-ERG message speak[PST] intend ‘I’ll tell the story to you.’ Or: ‘I am going to tell you the story.’ The princess is in dilemma and she has to tell her life story. 16.55 hat ɕa-raŋ thamtɕet ɕi joŋ. 1PL.INCL-self all die[PST] intend ‘We all are going to die.’ Speaker states his opinion because of imminent danger. 16.56 phin-na te taŋ joŋ=te. go.come[PST]-NFNT1 look.at[PST] IMMED[PST] intend=EMPH ‘We’ll go there and we are going to have a good look right away’ Or: ‘It is our intention to go there and have a good look at it.’ Speaker suggests that he and others go and find out what some men are doing. The emphatic marker modifies the whole sentence. Intention marked by the modal verb ɖo-, ‘to go’ 16.2.4.2 This intentive modal modifies the main verb and indicates the intention of the subject or a definite opinion of the speaker about what is going to happen. The modal follows the verb which it modifies and the modified verb has past root without any affixation. • The verb of the main clause is ɖo- which typically takes nonpast suffixes, -kuk PROG;VIS, and - ken bet NMLZ;CONJ AUX. • This modality verb combines with most clause types. • The verb of the complement clause is PST root. • The complement clause is nominalized. • The tense of the main clause is NPST. • The subject of the main clause is either ergative marked or absolutive marked depending on complement-clause verb type. • The modality verb may be marked for interrogative but cannot be negated. • The subjects of the main clause and the complement clause are co-referential and the rest of the complement clause is the object of the main verb. • There is no particular time frame as to when in future the event or motion will happen. • This intentive modality entails the idea that the action, event, or motion is directed away from the speaker or that the speaker is not directly involved with it. In other words the movement is away from deictic center. The most appropriate English gloss is normally ‘is going to’, ‘intends to’. With some unvolitional verbs the meaning is more like ‘to have a bias’, ‘to be inclined to’. Consider the following examples the modals and the main verbs are underlined. 16 .57 jaŋ thaara tɕik thaŋ phoppa tɕik ro hek-ken CONTR2 plate one and cup one corpse cremate-NMLZ;CONJ tarapa di-ki khur ɖo-ken bet. TE49 cremater DEF-ERG carry[PST] go-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘At the same time the man who cremates the corpse is going to take a plate and a cup with him.’ Speaker describes various religious implications in case of sickness in his village. Getting sick is expensive but dying is even more expensive when everybody takes his payment as in this example. 16.58 hi-ni mi d ʑik-paa di-p-e mi jari jari nuk=raŋ this-ABL man strong-COMP2 DEF-HUM1-ERG man some some this.way=FOC sa jari nuk=raŋ ʈhoo ɖo-ken bet. TE33 field some this.way=FOC take.away[PST] go-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘Occasionally those strong men had a tendency to take forcefully into their possession a field or two.’ This is from a story that describes the activities of some bad characters in the village when there were no policemen around. Intentive modal re-enforces the generally known fact that this sort of things really happened. 16.59 go-maa di ki di-le khe ɕɕa di head-ADJVZR DEF dog DEF-COMP.BASIS barking.deer DEF ʈhim-paa dʑuu ɖo-ken bet. TE50 fast-COMP.STATE run[PST] go-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘At first the barking deer has a tendency to run faster than the dog.’ Story is a descriptive one telling how Lhomis hunt. When a dog chases a barking deer the latter first runs faster but later it gets tired and the dog catches up. 16.60 pha jari jak-la d ʑii ɖo-ken. TE32 cow some yak-DAT become.afraid[PST] go-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘Some cows tend to be afraid of yaks.’ This story is about yaks. Speaker writes factual information throughout the text though he has also some experience with yaks. To use intentive modal in this example highlights the statement compared to mere factual statement d ʑii-ken bet. 16 .61 ŋ-e ɕumpu ɕi ɖo-kuk. 1SG-GEN cat die[PST] go-PROG;VIS ‘My cat is going to die.’ Speaker knows that his cat is very sick and expresses his definite opinion that it is going to die. His statement is based on his visual observation -kuk.

16.2.5 Modal verb ‘want todesire to’