Encoding discontinuativity by Mari retrospectivizing particle constructions

Abstract

<p>Discontinuativity is a rarely discussed subcategory of event modality. It marks an event whose circumstantial modal base allows it to continue in so-called inertia worlds outside the actual one, but which eventually fails to do so. This paper analyzes the discontinuative functions of constructions based on the retrospectivizing particles <em>ə̑lˊe</em> and <em>ə̑lˊə̑</em> in Meadow Mari and Hill Mari, respectively. Though the particle constructions primarily express location of an event in a temporal sphere, I shall present how their perspective properties may also encode a modal perspective towards events in different worlds. A corpus study distinguishes two subtypes of discontinuativity based on the TAME interpretation of the lexical verb in the construction: (1) temporal discontinuatives, which indicate a realized interruption in the normal advancement of an event and (2) modal discontinuatives, which indicate that an interruption might follow. In both types, the constructions mark that the modal evaluation world is detached from the actual world and shifted to the unactualized inertia world, which produces an overt comment on the unexpected or unpreferred arrest of an event. This is a semantic reanalysis of the temporal perspective structure of the constructions, which detaches the perspective time from the utterance time.<br></p>