Illocution and Speaker Intent in Coptic: the Case of the ‘Autofocal’ Second Tenses

It is suggested that the so-called ‘autofocal’ second tenses attested in Coptic are characterised by uniform illocutionary properties. In most and perhaps all cases these constructions seem to appear when speakers view the propositional content of what is said as unacceptable, invalid, or, less ofte...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Uljas, Sami (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2015
In: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
Year: 2015, Volume: 142, Issue: 2, Pages: 205-216
Further subjects:B Assertion (Linguistics)
B Illocutionary Force
B Coptic language
B second tenses
B Speech Acts
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:It is suggested that the so-called ‘autofocal’ second tenses attested in Coptic are characterised by uniform illocutionary properties. In most and perhaps all cases these constructions seem to appear when speakers view the propositional content of what is said as unacceptable, invalid, or, less often, defective in terms of its information value. It is shown that cross-linguistic parallels to these uses are readily forthcoming from other languages, where propositions of similar sort are regularly coded with subjunctive and corresponding forms.
ISSN:2196-713X
Contains:Enthalten in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/zaes-2015-0016