Lecture | LUCL Colloquium | Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (CIEL) Seminars
Modality without moods? Preliminary considerations for a systematic study of modal strategies in Hittite
- Date
- Friday 17 April 2026
- Time
- Serie
- LUCL Colloquium
- Address
-
Herta Mohr
Witte Singel 27A
2311 BG Leiden - Room
- 0.02
Abstract
Starting from recent frameworks on modality as a conceptual domain, the talk examines the range of modal expressions we find in the Hittite corpus. Unlike other old Indo-European languages, such as the Indo-Iranian languages and Ancient Greek, Hittite shows a limited number of verbal moods, which makes it particularly interesting to analyse the lexical and construction-based strategies of modalizing states of affaires. In doing so, it seems promising to take into account the interplay of modal expressions with specific communicative and contextual parameters which are accessible through the conventionalized text types of the Hittite transmission.