Genericity, Quantification, and Modality in Malayalam

Abstract

Abstract The imperfective aspect marker -unnu in Malayalam licenses a situation argument, which is the characteristic property of an episodic predicate. An imperfective reading is derived when the situation argument is bound by an existential operator, signalled by the existential copula uɳʈə. A generic reading of the -unnu construction is derived when the situation argument is bound by an extensional quantifying operator. Generic sentences with -unnu contrast with the generic sentences with the future tense-marking modal particle -um. The modal marker -um is argued to signal the presence of a modalized generic operator that quantifies over the set of accessible possible worlds. This gives the sentence an intensional (characterizing) property. The modal -um is thus claimed to be closely related to the universal quantifying particle -um.