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Relevance of research. The article examines the process of verb formation in Germanic languages, as well as the peculiarities of the grammatical semantics of verbs at different historical stages of the development of Germanic languages. Using the comparative-historical method, the functioning of verbs in texts of Germanic languages was investigated as an aspect of neurolinguistic science. Research results. The article proves that most modal verbs of Germanic languages have undergone significant semantic transformations. The study of texts of different historical stages of language development shows that verbs evolved through semantic transformation. Time frames of the formation of secondary semantics were revealed. The theoretical and practical significance lies in the fact that this research allows a detailed study of the features of the emergence of the primary, as well as the secondary, subjective semantics of verbs in Germanic languages from a neuroscientific point of view. It should be noted that the list of subjective values still raises many questions and discussions. The German language has an extremely clear system of means of expressing modal values. The scientific novelty of the article lies in the neurolinguistic approach to the study of the evolution of Germanic verbs. The article aims to study the evolution of verbs in the German language in the context of neurolinguistics. To achieve the goal, the method of comparative analysis was used. This made it possible to consider the evolution of the verb through a comparative study of texts at the main stages of speech development. To solve these problems, texts reflecting the state of the language at each historical stage were studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a corpus-based analysis of so-called "hedged performatives," which, although frequently referred to in the literature, have never been the subject of an in-depth functional study. Using data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the focus is on I must / have to say, I must / have to admit, and I must / have to confess, as the hedged performatives which are among the most frequent and score highest in terms of collocational strength. The qualitative analysis identifies two main functions, viz., downtoner and emphasizer. They are shown to derive from the interplay of three co(n)textual parameters: (i) "semantic valency" of the host clause (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral semantic content), (ii) "thematic orientation" of the host clause (i.e., toward the speaker, the addressee, or a third person/the situation), and (iii) conversational "alignment" of the speaker with the interlocutor (i.e., agreement or disagreement). It is further shown that hedged performatives play an important role in rapport management, serving (mainly positive face) politeness strategies, which are captured in terms of face-preservation, face-damage, and face-boost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study takes an interactional linguistics and conversation analysis-based approach to analyze the modal verb huì 'will' in the recurrent formular of commissive actions, [wǒ huì X (de)] 'I will X.' Data analyses show that this format has two variations differentiated by the prosodic stress on huì. The format with the unstressed huì is often observed in turn-initiating position where the speaker offers to perform a future action or informs the recipient of their arrangement of an established activity. The format with the stressed huì appears in both initiating and responding positions although it is less frequently observed. Stressed huì is often used to reassure the recipient of an existing commitment to performing a future action. This study highlights the significance of prosody in the study of modal verbs and the benefits of studying individual words in a linguistic formula situated in specific interactional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The focus of this study is on the Latvian modal verb vajadzēt ‘to need, must’ derived from the noun vajaga ‘need, necessity’ believed to be a borrowing from Livonian vajag, vajāg ‘need, necessary’. The objective of this study is to provide a full, comprehensive description of the grammatical forms and distribution of the verb vajadzēt, and an analysis of its modal and evidential semantics. This is essential, first and foremost, for contrastive language studies (vis-à-vis Livonian and Estonian counterparts of the verb vajadzēt) and will help to lay the necessary foundation for further research on modal verbs and their associated syntactic constructions in Latvian (Baltic) and Finnic language contacts. The verb vajadzēt is part of a larger system of Latvian impersonal modal verbs taking a dative experiencer/agent/possessor; it is also, by virtue of its semantics and functions, one of the primary lexical means for expressing deontic modality in contemporary Latvian. This study takes a closer look at the distribution, semantics of the verb and its syntactic constructions, which are clearly related to the expression of deontic, sometimes also epistemic, and evidential meanings. In addition, the study provides an overview of the grammatical forms of the verb vajadzēt and its parallel uses with the debitive mood. Kokkuvõte. Andra Kalnača, Ilze Lokmane: Läti verb vajadzēt ‘vajama, pidama’: selle liivi juured ning modaalsuse ja distributsiooni eripärad. Selle uurimuse keskmes on läti modaalverb vajadzēt ‘vajama, pidama’, mis on tuletatud nimisõnast vajaga ‘vajadus, tarvidus’, mida omakorda peetakse laenuks liivikeelsest sõnast vajag, vajāg ‘vajadus, vajalik’. Uurimuse eesmärk on anda kõikehõlmav ülevaade verbi vajadzēt grammatilistest vormidest ja distributsioonist ning analüüsida selle modaalset ja evidentsiaalset semantikat. See on oluline eelkõige kontrastiivse keeleuurimise jaoks (verbi vajadzēt võrdlemisel liivi ja eesti vastetega) ning aitab luua vajaliku aluse modaalverbide ja nendega seotud süntaktiliste konstruktsioonide edasiseks uurimiseks seoses läti (balti) ja läänemeresoome keelekontaktidega. Verb vajadzēt on osa suuremast läti üldisikuliste modaalverbide süsteemist, kus kogeja/agent/valdaja ühildub daativis; samuti on see oma semantika ja funktsioonide tõttu üks peamisi leksikaalseid vahendeid deontilise modaalsuse väljendamiseks tänapäeva läti keeles. Käesolevas uurimuses vaadeldakse lähemalt verbi distributsiooni, semantikat ja selle süntaktilisi konstruktsioone, mis on selgelt seotud deontiliste, mõnikord ka episteemiliste ja evidentsiaalsete tähenduste väljendamisega. Lisaks antakse uurimuses ülevaade verbi vajadzēt grammatilistest vormidest ja selle paralleelsest kasutusest debitiiviga. Kubbõvõttõks. Andra Kalnača, Ilze Lokmane: Lețkīel verb vajadzēt: sīe līvõd jūrd, modalitāt ja distribūtsij eņtšsuglit. Sīe tuņšlimiz sidāms um lețkīel modāli verb vajadzēt ‘um vajāg’, mis alīzõks um nimsõnā vajaga ‘vajāgõm’, mis tegīž um täpīņtõd līvõ kīel sõnāst vajāg. Tuņšlimiz merk um tǟmikšõ iļvaņtlõks iļ verb vajadzēt formõd ja distribūtsij, ja tuņšlõ sīe modāliz ja evidentsiāliz semantik. Se um tǟdzi amā jeds kontrastīviz kīel tuņšlimiz pierāst (ītlõs verb vajadzēt līvõ ja ēsti kīelkõks) ja äbțõb lūodõ tārpaliz alīz modālizt verbõd ja näntkõks sidtõd sintaks konstruktsijd jeddõpēḑiz tuņšlimiz pierāst lețkīel (baltõd) ja vāldamiersūomõ kīeld kontaktõd kontekstõs. Verb vajadzēt um ikš jag jo sūrst lețkīel modālizt verbõd sistēmst; nei īž eņtš semantik ja funktsijd pūolst tämpizõs lețkīels se um ikš tǟdzi leksikāli vaindõks deontiliz modalitāt nägțimiz pierāst. Sīes tuņšlimizõs jo ležgõld sōbõd vaņtõltõd verb distribūtsij, semantika ja sīe sintaks konstruktsijd, mis ātõ sieldist sidtõd deontiliz, vaišti ka epistēmliz ja evidentsiāliz tǟntõks nägțimizõks. Nei iž tuņšlimi tǟmikšõb iļvaņtlõks iļ verb vajadzēt formõd ja sīe paralēliz kȭlbatimiz īdskubs debitīvõks.

AbstractThis study aimed at investigating the semantic aspect of modal verbs in today’s Persian language from a typological perspective, which provided us with an opportunity to compare the meanings of Persian modal verbs with those of the other languages. The theoretical framework of this study belonged to Nauze (2008). This was a qualitative research, which was done using a descriptive-analytic method. The research data, which included natural Persian utterances, were obtained from texts appeared in the cyberspace. The modal verbs considered were as follows: bâyestan, tavânestan, šodan, and xâstan. After gathering the data, the type and semantic map of each modal verb were determined based on the conceptual space of modality presented by Nauze (2008). The results showed that Nauze’s modality framework could cover a variety of meanings of modal verbs in Today’s Persian language. It was also found that Today’s Persian data were in concordance with typological principle of Nauze, who claimed that all the meanings of modal verbs had to be based on one of the vertical axes.Keywords: Modality, Modal Verb, Semantic Map, Conceptual Space, Nauze’s Framework, Today’s Persian Language IntroductionModality is a category that has attracted the attention of many linguistics from different perspectives. However, it is said that providing a comprehensive, transparent, and clear definition of modality is difficult. In addition, modality can be represented in the syntactic-lexical construction of a language in the form of modal verbs, clauses, auxiliaries, adverbs, adjectives, or a combination of them. Thus, it covers a wide range of areas. The purpose of this study was to investigate Persian modal verbs from a semantic perspective using a typological framework. The research questions were as follows: What meanings did the modal verbs of bayestæn (must), tavanestæn (to be able), šodæn (to become), and xastæn (to want) have in the contemporary Persian language based on Nauze’s typological framework? Was this framework sufficient to cover the meanings of the given modal verbs? Was this typological principle that Nauze had proposed (all meanings of a modal verb are placed on one of the (vertical or horizontal) axes) true about the meanings of Persian modal verbs? Materials and MethodsThe present study was a qualitative research based on a descriptive-analytical method. The modal verbs of the contemporary Persian language in this study include four verbs of bayestæn (must), tavanestæn (to be able), šodæn (to become), and xastæn (to want). The verb of šayestæn (to deserve) was not included in this study as there was an agreement on its modality in the linguistic community and seemed to have been mostly used as an adverb today. To provide some natural data, the examples of the use of these verbs were searched through the Internet in the cyberspace, categorized based on their intended meanings, and then placed in the conceptual space of Nauze’s modality.The meanings of the verbs were first recognized in the examples based on the researchers’ linguistic tuition. In the next step, the examples were given to 20 linguistic students, who were asked to specify the meanings of the modal verbs in them. The second step was taken to ensure correct recognition of the meanings of the modal verbs. When there was a disagreement (not much in this study), the final analysis was done based on the majority of the analysts’ views. Discussion of Results & ConclusionsAssessment of the semantic mapping of the contemporary Persian modal verbs showed that bayestæn (must) had a semantic diversity only on the vertical axis of “necessity” and all its meanings were characterized on this axis. On the contrary, tavanestæn (to be able) covered all the modal meanings in Nauze’s conceptual space and was on the vertical axis of “possibility”. The modal verb of šodæn (to become) was like tavanestæn (to be able), which covered all the meanings in Nauze’s conceptual space on the vertical axis of “possibility”. However, xastæn (to want) had less semantic diversity than the other verbs and its only meaning was the dynamic aspect of internal participation that was on the axis of possibility.The semantic diversity of the mentioned contemporary Persian modal verbs can be generally demonstrated as follows:bayestæn/ tavanestæn /šodæn>xastæn Thus, bayestæn, tavanestæn, and šodæn convey most of modal meanings, while xastæn has modal meanings only in contemporary Persian. Three of these modal verbs had modal meanings on the vertical axis of “possibility”, while only one verb had its modal meaning on the axis of “necessity”. The two verbs of bayestæn and tavanestæn had modal usage in the Middle Ages, so their semantic modal diversities were justifiable in contemporary Persian, while the other two verbs of šodæn and xastæn had no modal usage in the Middle Ages. However, the verb of šodæn (to become) had a variety of modal meanings in contemporary Persian, the reasons of which needed further investigation, but xastæn (to want) like its equivalent, to reduce (kāmistan), had only one modal meaning on the axis of “possibility” in the Middle Persian.Comparison of the results of this study with those of the research conducted on some other Iranian languages, such as Kurdish Sorani (Moradi, 2013) and Hawrami (Naghzgoye Kohan & Naqshbandi, 2016) showed the diversity of meanings of the three verbs of bayestæn, tavanestæn, and šodæn in these languages. In this respect, Persian and these other two Iranian languages were almost similar with some differences. For example, in the case of Hawrami, Naghzgoo Kohan and Naghshbandi (2016) believed that the verb of šodæn (to become) had a meaning on both axes of possibility and necessity so that Hawrami violated the typological principle proposed by Nauze (2008), while the data of contemporary Persian language did not violate this principle. Moradi (2013) introduced "maybe" along with "should" as a verb in Sorani Kurdish. It seemed that "maybe" was adverbial in modern Persian, while it was a modal verb in the Middle Persian. As Abdi (2021) claimed, the verbs of bayestæn, tavanestæn, and šodæn with their greatest semantic diversities had to be the most frequent modal verbs in modern Persian if there was a relationship between their diversity of meanings and frequency of a linguistic construct.Comparison of the results of the present study with those of Abdi's research revealed that this claim was true for the two verbs of bayestæn and tavanestæn, while Abdi introduced xastæn (to want) as the second most frequent verb in the spoken modern Persian and placed šodæn (to become) in a lower rank. There was an opposing variety of the modal meanings of these two verbs, indicating that šodæn had more semantic diversity than xastæn.

Polarity is the opposition between positive and negative and Modality is the speaker’s judgment about the proposition and proposal. In fact, modality is the space between ‘yes’ and ‘no’. In this study, four main types of modality including “epistemic”, “evidential”, “deontic” and “dynamic” from Palmer's point of view, and three types of negation including “nuclear negation”, “core negation” and “clause/ sentence negation” based on Role and Reference Grammar of VanValin were introduced and then the relationship between them was investigated in the Persian. In order to determine the polarity of the nucleus, the presence or absence of a negative prefix, and to determine the polarity of the core, the relationship of the verb and its arguments has been considered. To detect the polarity of the sentence, two tests of “tag question” and “lie test” were used. Examination of the data showed that when the modality of the sentence is changed, the polarity of the sentence is changed as well. It seems that the combination of modality and polarity is a strategy for language users to be able to formulate the same propositional meanings in different ways according to different contexts, and thus follow different discourse purposes.

The article deals with the peculiarities of translating modal verbs from English into Ukrainian, as well as from Ukrainian into English. The author proceeds from the fact that when translating modal verbs it is necessary to take into account their polyfunctionality, as well as mismatching the means of expression of modality in the English and Ukrainian languages. It is stated that modal verbs in English form a special group and have differences in the use of all other verbs. It is explained that we speak of our abilities, requests, ask permissions, forbid something, give advice and talk about obligations with the help of such verb. It reveals modality as a category that has its own characteristics when translated into Ukrainian, since it is transmitted using various language and lexical means. It is stated that the class of modal verbs includes such verbs as can (could), may (might), must, ought, need. It is concluded that these verbs act as an explanation of the circumstance or the possibility of accomplishing something in the sentences. It is emphasized that these verbs cannot be used independently and phrases usually go in conjunction with the semantic verb in infinitive form for the correct formulation. It is shown that most often the modal verb acts as a composite nominal predicate. We are talking about the fact that the translator faces various kinds of difficulties in the process of translation - the transmitting of thoughts, expressed in one language by the means of another language. One of these difficulties is the way of transmitting the meanings of modal verbs from English into Russian. There is no other lexical-grammatical category in the English language that would present great difficulties in the translation process than the category of modality. It is emphasized that in any work dealing with translation problems, the problem of modality arises in one form or another, but terminologically this problem can be formalized differently and serve different tasks of translation research. The most universal and conservative units of modality in the European languages are modal verbs, which together with the adjacent units (semi-modal verbs and modal idioms) form a special class of grammatical units capable of conveying the emotional nuances of the statement with the most unexpected increments of meaning. It is stated that even such a conservative class of language units, as modal verbs, reveals extraordinary semantic flexibility. This circumstance prevents the presentation of the features of modality in the form of strict logical formulas. The logical categorization of modality is just the start-up for the linguist. The conclusion is that the omission of a modal verb in the translation usually speaks not of the lack of appropriate linguistic resources, but of the desire of the translator to remain “invisible”, for which they use the colloquial idioms of the host culture

The focus of this study is on the Latvian modal verb vajadzēt ‘to need, must’ derived from the noun vajaga ‘need, necessity’ believed to be a borrowing from Livonian vajag, vajāg ‘need, necessary’. The objective of this study is to provide a full, comprehensive description of the grammatical forms and distribution of the verb vajadzēt, and an analysis of its modal and evidential semantics. This is essential, first and foremost, for contrastive language studies (vis-à-vis Livonian and Estonian counterparts of the verb vajadzēt) and will help to lay the necessary foundation for further research on modal verbs and their associated syntactic constructions in Latvian (Baltic) and Finnic language contacts. The verb vajadzēt is part of a larger system of Latvian impersonal modal verbs taking a dative experiencer/agent/possessor; it is also, by virtue of its semantics and functions, one of the primary lexical means for expressing deontic modality in contemporary Latvian. This study takes a closer look at the distribution, semantics of the verb and its syntactic constructions, which are clearly related to the expression of deontic, sometimes also epistemic, and evidential meanings. In addition, the study provides an overview of the grammatical forms of the verb vajadzēt and its parallel uses with the debitive mood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of bias is familiar to linguists primarily from the literature on questions. Following the work of Giannakidou and Mari (Truth and Veridicality in Grammar and Thought: Modality, Mood, and Propositional Attitudes, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2021), we assume "nonveridical equilibrium" (implying that p and ¬p as equal possibilities) to be the default for epistemic modals, questions and conditionals. The equilibrium of conditionals, as that of questions, can be manipulated to produce bias (i.e., reduced or higher speaker commitment). In this paper, we focus on three kinds of modal elements in German that create bias in conditionals and questions: the adverb wirklich 'really', the modal verb sollte 'should', and conditional connectives such as falls 'if/in case'. We conducted two experiments collecting participants' inference about speaker commitment in different manipulations, Experiment 1 on sollte/wirklich in ob-questions and wenn-conditionals, and Experiment 2 on sollte/wirklich in wenn/falls/V1-conditionals. Our findings are that both ob-questions and falls-conditionals express reduced speaker commitment about the modified (antecedent) proposition in comparison to wenn-conditionals, which did not differ from V1-conditionals. In addition, sollte/wirklich in the antecedent of conditionals both create negative bias about the antecedent proposition. Our studies are among the first that deal with bias in conditionals (in comparison to questions) and contribute to furthering our understanding of bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the semantic differences and similarities between the volitive modal verbs in German and modern Chinese. The research questions of the article are: How is the intentionality of volitive modal verbs located in modern Chinese? What are the differences in their location in German and in modern Chinese? The four Chinese modal verbs xiǎng 想, yào 要, kĕn 肯 and yuànyì 愿意 are contrasted with the German volitive modal verbs wollen and mögen by numerous examples from the CCL corpus (The Corpus of Center of Chinese Linguistics at the University of Peking) with a corresponding translation. In this way, it enables a deeper understanding of the volitive modal verbs in both languages. In this respect, the contribution can be helpful both for language teachers who teach Chinese as a foreign language and for researchers in the field of contrastive linguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes an interactional linguistics and conversation analysis-based approach to analyze the modal verb huì ‘will’ in the recurrent formular of commissive actions, [wǒ huì X (de)] ‘I will X.’ Data analyses show that this format has two variations differentiated by the prosodic stress on huì. The format with the unstressed huì is often observed in turn-initiating position where the speaker offers to perform a future action or informs the recipient of their arrangement of an established activity. The format with the stressed huì appears in both initiating and responding positions although it is less frequently observed. Stressed huì is often used to reassure the recipient of an existing commitment to performing a future action. This study highlights the significance of prosody in the study of modal verbs and the benefits of studying individual words in a linguistic formula situated in specific interactional contexts.

The present paper aims to analyze the imperatives in Persian form a formal semantics viewpoint. Basically, as well as the ‘directive’ meaning as their default reading, the imperatives express a variety of other illocutionary forces. Due to this effect, therefore, this paper attempts to explain the multiplicity of interpretations of this clause type in Persian in a systematic way. To this end, following Kratzer’s (1977, 1979, 1981, 1986, 1991, 2012) Possible-Worlds Semantics approach to modality and modelling Schwager’s (2005, 2006) comparison of imperatives on the basis of the modals, it is shown in this paper that the imperative clause in Persian has the ‘Command’ reading underlyingly, but it may express other illocutionary forces like ‘Prohibition’, ‘Request’, etc. under the influence of situational contexts where it is used. Indeed, the imperative clause has a ‘modal operator’ which resembles the modal verb ‘must’. This operator expresses ‘necessity’ as the ‘modal force’ regarding the ‘Common Ground’ between the speaker and the addressee as the ‘modal base’ and is limited by some ‘preference-related’ constraints as the ‘ordering source’. Such an approach means that accounting for the different interpretations of the imperatives implies a conflation of semantics with pragmatics at some level of analysis.

This article examines the relationship between subject expression and modal meaning in Tver Karelian modal verb constructions expressing necessity or possibility. Under investigation are clauses that include a finite form of pidiä 'must, have to', šuaha 'can, may' or voija 'can, may'. In their Finnish counterparts, pitää 'must, have to' is a unipersonal verb, which takes a genitive subject, whereas saada 'may, can' and voida 'can, may' agree with a nominative subject in person and number. According to previous studies, both the necessity and possibility modals of Karelian can, however, be used with an impersonal pattern where the subject is in an oblique case and shows no agreement with the predicate. The analysis of Tver Karelian modals confirms that pidiä invariably takes a subject in the adessive-allative, whereas in possibility constructions, the case marking is more variable and determined by both syntactic and semantic factors. With šuaha, the adessive-allative subject is the default choice when the verb forms a verb chain with the A-infinitive and expresses participant-internal or participant-external (im)possibility or necessity, whereas the nominative is used in clauses that express the verb's premodal meaning 'to get'. Voija can also take a subject both in the nominative and in the adessive-allative case. Regarding voija, however, the role of verbal person marking turned out to be more essential than the case marking of the subject NP. What unites all modals under investigation is that they are very willing to occur in subjectless 3rd person singular clauses, which easily receive a referentially open interpretation in dialectal data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates both internal (i.e. the morphophonological structures) and external (i.e. the relation with the other constituents of the sentence) syntactic properties of infinitives occurring with the verbs ir ('go') dever ('must') and poder ('can/may'). More specifically, this paper shows that the syntactic and semantic behavior of those infinitives is captured by three major properties, namely, (i) the constituency of a single syntactic unit with ir, dever and poder, (ii) the morphosyntactic dependency on the auxiliary/modal that is selected, (iii) the reading of potential event. Thus, departing from those properties, the present study proposes a Distributed Morphology-based approach (HALLE; MARANTZ, 1993) analysis and, alternatively, a Minimalist-based approach (CHOMSKY, 1993) analysis, in order to show that, regardless the theory assumed, by considering the same group of features, the empirical phenomena underlying the relation between ir, dever and poder and their infinitives can be captured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Recent studies in Task-based Language Teaching showed the unique benefits of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on task-based interaction such as providing visual saliency of text and extended processing time for modified output (e.g., Smith, 2004, 2005). However, it is not clear whether CMC is more conducive for task-based learning compared to traditional face-to-face (FTF) mode. This study directly compared the effects of the two task modalities (CMC and FTF) on the pragmatics learning of Chinese modal verbs. This study focused on task-based pragmatics learning because tasks are supposed to promote learners to use language for pragmatic purposes. Thirty learners of L2 Chinese (high-elementary to intermediate level) completed two decision-making tasks in pairs. Half of the participants completed the tasks in CMC (N = 16), while the other half completed the same tasks in FTF (N = 14). Production and recognition tests were used at pre, post and delayed post-test to measure the learning outcomes. Task-based interaction in both modalities was analyzed for the frequency and pattern of modal verb use. Resudlts showed that the FTF group outperformed the CMC group at the immediate and delayed post-test. The FTF group also produced modal verbs more frequently during the tasks. Contrary to the previous claims on the potential advantages of CMC, this study indicates that FTF might be more beneficial for task-based pragmatics learning. The efficacy and challenges of CMC-based learning thus deserves further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe an intriguing interaction of negation and tense in Georgian Sign Language (GESL), a sign language which to date has received close to no attention by linguists. GESL verbs that employ an irregular negation strategy in the present tense (modal verbs and the verb know) require double marking in the past tense, i.e. the irregular negative form combines with the negative particle not, which is not used in the present and future tense with these verbs. The GESL data thus provide us with direct evidence for an active contribution of the feature tense in the grammar of GESL – in contrast to most other sign languages previously studied. We also offer a cross-linguistic perspective on the data by discussing instances of Negative Concord reported for various sign languages as well as tense-negation interactions attested in spoken languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]