Affirmation Modality in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian

Abstract

Affirmation Modality in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian

In the case of affirmation modality the speakers transform their utterances by stressing or attributing a positive value as an additional component added to the semantic structure of a proposition. This type of affirmative polarization is triggered in opposition to negation or hypothetically negative contexts. The goal of the present paper is twofold: on the one hand to compare and contrast affirmative periphrastic constructions in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian and, on the other hand, to ascertain what these constructions reveal regarding the organization of grammatical categories in general and the status of affirmation modality as a coherent and homogenous category with a linguistic validity.