What is dubitative mood?

Definition
	Dubitative mood is an epistemic mood which signals a speaker’s reservation about the accuracy of his or her statement.

Example (Ojibwa)
	The Ojibwa suffix -tik expresses dubitative mood, as in the following construction: kenapac uwaya pieya:tik ‘someone seems to be coming here’ (Leonard Bloomfield, cited by Bybee 1985 179 )

Generic
	Dubitative mood is a kind of
	What is judgment modality?

Sources
	Nida 1949 169
	Bybee 1985 179

Context for this page:

Concept module: dubitative mood
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): D
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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