Modal expressions in Xhosa, Part I : Necessity

Abstract

This study reports on an investigation of modal expressions of necessity in Xhosa, a Bantu language of South Africa. Combining analysis of occurrences in a small corpus and the native‑speaker intuitions of one of the paper’s authors, we describe patterns and restrictions in the distribution of two markers of necessity, auxiliary‑like fanele and funeka; we also give some notes on the necessity marker mele. The most significant differences in the meanings and uses of these markers are in the participant‑internal and epistemic domains, and the lexical meanings (still active in Xhosa, in addition to the markers’ modal functions) are evident in their usage distributions.