Necessity and hypothesis

Abstract

The reason why this chapter on necessity and hypothesis comes directly after the chapters on tense is found in the fact that each of these notions is expressed by a verbal suffix which is morphotactically equivalent to those for tense. Besides a verbal suffix denoting necessity, there are many other verbal constructions, too, for the expression of subjective and objective modality. And on the other hand, necessity and related notions such as obligation, as well as compulsion, can also be expressed by adjectival predicates and quite a lot of space is reserved for the discussion of all the ins and outs of such analytic devices. In the second part of this chapter a suffix is discussed that forms the irrealis, by means of which actions or events are represented each as an assumption, supposition, or hypothesis.