| Summary: | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2002. Linguistics Bibliography: leaves 126-133; The accompanying charts has been digitized and appended to the end of the text. This thesis examines the grammaticalization of epistemic modality in AI verbs in Mi'kmaq. The focus of the thesis is on an investigation of the productive use in Mi'kmaq of a system of evidential markers. The data ensuing from the research was analyzed from a typological viewpoint using a comparative functional-cognitive approach, not just with related languages, but with general tendencies concerning modality as found in the majority of the languages of the world. -- The thesis attempts to demonstrate that the Mi'kmaq language has a complex system of modality which works at two levels: primary modality which functions through the use of full and reduced stems to reference an event as either realis or irrealis respectively and secondary modality which functions through the use of various evidential suffixes to represent the speaker's experience. The general premise of the thesis is that Mi'kmaq is a modality prominent language which contains no system of grammaticalized tense.
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