Abstract

Jeong, Haegwon. 2024. Conceptual Blending and Modality of Korean Sign Language. Sign Languages and Linguistics Convergence Research, 1(1), 1-34. Modality represents the speaker's evaluation of the proposition expressed in a sentence, and modality is classified three basic types into dynamic modality, deontic modality, and epistemic modality. In Korean Sign Language, dynamic modality is expressed as [CAN], and obligation, permission, and prohibition of deontic modality are expressed as [NEED], [BECOME], and [MUST-NOT (not-become)], respectively. The epistemic modality is [RIGHT], [PROBABLY], [ONE-OF-TWO], which represents the speaker’s assessment of the potentiality of a state of affairs. In the process of meaning construction, conceptual blending theory can explain additional emergent meaning by blending of input spaces, and the interpretation of sign language could be explained through a blending of Event Space and Real Space. So an epistemic modal expression in KSL processes two steps of conceptual blending. In the first blend, a proposition is constructed based on Event Space and Real Space, and then this proposition is connected to a positive in two potentiality spaces, and these two positive and negative spaces and an assessment space are mapped into the blended space, which represents the epistemic assessment. Deontic modality goes through a more complex blending process than dynamic modality or epistemic modality, and the blended proposition of the first step is connected to a reality space. Two reality spaces, an assessment space, and an attitude space contribute to the speaker’s decision to express an obligation or permission in the second step.