Interaction entre modalité et subjectivité en néo-égyptien. Autour de la construction mri + iw circ. "souhaiter que"

Typologically-oriented conceptions of modality have informed a number of recent publications in the field of Egyptian linguistics. These models have led to new insights regarding the linguistic structure of Egyptian. Especially promising is the interrelationship between modality and subjectivity, which has received considerable attention in general linguistic studies of modality but which has been hitherto neglected in the study of Egyptian. The aims of the present paper, which is intended as a preliminary exploration of this relationship, are [1] to study the semantic field of volition in Late Egyptian (whose primary exponents include: subjunctive; ib+suff. r + NP/INF.; Abi NP/(r +) INF.; wxA NP/INF.; mri NP/INF./iw circ.) and [2] to argue that in Late Egyptian one can distinguish between three main levels of syntactic integration for the complement clauses of verbs expressing the semantic notion of manipulation: complement clauses introduced by iw, subjunctive complement clauses, and infinitive complement clauses. These levels of syntactic integration correspond iconically to different levels of event integration; the degree of syntactic integration correlates with the strength of manipulation.