The study investigates the emergence and early development of epistemic modality, a linguistic sub-system devoted to the expression of speakers' cognitive attitudes. It is based on the longitudinal analyses of the naturalistic productions of a French child between 1;9 and 4;0. Analyses indicate that epistemic modality emerges later than dynamic/deontic categories and shows a specific developmental progression from 2;3 on. The study examines in particular: (1) the ontogenesis of epistemic functions, as primed by early meanings (prediction, ignorance) that anticipate core meanings related to certainty and uncertainty (possibility, belief, hypothesis); (2) the development of epistemic markings, where it is found that lexicalized devices emerge before grammaticalized ones; (3) the role of specific constraints concerning modal and propositional subject references. Results are discussed in a cross-linguistic perspective to specify how functional and formal constraints interact in the acquisition of epistemic modality.
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Dominique Bassano (1996) studied this question.