Modal verbs of strong necessity in Ruruuli-Lunyala (Bantu JE103)

This paper looks into the expressions of strong necessity in Ruruuli-Lunyala (Bantu JE103), namely the modal verbs teekwa and lina. The two verbs show largely similar grammatical patterns: limited inflectional morphology, complements realized as infinitives only, and a lack of tense or aspect marking (with temporal interpretations derived from the context). Among their most common uses are contexts of deontic modality, similarly to what has been reported for their cognates in closely related Bantu languages. However, the analysis of teekwa and lina at the intersection of modality types, temporal reference, and illocutionary acts reveals a range of semantic differences between the two verbs. Moreover, we propose that the various differences are due to the modal meaning encoded in the two verbs: teekwa tends to express a necessity external to the participant and out of their control, while lina tends to express a necessity aligning with the intentions and desires of the participant.