The anatomy of a force variable modal in Turkish

This thesis explores the intricate nature of the -DIr suffix in Turkish, detailing its dual function as a fact-reporting suffix and a force variable epistemic modal. The main goal of this thesis is to describe the quantificational variation of -DIr as an epistemic modal and account for it through the framework of formal semantics. I compare -DIr with modals from other languages which display quantificational variation and explore semantic accounts proposed for the quantificational variation of these modals. In order to account for the quantificational variation of -DIr, I adapt Peterson's (2009) proposal for the force variability of Gitskan and St'a´t'imcets modals to -DIr, utilizing the modal base and the ordering source. By comparing -DIr with the aorist -I/Ar, I propose that these forms are allomorphs of a singular morpheme due to their complementary distribution in morphosyntactic environments which they are used in, their alignment of functions, and their quantificational variation as epistemic modals.