One of the subjects that have an important place in linguistics studies is modality and its semantic map. With the semantic mapping method, the grammaticalization process of some lexical units pointing to modal meaning and the diachronic and simultaneous development of these units in this process were wanted to be followed. In this context, in the present study, the semantic map of u(ma)-, Verb+vowel gerundium u(ma)-, Verb+ {-GAlI} u(ma)-, Verb+ {-GAlI} bol(ma)-, which is known as the ability modality marker of the Turkish language, was requested. For this reason, a corpus was created from Turkish runic inscriptions and then from Old Uyghur texts. It is desired to question whether a mapping method such as participant-internal possibility - participant-external possibility (- deontic possibility) - epistemic possibility is valid for the verb u- and the different analytical forms this verb enters over time. In addition, the opinion that some elements such as the situation of the subject in the sentence, the type of operator that comes to the finite verb, the conjugation of the verb belonging to the clause with the conditional modifier have a binding effect on the modality readings will be tried to be explained with examples.
Turkish runic inscriptions, Old Uighur Turkish, possibility, semantic map.