Modality (Oxford Surveys in Semantics and Pragmatics)

✍ Scribed by Paul Portner

• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 301
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This is a book about semantic theories of modality. Its main goal is to explain and evaluate important contemporary theories within linguistics and to discuss a wide range of linguistic phenomena from the perspective of these theories. The introduction describes the variety of grammatical phenomena associated with modality, explaining why modal verbs, adjectives, and adverbs represent the core phenomena. Chapters are then devoted to the possible worlds semantics for modality developed in modal logic; current theories of modal semantics within linguistics; and the most important empirical areas of research. The author concludes by discussing the relation between modality and other topics, especially tense, aspect, mood, and discourse meaning.Paul Portner's accessible guide to this key area of current research will be welcomed by students of linguistics at graduate level and above, as well as by researchers in philosophy, computational science, and related fields.

✦ Table of Contents

2.1 Why modality is important to logic and to semantics......Page 5
Acknowledgments......Page 9
GeneralPreface......Page 11
1 Introduction......Page 13
3.Discourse modality......Page 15
2 Modal Logic......Page 21
2.2.1 Framesandmodels......Page 23
2.2.2 Validity......Page 31
2.2.3 Possibleworlds......Page 33
2.2.4 Axiomatic systems......Page 37
2.3 A linguistically realistic version of modallogic......Page 41
2.3.1 TheSimpleModalLogicHypothesis......Page 43
2.3.3 Accessibility relations......Page 45
2.3.4 Problems with the Simple Modal Logic
Hypothesis......Page 51
2.3.5 The indexicality of modals......Page 53
2.4 Looking ahead......Page 57
3.1 The work of Angelika Kratzer......Page 59
3.1.1 From modal logic to relative modality......Page 61
Conversational backgrounds......Page 63
Entailment and compatibility......Page 65
Figure 3.1. Dogs denotes the elements of a lattice......Page 69
Paradoxes of deontic logic......Page 71
Ordering and the conversational background......Page 75
The semantics of modal expressions in ordering semantics......Page 79
Complex expressions of probability and possibility......Page 85
Weak necessity modals......Page 91
Conditionals in ordering semantics......Page 93
Solutions to the paradoxes......Page 95
3.2 Modality in dynamic logic......Page 97
3.2.1 The dynamic view of meaning......Page 99
3.2.2 Proto-dynamic logic......Page 103
Static dynamic semantics......Page 109
3.2.3 Dynamic modal operators......Page 105
3.2.4 Expectation patterns......Page 111
3.2.5 Evaluation of dynamic semantics for modality......Page 115
3.3 Modality in cognitive and functional linguistics......Page 117
3.3.1 Modality as representing force dynamics......Page 123
Table 3.3. Examples of force dynamics for deontic and epistemic modality......Page 125
3.3.2 The cognitive-functional response to formal semantic
analyses of modality......Page 129
Table 3.4.Readingsof(153) in Kratzer’s semantics......Page 133
3.3.3 Subjectivity and intersubjectivity......Page 135
3.3.4 Evaluation of ideas about modality in cognitive
and functional linguistics......Page 141
3.4 Looking ahead......Page 143
4.1.4 Syntactic representation......Page 7
4.1 Semantic categories of sentential modality......Page 147
Subjectivity and performativity......Page 149
Table 4.1. Semantic classifications for modality......Page 153
4.2.1 The non-truth conditional analysis......Page 157
The issue of truth conditions in dynamic logic......Page 163
Subjectivity......Page 171
(197) Epistemic accessibility relation function (Papafragou style)......Page 173
b) SubjectivityOS vs. Objectivity......Page 177
4.2.2 Evidentiality......Page 179
4.2.3 Performativity......Page 185
4.2.4 Relativism......Page 189
4.3.1 Sub-varieties of priority modality......Page 197
4.3.2 The argument structure of priority modals......Page 199
4.3.3 Performativity......Page 201
(236) Semantics of Lewis (1979b)......Page 203
(237) Performativity in Lewis (1979b)......Page 205
Problems in defining volitional modality......Page 209
The modal analysis of ability......Page 213
The actuality entailment......Page 215
Bhatt’s theory......Page 217
Hacquard’s theory......Page 219
Performativity and the actuality entailment......Page 223
4.4.2 Quantificational modality......Page 225
(269) Semantics for adverbs of quantification:......Page 229
5.1 Modality and time......Page 233
Past interpretations: temporal operators in combination with modals......Page 235
Present and future interpretations of modal sentences......Page 243
The future and will......Page 249
The present......Page 253
The progressive......Page 255
The perfect......Page 257
5.2.1 The relation between conditionals and
modality......Page 259
5.2.2 Conditionals and truth conditions......Page 267
5.3 Modality, mood, and evidentiality......Page 269
Notional mood......Page 271
5.3.2 Evidentiality......Page 275
5.4 Looking forward......Page 277
Bibliography......Page 279
Index......Page 297