On the pragmatics of modal verbs (original) (raw)
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Dynamics of Semantic and Pragmatic Framework of Modal Proposition: Linguistic and Cognitive Aspects
Dynamics of semantic and pragmatic framework of modal proposition lingo-cognitive aspects, 2018
The article outlines the linguocognitive background for semantic and pragmatic structural dynamics of the modal proposition in planes of relevance, ambiguity, force dynamics, as well as possible worlds theories. The integrated theoretical approaches entailed the development of a relatively admissible algorithm for interpreting the modal values in a vast number of pragmatic frameworks. Due to the algorithm, a modal proposition incorporates a logical relation and a propositional domain. Logical relation integrates semantic denotation and pragmatic implication and presupposition into the linguistic coherence; whereas propositional domain represents human belief-desire system and encodes the factual or desirable state of affairs in root modalities and the individual's mental states-in epistemic modalities. Propositional domain permanently updates and extends due to the constant modelling of the novel mental inputs. Structurally, the propositional domain incorporates modal operators building the proposition into the contextual framework and linking it to another proposition, i.e. the restrictor. We incorporate the notion of force dynamics to ground the link between the root and epistemic modalities. Here force serves as contributing or restricting facility to precondition the way root modalities encode the external reality and metaphorically transmit it into the language of thought producing epistemic modal values. In terms of the possible worlds theory we classified factual, regulative, desirable, and idealistic propositional domains to generally outline pragmatic extension of English modals. In the case study of distributional properties and pragmatic extensions of most commonly used English modals in their relationship to truth-conditional content, we speculated on and systematized the means via modal values such as necessity, ability, possibility, potentiality, ordering, desirability etc. are encoded in the live English speech.
Constructions, Pragmatics, and Modality
2013
This paper rejects the commonplace view that the semantics of certain modal deverbal adjectives (MDAs), which have traditionally been assumed to be non-compositional, require complex lexical or syntactic encoding (cf. e.g. Riehemann 1994 and 1998, Booij 2007 and 2010a). Instead, it shows that productive MDA formation is semantically compositional, and that the prima facie idiosyncratic meanings are, in fact, conversational implicatures.
International Journal of Advanced Research (IJAR), 2019
The present article is devoted to investigation of modal words ?evidently?, ?apparently?, ?obviously?, ?clearly? and their location in sentence. These modal words fulfill the function of strengthening pragmatic meaning of speech structures. The author investigates various modal words and reveals semantic difference between them. Theoretical content of the article is approved by examples of contexts taken from original texts.
Pragmatic Ambiguity: The Thetic Function of Modality
Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 2009
The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the pragmatic aspects of ambiguity present in deontic sentences, which may have three pragmatic functions: a prescriptive or a descriptive or a constitutive function. This type of ambiguity is investigated on the lexical, phrasal, and sentential level. The discussion focuses on the deontic constructions of the German verb sollen and the English shall as they are used in legal texts. It also includes comments on the thetic function of the Latin imperative mood and the subjunctive mood.
A Basic Semantic Template for Lexical and Grammaticalized Uses of the German Modals
Modal Verbs in Germanic and Romance Languages, 2001
The semantic relations and oppositions between the German modals and their various uses are treated here as instantiations of a common semantic template, which is described as a complex and condensed relational structure between a modal source, path, and goal. The different readings of a modal verb (less grammaticalized narrow-scope uses vs. more grammaticalized wide-scope uses) and the different types of modality (deontic, volitional and dispositional modality) uniformly arise out of specific feature realizations in the relational positions of the basic semantic template.
Predicate structure and the semantics of the English modal 'should'.
2020
The aim of the study described in this paper is to verify whether the structure of a modal predicate influences the type of modality expressed by the English modal verb should. The study uses language samples excerpted from The corpus of contemporary American English. It has adopted the model of the semantic field of modal expressions proposed by Angelika Kratzer. Additionally, this framework has been used to determine types of modality in this study. The analysis focuses on the interaction within the semantic field of the modal should with various forms of the main verb within the modal predicate structure.
Models of Modals: From Pragmatics and Corpus Linguistics to Machine Learning
Depraetere, I., B. Cappelle, M. Hilpert, L. De Cuypere, M. Dehouck, P. Denis, S. Flach, N. Grabar, C. Grandin, T. Hamon, C. Hufeld, B. Leclercq, H.-J. Schmid. Models of Modals: From Pragmatics and Corpus Linguistics to Machine Learning. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton, 2023
Modal verbs in English communicate delicate shades of meaning, there being a large range of verbs both on the necessity side (must, have to, should, ought to, need, need to) and the possibility side (can, may, could, might, be able to). They therefore constitute excellent test ground to apply and compare different methodologies that can lay bare the factors that drive the speaker’s choice of modal verb. This book is not merely concerned with a purely grammatical description of the use of modal verbs, but aims at advancing our understanding of lexical and grammatical units in general and of linguistic methodologies to explore these. It thus involves a genuine effort to compare, assess and combine a variety of approaches. It complements the leading descriptive qualitative work on modal verbs by testing a diverse range of quantitative methods, while not ignoring qualitative issues pertaining to the semantics-pragmatics interface. Starting from a critical assessment of what constitutes the meaning of modal verbs, different types of empirical studies (usage-based, data-driven and experimental), drawing considerably on the same data sets, shows how method triangulation can contribute to an enhanced understanding. Due attention is also given to individual variation as well as the degree to which modals can predict L2 proficiency level.
Book Review of Modality in Contemporary English
The reader of the collection Modality in Contemporary English (MCE) soon realizes that Frank Palmer's introductory article is tone-setting for the collection. He provides a general terminological framework for discussing modality, clarifying the distinction between mood, modality, and modal system, and points to the syntactic and semantic difficulties in analyzing modality. For Palmer, mood denotes a binary system, corresponding to the contrast between indicative and subjunctive in classical European languages, for which he prefers the terms realis and irrealis, respectively (2). In contrast, modal systems, as typified by English, occur as a set of forms generally demarking modality that are opposed to a nonmodal (that is, unmarked) realis form. Thus, modality names a grammatical category, and there are two subcategories of modality, mood and modal system (2). Furthermore, mood and modal systems are "to a large extent" mutually exclusive, as exemplified by Modern English, where "the subjunctive mood has died out and the modal system has developed" (3). On the semantic pole, and following Lunn (1995, 430), Palmer identifies the essential feature of modality as the speaker's "assertion" versus "nonassertion" of the marked proposition (5). Crosslinguistically, modality demonstrates four types; to the traditional division found in the English modal system of epistemic, deontic, and dynamic modalities, Palmer adds a fourth, evidential modality, and reshuffles them into two groups: "propositional modality" (epistemic and evidential), which is centrally concerned with the status of the proposition, and "event modality" (deontic and dynamic), which is centrally concerned with whether the event described is controlled by circumstances external to the subject of the sentence (deontic) or by circumstances internal to the subject, as with dynamic modality (7). Of the two groups, propositional modality is more modal because it is concerned with the reasons for a proposition's nonassertion (8).
Journal of Pragmatics, 2005
This two-part article critically reviews eight recent works in the field of mood and modality. Part I explores three different theoretical approaches-generative, cognitive-pragmatic, and typologicalwith the main focus on languages other than English. Within the framework of generative grammar, research issues include: the epistemic-root interpretations of modal verbs; transitive-intransitive (dyadic-monadic) alternations; modal verb complementation, and the interaction of the modals with other systems, including negation, and alternate ways of encoding modality. The cognitive-pragmatic approach hones in on epistemic modality, and focuses on the cognitive mechanisms that become activated once speakers express evaluations of given states of affairs, involving various modal expression types. Reflecting mounting interest in grammatical typology as a whole, typological approaches to modality recognize this domain as a valid cross-language grammatical category, similar to tense and aspect, and establish a range of typological categories, which include propositional modality (epistemic and evidential) and event modality (deontic and dynamic). Part I also includes a descriptive account of the modal verb system in Danish. In Part II, the emphasis is on work in relation to (primarily) English, much of which is corpus-driven, and on non-verbal as well as verbal carriers of modal meanings. Thus, description and analysis move purposefully towards a more comprehensive account of the field, to embrace modal expressions such as modal lexical verbs, modal adverbs, and modal adjectives. The pragmatics of modality; the discursive functions of modal expressions, especially modal adverbs; and the treatment of modality in modern descriptive grammars of English are also covered.