Modality
1st Edition
Published on 22. January 2009
301 pages
978-0-19-155896-2 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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Content
- Intro
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- General Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Modal Logic
- 2.1 Why modality is important to logic and to semantics
- 2.2 Some basic ideas from modal logic
- 2.2.1 Frames and models
- 2.2.2 Validity
- 2.2.3 Possible worlds
- 2.2.4 Axiomatic systems
- 2.3 A linguistically realistic version of modal logic
- 2.3.1 The Simple Modal Logic Hypothesis
- 2.3.2 Necessity and possibility
- 2.3.3 Accessibility relations
- 2.3.4 Problems with the Simple Modal Logic Hypothesis
- 2.3.5 The indexicality of modals
- 2.3.6 Summary
- 2.4 Looking ahead
- 3 Major Linguistic Theories of Modality
- 3.1 The work of Angelika Kratzer
- 3.1.1 From modal logic to relative modality
- 3.1.2 Kratzer (1977)
- 3.1.3 Ordering semantics
- 3.2 Modality in dynamic logic
- 3.2.1 The dynamic view of meaning
- 3.2.2 Proto-dynamic logic
- 3.2.3 Dynamic modal operators
- 3.2.4 Expectation patterns
- 3.2.5 Evaluation of dynamic semantics for modality
- 3.3 Modality in cognitive and functional linguistics
- 3.3.1 Modality as representing force dynamics
- 3.3.2 The cognitive-functional response to formal semantic analyses of modality
- 3.3.3 Subjectivity and intersubjectivity
- 3.3.4 Evaluation of ideas about modality in cognitive and functional linguistics
- 3.4 Looking ahead
- 4 Sentential Modality
- 4.1 Semantic categories of sentential modality
- 4.1.1 Epistemic, priority, and dynamic modals
- 4.1.2 Other classifications
- 4.1.3 Modal force
- 4.1.4 Syntactic representation
- 4.2 Issues in the semantics of epistemic modality
- 4.2.1 The non-truth conditional analysis
- 4.2.2 Evidentiality
- 4.2.3 Performativity
- 4.2.4 Relativism
- 4.3 Issues in the semantics of priority modality
- 4.3.1 Sub-varieties of priority modality
- 4.3.2 The argument structure of priority modals
- 4.3.3 Performativity
- 4.4 Issues in the semantics of dynamic modality
- 4.4.1 Volitional modality
- 4.4.2 Quantificational modality
- 4.5 Looking ahead
- 5 Modality and Other Intensional Categories
- 5.1 Modality and time
- 5.1.1 The temporal orientation of modal sentences
- 5.1.2 The modality of tense
- 5.1.3 The modality of aspect
- 5.2 Conditionals
- 5.2.1 The relation between conditionals and modality
- 5.2.2 Conditionals and truth conditions
- 5.3 Modality, mood, and evidentiality
- 5.3.1 Mood
- 5.3.2 Evidentiality
- 5.4 Looking forward
- Bibliography
- Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
