Modal non-assertions

Author(s)Rubio Vallejo, David
Date Accessioned2018-01-11T13:25:41Z
Date Available2018-01-11T13:25:41Z
Publication Date2017
SWORD Update2017-09-05T16:29:57Z
AbstractThe interaction between root (i.e. non-epistemic) modal verbs and functional heads like tense and aspect has been investigated in a wealth of recent literature, particularly in the context of counterfactual conditionals (Iatridou, 2000; Arregui, 2009; a.o.) and actuality entailments (Bhatt, 1999; Hacquard, 2006). In this work, I continue this investigation by exploring Spanish modal constructions that express a range of meanings beyond the purely truth-conditional contribution of their constituent parts. ☐ First, I focus on a non-cancellable kind of counterfactuality that is triggered by past tense and appears outside the stereotypical conditional environment where such inferences have traditionally been studied. This counterfactual semantic presupposition can arise both in non-conditional declaratives and a specific kind of performative in Spanish. ☐ With respect to actuality effects, I argue that the distinction between the French-style languages that trigger actuality entailments and those that do not needn't be a crosslinguistic dichotomy, since the same split can be found within a single language. In Spanish, the possibility modal poder, together with the deontic necessity modal deber, can be enriched to express either actuality or counterfactuality inferences that appear to be pragmatically derived as conversational implicatures. Conversely, the necessity semi-modal tener que (as well as some other necessity modals like necesitar ) trigger standard actuality entailments. ☐ The overall picture that emerges is that a more nuanced reinterpretation of actuality and counterfactuality effects might be necessary because these inferences can have a different range of properties depending on the language where they are found.en_US
AdvisorTomioka, Satoshi
DegreePh.D.
DepartmentUniversity of Delaware, Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.58088/mnqj-sv50
Unique Identifier1018954102
URLhttp://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/21836
Languageen
PublisherUniversity of Delawareen_US
URIhttps://search.proquest.com/docview/1975370882?accountid=10457
KeywordsLanguage, literature and linguisticsen_US
KeywordsActuality entailmentsen_US
KeywordsCounterfactualityen_US
KeywordsImperativesen_US
KeywordsModalityen_US
KeywordsSpanishen_US
TitleModal non-assertionsen_US
TypeThesisen_US
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