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On the interaction of aspect and modal auxiliaries.
- Source :
- Linguistics & Philosophy; Jun2009, Vol. 32 Issue 3, p279-315, 37p
- Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- This paper discusses the interaction of aspect and modality, and focuses on the puzzling implicative effect that arises when perfective aspect appears on certain modals: perfective somehow seems to force the proposition expressed by the complement of the modal to hold in the actual world, and not merely in some possible world. I show that this puzzling behavior, originally discussed in Bhatt (1999, Covert modality in non-finite contexts) for the ability modal, extends to all modal auxiliaries with a circumstantial modal base (i.e., root modals), while epistemic interpretations of the same modals are immune to the effect. I propose that implicative readings are contingent on the relative position of the modal w.r.t. aspect: when aspect scopes over the modal (as I argue is the case for root modals), it forces an actual event, thereby yielding an implicative reading. When a modal element scopes over aspect, no actual event is forced. This happens (i) with epistemics, which structurally appear above tense and aspect; (ii) with imperfective on a root modal: imperfective brings in an additional layer of modality, itself responsible for removing the necessity for an actual event. This proposal enables us to solve the puzzle while maintaining a standardized semantics for aspects and modals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 01650157
- Volume :
- 32
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Linguistics & Philosophy
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 44684546
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-009-9061-6