Modality and tense in interaction : The deontic and dynamic categories represented in Spanish modal verbs

Although researchers within the field of modality tend to agree upon the existence of modal subcategories, there is disagreement on their number and their main differences. Some researchers prefer a bipartite division, making a main distinction between epistemic modality and deontic or agent-oriented modality (Coates 1982, Heine 1995 and Silva-Corvalán 1995), whereas other scholars defend a tripartite division, consisting of epistemic modality and two other independent categories: deontic modality and dynamic modality (Palmer 1979, Fernández de Castro 1999 and Thegel 2017) This study aims to shed light on this highly debated question, focusing on the deontic and dynamic categories and how they are represented in Spanish modal verbs. Empirical evidence from corpus-based examples will be presented in favor of the tripartite division, looking particularly at the interaction of modality and tense. As was shown in Thegel (2017), the notions of volitivity and factuality are crucial when differentiating between deontic and dynamic necessity expressed in the modal verbs deber ‘must’ and tener que ‘have to’. In this study it will be demonstrated how these notions may condition the manifestations of Spanish modal verbs in different tenses, for example the past tense pretérito perfecto simple, the present perfect or the future tense. In other words, it is considered that the semantics related to the deontic and dynamic categories, respectively, will favor or limit their occurrence in specific tenses. Research questions that will be addressed in this study are: How can the notions of volitivity and factuality be related to tense? With what frequency do modal verbs such as deber ‘must’, tener que ‘have to’, haber que ‘have to’ (impersonal verb) and poder ‘can’ appear in different tenses? How can these frequencies be related to the semantics of deontic and dynamic modality, respectively? Are these two categories differently distributed in different tenses? The approach of the pa