Time and modality / edited by Jacqueline Guéron and Jacqueline Lecarme.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Guéron, Jacqueline.

Lecarme, Jacqueline

Class of 1924 Book Fund.

Series:

Studies in natural language and linguistic theory ; v. 75.

Studies in natural language and linguistic theory ; v. 75

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Tense.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Temporal constructions.

Physical Description:

xvi, 296 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

[Dordrecht, The Netherlands?] : Springer, [2008]

Summary:

Time and Modality is a unique work of reference; not only does it unite studies which explore the syntax and semantics of tense or modality but it is the first book of its kind to embrace the interaction of tense and modality within a coherent generative model. Various topics are covered in this volume: among them are the counterfactual uses of conditionals, modals, and past tense; the irrealis use of perfective aspect; a special English subjunctive; the interaction of tense assignment and the definition of an event; the modal verb as a causative verb; the interaction of modality, tense, and aktionsart; the contrast between deontic and epistemic modal with respect to tense interpretation; the syntax of epistemic modals; the long-awaited definition of generic and habitual sentence; and the introduction of intensionality in copular clauses.

Although every article deals with English to some degree, two chapters compare the syntax and semantics of tense and modality in Spanish vs English. The authors also investigate Slavic, Germanic, Afro-Asiatic, Oriental, Amerindian Languages and Hungarian.

Contents:

1 Tense 2

2 Aspect 3

2.1 Perfect and Perfectivity 3

2.2 Eventuality Type 4

3 Modals and Modal Verbs 5

3.1 Subject/Speaker Orientation 5

3.2 The Temporal Location of Modal Verbs 6

3.3 The Temporal/Causal Function of Modal Verbs 7

3.4 The Temporal Syntax of Non-Root Modals 8

3.5 Weak Necessity Modals 9

4 The Role of Past Morphology in Modal Contexts 9

5 The Subjunctive 10

6 Genericity 11

7 Copular Clauses 11

8 Conclusions and Open Problems 12

Patterns in the Semantics of Generic Sentences / Greg Carlson 17

2 The Issues 18

3 Induction and Stipulation 22

3.1 Rules and Induction 22

3.2 What do Generic Sentences do? 23

3.3 Inductive Generalizations Again 24

4.1 Patterns and Non-Patterns 25

4.2 Generic Sentences 27

4.3 Restriction 31

4.4 Review of Issues 33

5 Weak and Really Strong Generalizations 34

Intensional Subjects and Indirect Contextual Anchoring / Ileana Comorovski 39

2 Specificational Copular Clauses 40

2.1 Higgins's (1973) Taxonomy of Copular Clauses 40

2.2 The Subject of Specificational Clauses 41

2.3 The Copula of Specification 42

3 Romanian Questions of the Form Care Copula DP? 43

3.1 Two Types of Discourse-Linking 43

3.2 Semantic Restrictions on the Postcopular DP 44

3.3 Remarks on the Syntax of Romanian Questions of the Form 'Care Copula DP?' 49

4 Indefinite Subjects, Topichood, and Point of View 52

4.1 Indefinite Subjects and Topichood in Constituent Questions 52

4.2 Topichood, Point of View, and the Conditional Mood 53

Temporal Orientation in Conditionals (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love UFO's) / Bridget Copley 59

1 UFOs and Other Oddities 60

2 Away from an Explanation 65

3 Towards an Explanation 68

3.1 No Real Epistemic Eventives 69

3.2 Antecedents Have Their Own Modal Flavors 73

On the Temporal Syntax of Non-Root Modals / Hamida Demirdache, Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria 79

1 Crosslinguistic Asymmetries in the Temporal Construals of Non-Root Modals 80

2 The Grammar of Temporal Relations 82

2.1 Tenses and Aspects as Spatiotemporal Predicates 82

2.2 Anaphora 84

3 Condoravdi (2002): Perfect Modals 87

4 The Temporal Phrase Structure of Non-Root Modals 89

4.1 Setting the Modal-Time 89

4.2 Ordering the Modal-Time 90

5 The Temporal Interpretation of English Non-Root Modals 91

5.1 Present/Future Oriented Epistemic Modals 91

5.2 Aspectually Complex Modals: Progressive and Perfect Modals 95

6 The Temporal Interpretation of Spanish Non-Root Modals 104

6.1 Modals Inflected for the Past 104

6.2 Modals Inflected for the Present 109

6.3 Modals Inflected for the Future 110

How to Say Ought in Foreign: The Composition of Weak Necessity Modals / Kai von Fintel, Sabine Iatridou 115

1 A Basic Contrast 116

2 Weakness 117

3 The Crosslinguistic Picture 120

4 Flavors 126

4.1 Epistemic Modality 126

4.2 Goal-Oriented Modality 127

4.3 Deontic Modality 127

5 Counterfactuality? 128

6 A Consolation and a Precedent 131

7 Scope Confusion? 135

8 Ordering Source Promotion 136

9 Why Counterfactual Marking? 139

On the Temporal Function of Modal Verbs / Jacqueline Gueron 143

1 Modal Verbs Part I: Grammatical Properties 144

1.1 The Tense of Modals 144

1.2 Absence of Agreement Morphology 146

1.3 The Temporal/Causal Function of Modal Verbs 149

2 Causality in Grammar 149

2.1 Two Syntactic Levels of Interpretation 149

2.2 Point of View 150

2.3 The Instrument 150

2.4 Two Types of Causality 151

2.5 Metaphysical Causality on Higher vP Levels 161

2.6 On the Syntactic Determination of Causality 164

2.7 "Metaphysical Intentionality" 167

3 Modal Verbs Part II: Causality 167

The English Perfect and the Metaphysics of Events / James Higginbotham 173

2 Metaphysical Issues 176

3 Interactions with Sequence of Tense 181

4 Shifted Perfects 184

Tense and Modality in Nominals / Jacqueline Lecarme 195

1 Tense in Nominals 197

1.1 Space and Time 197

1.2 The D-T Relation 198

1.3 Time and the Noun 202

1.4 Interim Discussion 204

2 Modality 205

2.1 Time and Worlds 205

2.2 Generics and Habituals 206

2.3 Attitude Verbs 208

2.4 Free Relatives 209

2.5 Interim Discussion 211

3 Evidentiality 211

3.1 Visual Evidentiality 212

3.2 Approaches to (Sentential) Evidentiality 214

3.3 Extending Kratzer's Theory 217

Time With and Without Tense / Carlota S. Smith 227

1 Background and Principles 228

1.2 Pragmatic Principles for Temporal Interpretation 230

1.3 Temporal Information in Language: A Classification 231

2 Tensed Languages 232

3 Tenseless Languages and Mixed-Temporal Languages 234

3.1 Mandarin Chinese 234

3.2 Inferred Temporal Location 235

3.3 Sentences With Overt Aspectual Viewpoints 237

3.4 Other Tenseless Languages 239

3.5 Mixed-Temporal Languages 240

4 Zero-Marked Sentences: The Neutral Viewpoint 241

5 Formalizing the Analysis 243

The English Konjunktiv II / Tim Stowell 251

1 The Syntactic Distribution of K2 252

2 A Sociolinguistic Interlude 255

3 Subjunctive and Indicative Conditionals 257

4 Counterfactual Subjunctives Versus Other Types of Subjunctives 264

5 Further Aspects of English Counterfactual Subjunctives and Sequence of Tense 266

6 Inversion in Conditionals 268

7 A Variant Form of the Subjunctive 269

Phasing in Modals: Phases and the Epistemic/Root Distinction / Karen Zagona 273

2 Epistemic and Root Modals 276

2.1 Subject Versus Non-Subject Orientation 277

2.2 Modal Evaluation Time 278

2.3 Aspect and Veridicality of the Event 281

3 Modals and Phases 283

3.1 Toward a Phase-Based Analysis: Lexical Features of Modals 284

3.2 Modals as Tense Morphemes 285

4 Perfectivity and Root Modals 288.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1924 Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781402083532

140208353X

OCLC:

227276722

Publisher Number:

99939539706