Possibility and Necessity

Researchers in the fields of logic, philosophy and linguistics have for many years been pondering over the elusive nature of modality and grappled with ways of capturing it. This book provides a broad overview of issues relevant to the study of modality and reflects the diversity of theoretical frameworks and the heterogeneity of linguistic phenomena included under the general heading of modality, a concept which, in one of its most frequent definitions, corresponds to the fields of possibility and necessity. The key concepts dealt with are the structure of the semantic notion of modality and of modal subcategories, force dynamics, evidentiality, mirativity, modal auxiliaries and verbs, modal uses of verbs and constructions (hedged performatives, capacitive structures, conditional constructions) and modal polyfunctionality across languages. Articles deal with observations taken from a variety of languages, including Danish, English, French, Italian, Latin and Slovak. The wealth of data and the critical evaluation of existing analyses of modality will be of interest for researchers and graduate students alike.