Chance, necessity, mirativity and a few other modal notions

The first part of this article enlarges on a parallel, suggested by the aphorism attributed to Democritus “Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity”, between the pair chance-necessity and the conceptual couple possible-necessary — which in turn suggests a relationship between the possible and chance. The conclusion is that in objective reality chance is always reducible to necessity and that consequently its only existence is in thought and language.

The second part has as its starting point the “mirative” dimension of a specific case of chance: surprising coincidences. It examines the meaning of a variety of modals (mainly would and should) in such mirative constructions as It’s surprising you would/should mention that point, and primarily aims to show that the modals of these constructions are far from being semantically empty or even from having a weak degree of modality. Modality is at the basis of the mental processes which are at work when we look into the causes or circumstances of an unexpected event, and the meaning of the modals of the constructions under consideration often remains implicit. Concerning would and should, it is explained why in mirative constructions the use of these modals is limited to the preterite forms, even when the time reference is the present.