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In:Possibility and Necessity: Concepts and expressions of modality
Edited by Jean Albrespit, Christelle Lacassain and Tracey Simpson
[Studies in Language Companion Series 237] 2025
► pp. 28–51

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Necessity and possibility: variations and mirror games

 | Sorbonne Paris Nord University Pléiade (UR 7338)
Published online: 4 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.237.02ari
Abstract
This article examines a complex web of meanings having to do with the two concepts of necessity and possibility, each of which requires the other for its definition, as well as negation. The analyses resort to the concept of iterated modality, allowing a multistratal semantic organisation in which negation and possibility convey an idea of otherness. Evaluative modality also closely relates to necessity, the idea of goodness giving a verdict of ontological completeness, while negation and otherness lay the foundations of mirative meanings. Modal pasts are analysed in the light of possibility and metalinguistic interpersonal relations, which are equally at play in in narrative necessity with examples built on the model WH- should… but(!)
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Necessity, possibility and negation
    • 1.1Some definitions of possibility and necessity
    • 1.2“Necessary that not p” and the semantic opposition must/can not
  • 2.Impossibility to believe and iterated modality: MedPol should
    • 2.1Necessity in evaluation and argumentation
    • 2.2MedPol should: possible and not impossible
  • 3.Possibility and interpersonal relations: modal pasts
    • 3.1MedPol should: the polemic element and a “psychological meeting-ground” (Behre 1955)
    • 3.2Subject-modality: subjective necessity and you should go
    • 3.3Epistemic modality: the puzzle of might
  • 4.Narrative necessity: WH- should… but X (!)
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Corpora
References (52)
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