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- Volume 14, Issue, 2000
Belgian Journal of Linguistics - Volume 14, Issue 1, 2000
Volume 14, Issue 1, 2000
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Metonymy and Metaphor in the Evolution of Modal Verbs: Evidence from Italo-Romance
Author(s): Delia Bentleypp.: 1–22 (22)More LessAbstract. The semantic development of the Italo-Romance outcomes of habeo (plus particle) and infinitive does not involve any dramatic changes. The earliest attestations of Sardinian áere a already express prototypical futurity (alongside deontic modality). On the other hand, a number of minimal changes are observed in other varieties. Sicilian aviri a comes to denote subjective epistemic modality and a few postmodal meanings, whilst the periphrasis with da has only extended to epistemic contexts in modern Tuscan. The evolution of the Sicilian structure involves the obliteration of prominent aspects of meaning (metonymy), whereas the development of Tuscan avere da is characterized by a change of domain (metaphor). Metonymy and metaphor, however, might be side-effects of independently motivated changes, which are observed a posteriori. The diachronic findings presented in this work combine easily with the view of unidirectionality proposed by van der Auwera and Plungian (1998).
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A Basic Semantic Template for Lexical and Grammaticalized Uses of the German Modals
Author(s): Gabriele Diewaldpp.: 23–41 (19)More LessAbstract. The scmanlic relations and oppositions between the German modals and their various uses are treated here as instantiations of a common semantic template, which is described as a complex and condensed relational structure between a modal source, path, and goal. The different readings of a modal verb (less grammaticalizcd narrow-scope uses vs. more grammaticalized wide-scope uses) and the different types of modality (deontic, volitional and dispositional modality) uniformly arise out of specific feature realizations in the relational positions of the basic semantic template.
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Null Modals in Germanic (and Romance): Infinitival Exclamatives
Author(s): Kleanthes K. Grohmannpp.: 43–61 (19)More LessAbstract. This paper contains a detailed description and proposes a theoretical account of constructions in Germanic and Romance adult registers in which an inflected verb form is absent in an obligatorily matrix context. These structures contain an infinitival verb form only, tend to be employed as exclamative clause types and are consequently referred to as "Infinitival Excla ma lives". The proposal revolves around a phonetically unrealized modal element facilitating the irrealis mood construed with Infinitival Exclamatives. This null modal is the morpheme corresponding to modal auxiliaries for whose quasi-independence there is plenty of independent evidence. Cross-linguistic differences between English, German and Spanish are investigated.
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From Need to Necessity: A Syntactic Path to Modality
Author(s): Jacqueline Guéronpp.: 63–87 (25)More LessAbstract. We trace the evolution of the Italian verb bisogna from a lexical verb expressing need in Old Italian to a modal verb of necessity in Modern Italian (cf. Benincà & Poletto 1993, 1994, 1996). According to the standard view (Roberts 1985; Pollock 1989) loss of its theta-role content turns a lexical verb into an auxiliary. Our own view is that theta-roles are not lexical primitives but are construed at the interface on the basis of the formal features of a lexical item and the syntactic level which construal targets. We assume that the lexical content of bisogna has remained constant throughout history, and suggest that a morphosyntactic change in the grammar has resulted in the assignment of theta-roles to bisogna on a different level in the modern language than in the old language.
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The Semantics of Spanish Permission Sentences: A Dynamic Account
Author(s): Javier Gutiérrez-Rexachpp.: 89–113 (25)More LessAbstract. In this paper the formal semantics of Spanish directive verbs, especially permissive deontic verbs, is studied. A dynamic perspective is adopted in which the meaning of an expression is not its truth conditions but its discourse update potential. The paper focuses on the following aspects of directive permission verbs: the analysis of their basic meaning in contrast with other modals; aspectual and temporal restrictions on the complements of permission verbs; restrictions on the subject of permission verbs; combinations of modals; and conjunction and disjunction of permission statements. A unified account is presented in a dynamic modal framework. An action is conceived of as a program expression denoting a set of sequences of states. Each sequence represents an execution of the action.Modal (directive) verbs are treated as operators introducing universal or existential quantification over sequences of states.
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Modal Verbs and the Expression of Futurity in English, French and Italian
Author(s): Paul Larreyapp.: 115–129 (15)More LessAbstract. This paper compares the uses of (a) the English modal will and the French and Italian future tenses; and (b) be going to, aller (+ infinitive) and stare per. Unlike be going to and stare per, aller can express characteristic behavior {Par exemple, il va s'enfermer chez lui...). The following claim is made: will and the two future tenses basically express a relation of implication, while be going to, stare per and aller (metaphorically) express a movement in time; the fact that aller (unlike its two counterparts) can express implication is due to the characteristics of the French aspectual system.
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On the 'Evidential' Nature of the 'Epistemic' Use of the German Modals müssen and sollen
Author(s): Tanja Mortelmanspp.: 131–148 (18)More LessAbstract. The difference with respect to the kind of evidence evoked by the so-called 'epistemic' uses of the German modals müssen and sollen is argued to affect the epistemic contribution of both verbs in a crucial way. With quotative sollen, a genuine subjective-epistemic moment (which should not automatically be associated with an expression of scepticism, i.e. a low commitment on the part of the speaker) remains marginal at best, whereas inferential müssen easily invites speaker-oriented interpretations to the extent that the speaker can be taken to be rather strongly committed to the factuality of the proposition. The latter 'epistemic' interpretation, however, can but need not occur.
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The Syntax of putea and its Mixed Typology
Author(s): Virginia Motapanyane and Larisa Avrampp.: 149–165 (17)More LessAbstract. This paper investigates the syntax of the Romanian modal putea, which exhibits two selectional options in free alternation: an infinitive complement, as in equivalent Romance constructions, and a subjunctive complement, as in equivalent Balkan constructions. The tests show that both derivations qualify as configurations with clause union, although the syntactic mechanism for achieving the clause union may differ: subjunctive complements conform to the tense triggered pattern for biclausal union, as generally accepted in current studies; whereas bare infinitive complements reveal a parallel pattern yielding monoclausal structures ("tight" verb restructuring). The uniform treatment of modal constructions as configurations with verb restructuring demonstrates that the lexical properties of the modal verb remain constant across the syntactic variation, and this reduces the typological differences between Romance and Balkan languages.
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Some Issues about the Portuguese Modals dever and poder
Author(s): Fátima Oliveirapp.: 167–184 (18)More LessAbstract. This paper is about some Portuguese modals, mainly poder 'may/can' and dever 'must/should'. After a short description of these modals, I concentrate on their relation to negation. The main objective is to establish a scale for them, based on the three-layered scalar square proposed by van der Auwera (1996). It is shown that the verb poder expresses in many cases a two-sided possibility, and that dever is not a necessity operator in any of its interpretations.
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On the Modality of the English Verbs of Seeming
Author(s): Aurelia Usonienėpp.: 185–205 (21)More LessAbstract. This paper concerns the syntax-semantics interface in the analysis of two complementation types of the English verbs of seeming, namely structures containing phrases with the copula to be and those with zero copula (look/seem/appear to bePvs. 0 P). The aim of this study is to see what kind of modal meaning can be attributed to the verbs under investigation and how the observed meanings are dependent upon the complement type.
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Motan in The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records
Author(s): Mieke Van Herreweghepp.: 207–239 (33)More LessAbstract. In this paper we have tried to establish which paths the Old English modal *motan followed from Old English central meaning of permission to Modern English central meaning of obligation, by looking at peripheral meanings of *motan. The data presented here were drawn from The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. They tell us that *motan was never used in an epistemic sense; so, diachronically, deontic *motan came first. Moreover, it becomes quite clear that the core meaning was permission, that this could be slightly amended to include ability or wish, and that obligation was only a peripheral meaning in (late?) Old English.
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Epistemic prometer and Full Deontic Modal Verbs
Author(s): María Eugenia Vázquez-Lasloppp.: 241–266 (26)More LessAbstract. Spanish prometer 'promise', permitir 'permit' and obligar 'oblige' are considered modal verbs. In their dcontic senses they behave syntactically as control verbs. This property is maintained in non-deontic permitir and obligar, but not in non-deontic/?ro/ne/cT, which shows some features of a raising verb. Non-deonticpermitir and obligar are causatives of alethic modalities (lx makes it possible/necessary for y to F(y,...y)t while non-deontic^romerer is epistemic ('it is highly likely that I'(x,...)*). Non-deontic senses of the three verbs have in common the non-intentionality of the participant referred to by the subject in the main clause.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 37 (2023)
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Volume 36 (2022)
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Volume 35 (2021)
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Volume 34 (2020)
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Volume 33 (2019)
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Volume 32 (2018)
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Volume 31 (2017)
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Volume 30 (2016)
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Volume 29 (2015)
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Volume 28 (2014)
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Volume 27 (2013)
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Volume 26 (2012)
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Volume 25 (2011)
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Volume 24 (2010)
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Volume 23 (2009)
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Volume 22 (2008)
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Volume 21 (2007)
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Volume 20 (2006)
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Volume 19 (2005)
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Volume 18 (2004)
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Volume 17 (2003)
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Volume 16 (2002)
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Volume 15 (2001)
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Volume 14 (2000)
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Volume 13 (1999)
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Volume 12 (1998)
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Volume 11 (1997)
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Volume 10 (1996)
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Volume 9 (1994)
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Volume 8 (1993)
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Volume 7 (1992)
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Volume 6 (1991)
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Volume 5 (1990)
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Volume 4 (1989)
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Volume 3 (1988)
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Volume 2 (1987)
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Volume 1 (1986)
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