Modal Sentences (Key Topics in Semantics and Pragmatics) - Hardcover

Giannakidou, Anastasia; Mari, Alda

 
9781108839372: Modal Sentences (Key Topics in Semantics and Pragmatics)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1108839371 ISBN 13: 9781108839372
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2026

Synopsis

Building on the logical tradition of possible world semantics, this innovative book explores the rich and diverse empirical domain of modality in language, offering an ambitious theory of linguistic modality as indicative of uncertainty. It covers a wide variety of languages ranging from English, Greek, Italian and French, to Native American and Asian languages, and studies modals alongside evidentials, questions, and imperatives, to enable a deeper understanding of modality. The authors introduce a new analysis of linguistic necessity as conveying evidential bias, identifying new categories such as flexible necessity modals, and offering a framework for the linguistic category of evidentiality as a branch of epistemic modality. They also study the relationship between questions and modals through the concepts of nonveridical equilibrium, reflection, and evidential bias. Laying out the formal semantic tools step-by-step, it is essential reading for both scholars and students of semantics, philosophy, computational linguistics, typology and communication theory.

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About the Authors

Anastasia Giannakidou is Frank J. McLoraine Professor of Linguistics, University of Chicago. Her recent publications include Truth and Veridicality in Grammar and Thought (with Mari, 2021).

Alda Mari is Director of Research at Institut Jean Nicod, CNRS Paris. Her recent publications include Truth and Veridicality in Grammar and Thought (with Giannakidou, 2021).

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication date
2026
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1108839371
ISBN 13 
9781108839372
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
348