Non-root modals for the past and temporal shifting in Mandarin Chinese

Non-root modals for the past and temporal shifting in Mandarin Chinese

This paper has two major goals. First, it provides a detailed empirical description of how the epistemic and metaphysical readings of the “non-root modal + Perf(ect) have” construction in English (e.g., John might have won the game yesterday) are expressed in Mandarin Chinese. The two readings both involve non-root modals for the past, i.e., non-root modals with either a past temporal perspecti...

Temporal Interpretation of Modals - Modals for the Present and for the Past

the search for the self in becketts theatre: waiting for godot and endgame

this thesis is based upon the works of samuel beckett. one of the greatest writers of contemporary literature. here, i have tried to focus on one of the main themes in becketts works: the search for the real "me" or the real self, which is not only a problem to be solved for beckett man but also for each of us. i have tried to show becketts techniques in approaching this unattainable goal, base...

Mainland Chinese Students’ Shifting Perceptions of Chinese-English Code-Mixing in Macao

As a former Portuguese colony, Macao is the only region in China where Cantonese, a variety of Chinese, and English, an international language, are enjoying de facto official statuses, with Putonghua being a quasi-official language and Portuguese being another official language. Recently, with an increasing number of Mainland Chinese students crossing the border to pursue their tertiar...

Circumstantial and Temporal Dependence in Counterfactual Modals

“Counterfactual” readings of might/could have were previously analyzed using metaphysical modal bases. This paper presents examples and scenarios where the assumptions of such a branching-time semantics are not met, because there are facts at the base world and time which exclude the complement of the modal being true or becoming true. Additional arguments show that counterfactual readings are ...