It has been shown that, at least in certain languages, tense is represented in nominals (Lecarme 1996, 2004). It is therefore important to consider whether the interplay between tense and modality which is commonly found in clauses exists in the nominal domain as well. This article investigates the non-temporal meanings of nominal tenses in Somali, an Afroasiatic language. It explores the condi...

In modal subordination, a modal sentence is interpreted relative to a hypothetical scenario introduced in an earlier sentence. In this paper, I argue that this phenomenon reflects the fact that the interpretation of modals is an ANAPHORIC process. Modal morphemes introduce sets of possible worlds, representing alternative hypothetical scenarios, as entities into the discourse model. Their inter...

The expression of modal notions cuts across morphosyntactic categories. Moving beyond the verbal domain, we find, across languages, types of indefinite noun phrases that convey modal meanings (Haspelmath 1997). For instance, the so-called epistemic indefinites (EIs), like Spanish algún or German irgendein, convey speaker’s ignorance. To illustrate, the Spanish sentence in (1) implicates that th...

This paper presents an analysis of sentences with the postverbal modal element DAK in Cantonese and Hakka. We argue that DAK is a verb, though in Cantonese and Hakka it is partly defective. It acquires different meanings depending on the position it occupies, which is either the position for modal verbs in the matrix clause or a modal position in the result denoting small clause. The analysis, ...

Modal languages were originally based on the possible-world approach proposed by Lewis, Carnap and others. In other words, modal languages were originally designed to talk about necessity (the box) and possibility (the diamond). Nowadays, modal languages (and certain natural extensions like dynamic languages, μ-calculus language, . . . ) are viewed as tools for analyzing the properties of Kripk...

In the aspectual linguistic literature, a connection between imperfective aspect and modality/subjectivity is quite often mentioned. This article investigates a possible counterargument to this connection by analyzing modal readings of tenses in Russian. Two types of uses of tenses are described: (1) temporal reading of the tense with a modal inference and (2) strictly modal reading of the tens...

In this study, we examine the strategies translators have at their disposal to render meaning of Dutch modal particles in Russian language. Modal are difficult translate because these words is abstract, highly context-dependent and sometimes open multiple interpretations. Based on parallel Dutch-Russian texts show which use express functions particle maar ‘but’ Russian. The very often omitted t...

Studies of lexical ambiguity resolution in sentential contexts have not sufficiently considered the relatedness among an ambiguous word’s meanings as a predicting factor for semantic activation. To better understand the relation between lexical access and discourse processing and the effect of semantic relatedness on lexical ambiguity resolution, a cross-modal lexical priming experiment focusin...