Relevance and modality

Authors

  • José Luis Berbeira Gardón

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.1998.11.02

Keywords:

Teoría de la relevancia, Verbos modales, Valor semántico, Modalidad, Semántica cognitiva

Abstract

This paper sets out to reasess some relevance-theoretic analyses of the English modals, in particular Walton (1988), Groefsema(1995), Klinge (1993) and Berbeira Gardón (1996a), and show how a unified treatment of modal verbs is possible within the framework of Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory. Before going through each of these proposals one by one, a summary is offered of the main theoretical assumptions common to all of them. In the last two sections, it is argued that a unified account of the English modals can be given if we assume that they encode that the state of affairs described in the proposition expressed is located in a potential world. This proposal draws heavily on Wilson and Sperber's (1988) account of non-declarative sentences.

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Published

30-11-1998

How to Cite

Berbeira Gardón, José Luis. 1998. “Relevance and Modality”. Alicante Journal of English Studies / Revista Alicantina De Estudios Ingleses, no. 11 (November):3-22. https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.1998.11.02.