Relevance and modality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.1998.11.02Keywords:
Teoría de la relevancia, Verbos modales, Valor semántico, Modalidad, Semántica cognitivaAbstract
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.Downloads
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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.
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Copyright (c) 1998 José Luis Berbeira Gardón
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.