The article aims at bringing the model of the semantic field of modal expressions presented by Angelika Kratzer to the attention of Polish-speaking readers. The framework consists of three domains: modal force, modal base and ordering source. The last two are conversational backgrounds. The duality of the modal base also allows for a binary typology of modality. In addition, the paper proposes Polish equivalents of English-language terminology.
The aim of the paper is to present its author’s view on the Furdalian (1977) concept of open linguistics and exemplify it with an investigation into linguistic modality. The author applies concepts and research tools from philosophy and logic in order to explain phenomena pertaining to the semantics of English modals: can, could, may and might. The described study uses the model of the semantic field of modal expressions (Kratzer 1991) and authentic samples of language use excerpted from The Corpus of Con temporary American English. The analysis establishes the conversational backgrounds that underlie the modal readings of the studied verbs and confirms the interactions of possibility modals with the imper- fective and the perfect, which yield the epistemic flavor. It also reports on the interaction of possibility modals with negation, which leads to changes in the modal force. Furdalowska koncepcja “językoznawstwa otwartego” na przykładzie badania pola semantycznego angielskich modalnych czasowników możliwości Streszczen i e Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie poglądu autora na furdalowską koncepcję językoznawstwa otwarte go oraz zegzemplifikowanie go za pomocą badania modalności językowej. Autor wykorzystuje pojęcia oraz narzędzia badawcze z filozofii i logiki w celu wyjaśnienia zjawisk odnoszących się do semantyki angielskich czasowników modalnych: can, could, may i might. Opisane badanie wykorzystuje model pola semantycznego czasowników modalnych (the semantic field of modal expressions (Kratzer 1991)) oraz próbki autentycznych danych językowych wyekscerpowanych z korpusu współczesnej amerykań- skiej odmiany języka angielskiego The Corpus of Contemporary American English. Badanie ustaliło tła konwersacyjne leżące u podstaw znaczeń modalnych analizowanych czasowników oraz potwierdziło interakcje modalnych czasowników możliwości z aspektem niedokonanym oraz aspektem perfect, któ- rych wynikiem są znaczenia epistemiczne. Badanie wykazało także interakcję modalnych czasowników możliwości z negacją, która prowadzi do zmian w wyrażanej sile modalnej.
Existing research recognizes the important role aspect plays in the interpretation of modal readings. This paper presents an empirical approach to this area of study, based on corpus material. The investigation described here is part of the author's large-scale corpus research into modality-aspect interfaces. It traces patterns of interaction as exhibited in the Kratzerian semantic field of the English modal auxiliary can and the grammatical aspects which follow it within matrix predicates. The analyzed language samples were extracted from The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The study demonstrates patterns of interaction between the modal readings of can and the grammatical aspectual forms of the main verb. Moreover, it also shows that when modality concerns past events expressed through the perfect aspect, it tends to take epistemic conversational backgrounds. In addition to this, this research has also revealed the interaction of modality with subjectival negation.
The paper offers a summative discussion of empirical investigations into two English modal predicates: can with the perfect infinitive and must not with the perfect infinitive. Both these predicate constructions tend not to be mentioned or discussed in grammars of English; some books even forbid them. Thus, one may get an impression that they do not exist or are non-normative. The corpus studies discussed in this paper have shown the opposite, however. The analyzed modal predicates have been reported in both contemporary and historical American English, and also in British English. Moreover, they are not accidental constructions since they have been reported in numerous texts, of different levels of formality, produced by various speakers or writers. The study has also shown that can with the perfect expresses the meaning of speaker’s reasoning about a potential past situation or speaker’s certainty about the non-occurrence of a past situation. Thus can interacts with the perfect and expresses the epistemic flavor. Moreover, the meaning of speaker’s certainty results from the interaction of can with a negative context. Speaker’s certainty that an event did not take place in the past is also a meaning expressed by must not with the perfect. In addition, this modal predicate can express the meaning of a prohibition of a past event. Thus, must not with the perfect can express either the epistemic or the root modal flavor. The latter emerges as a result of modality-negation interaction. The perfect projects the event in the past, i.e. in the retrospective viewpoint. Hence, the study proposes a number of norms thanks to which these two, supposedly non-normative, modal predicates have occurred.
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