This paper presents a semantic analysis of the Spanish modal verbs deber 'must' and tener que 'have to', based on their deontic uses in parliamentary debates. These verbs have previously been described in terms of weak vs. strong necessity or internal vs. external obligation, frequently without the support of empirical data. In contrast, we argue that the notion of (inter)subjectivity is crucial for a proper understanding of these verbs. Our quantitative analysis, in which we examined deber and tener que according to five variables related to the semantic notion of (inter)subjectivity (tense, polarity, grammatical person, diathesis, source of the necessity), shows statistically significant differences between the verbs. Deber is more frequent in the conditional tense, in negated utterances as well as in passive/ impersonal clauses, in the third person and when the source of the necessity is not the speaker. Tener que usually occurs in the present tense and in affirmative and active clauses, is equally frequent in first and third person and usually appears when the source of the necessity is the speaker. Based on these results, we conclude that tener que is used to convey a subjective attitude whereas deber is used to indicate intersubjectivity.
The principal aim of this study is to examine the Spanish modal verb deber 'must' in its deontic readings, relating it to the notions of evidentiality and intersubjectivity. Deber has often been compared to the modal verb tener que 'have to' and described in rather vague terms, for example as an expression of weak, internal obligation, but this paper proposes that it is better understood as an intersubjective verb. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses have been carried out, with a special focus on the in-depth qualitative study. It will be shown that deontic deber can convey evidential meanings when used in the conditional form. First, it can refer to a norm shared between the speaker and the hearer, and, second, it can convey an inferential process, a conclusion presented by the speaker, which is based on shared information, available to a larger group (or all) of the interlocutors. Evidentiality is regarded here as an intersubjective strategy, used when the speaker wants to reach consensus, arguing for the most reasonable, morally defensible way to act. Thus, this study also offers a new perspective of evidentiality, looking at this notion in interaction with deontic modality instead of epistemic modality, which is usually the case.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.