Diagnosing Modality in Predictive Expressions

Klecha, Peter

doi:10.1093/jos/fft011

Cited by 37 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Klecha (2014b) shows that those English predictive expressions are modals rather than simple temporal operators, based on a number of diagnostics, supporting previous claims made by Condoravdi (2002Condoravdi ( , 2003, Copley (2002), S. Kaufmann (2005) and others; see also Giannakidou & Mari (2016a, 2016b for arguments for Italian and Greek futures. One diagnostic employed by Klecha for English is modal sub-15 A reviewer asks whether aktionsart plays a bigger role, pointing out the apparent lack of a future-oriented reading of (i).…”

supporting

confidence: 84%

“…First of all, as discussed by many authors (Thomason 1970, Abusch 1997, Copley 2002, S. Kaufmann 2005, Klecha 2014b, humans can only truly know things about the present or past, since the future is in some sense inherently unknowable. This, perhaps in conjunction with the Maxim of Quality (Grice 1989), motivates epistemic and doxastic modals being associated only with present and past temporal orientations.…”

Section: Pragmatic Motivationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anankastic conditionals are just conditionals

Klecha

2016

Semantics and Pragmatics

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This paper presents a relative theory of tense which accounts for tense behaviors in English in both matrix and embedded contexts. Crucial to this proposal is novel data which shows that the temporal orientation of finite embedded clauses is constrained by the attitude verbs which embed them. While such constraints have been observed in modal auxiliaries and non-finite-embedding attitude verbs, finite-embedding-attitudes present an important new perspective because they show that whatever constraints are introduced by the modal must be able to coexist with a tensed prejacent. This proposal is compositional, and a formal analysis is given, by which modals, including attitude verbs, may constrain the temporal possibilities of an embedded clause, without themselves introducing a reference time argument. The constraining effect of attitude verbs also eliminates the need to stipulate a general Upper Limit Constraint, and allows for a means to capture correspondences between modal flavor and temporal orientation. The result is an elegant accounting of embedded tense with empirical coverage superior to previous proposals.

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supporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Pragmatic Motivationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anankastic conditionals are just conditionals

Klecha

2016

Semantics and Pragmatics

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“…Third, as Peter Klecha (2013) has recently argued, will allows for modal subordination. Roughly, modal subordination is the phenomenon whereby, in discourses containing several modals, earlier modals may restrict the domain of later modals (Roberts 1989).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Will done Better: Selection Semantics, Future Credence, and Indeterminacy

Cariani¹,

Santorio

2017

Mind

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Statements about the future are central in everyday conversation and reasoning. How should we understand their meaning? The received view among philosophers treats will as a tense: in 'Cynthia will pass her exam', will shifts the reference time forward. Linguists, however, have produced substantial evidence for the view that will is a modal, on a par with must and would. The different accounts are designed to satisfy different theoretical constraints, apparently pulling in opposite directions. We show that these constraints are jointly satisfied by a novel modal account of will. On this account, will is a modal but doesn't work as a quantifier over worlds. Rather, the meaning of will involves a selection function similar to the one used by Stalnaker in his semantics for conditionals. The resulting theory yields a plausible semantics and logic for will and vindicates our intuitive views about the attitudes that rational agents should have towards future-directed contents.

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“…John's statement can be sincere without him having experienced the attractions himself. Another kind of example of aesthetic predicates occurring in asserted contexts without triggering the acquaintance inference is embeddings under future tense operators, like 'will' [Klecha 2014]:…”

Section: Semantics or Pragmatics?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Aesthetic Evaluation and First-Hand Experience

Franzén

2018

Australasian Journal of Philosophy

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Evaluative aesthetic discourse communicates that the speaker has had first-hand experience of what is talked about. If you call a book bewitching, it will be assumed that you have read the book. If you say that a building is beautiful, it will be assumed that you have had some visual experience with it. According to an influential view, this is because knowledge is a norm for assertion, and aesthetic knowledge requires firsthand experience. This paper criticizes this view and argues for an alternative view, according to which aesthetic discourse expresses affective states of mind, analogously to how assertions express beliefs. It is because these affective states require first-hand experience that aesthetic discourse communicates that such acquaintance is at hand. The paper furthermore argues that the lack of an experience requirement for aesthetic belief ascriptions constitutes a problem for the kind of expressivist who claims that evaluative belief states are covert non-cognitive states.

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Diagnosing Modality in Predictive Expressions

Cited by 37 publications

References 8 publications

Anankastic conditionals are just conditionals

Anankastic conditionals are just conditionals

Will done Better: Selection Semantics, Future Credence, and Indeterminacy

Aesthetic Evaluation and First-Hand Experience

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