Weak Necessity

Rubinstein, Aynat

doi:10.1002/9781118788516.sem105

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…In this section, we show that -NE-marked modals behave like weak necessity modals under the definition proposed by Rubinstein (2017), repeated here: (10)…”

Section: Meeting the Definition Of Weak Necessitymentioning

confidence: 93%

“…And how can we reliably identify weak modal strength in a fieldwork setting? We follow here a definition by Rubinstein (2017), who proposes to characterise weak necessity as in (10). We use this working definition in Section 4 to identify weak necessity modality in Javanese.…”

Section: Weak Modal Strengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The idea behind domain restriction approaches to weak necessity modality is quite simple, despite differences in the technical implementation (for an overview, see Rubinstein 2017). As von Fintel & Iatridou (2008: p. 118) put it for weak necessity modals: "What makes them weaker semantically is that they have a smaller domain of quantification: Strong necessity modals say that the prejacent is true in all of the favoured worlds, while weak necessity modals say that the prejacent is true in all of the very best (by some additional measure) among the favoured worlds."…”

Section: Domain Restriction Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Degree-based approaches. Weak modal strength has more recently also been discussed as one facet of a more general phenomenon, that of the gradability of modal expressions and their acceptability in comparison constructions (Villalta 2008;Yalcin 2010;Lassiter 2011Lassiter , 2017Klecha 2014;Herburger & Rubinstein 2014Solt 2015;Portner & Rubinstein 2016;Rubinstein 2017;Hohaus 2020). Data like (21) are suggestive of analysing at least some modal expressions of English with the tools developed for the analysis of gradable adjectives like tall in ( 22).…”

Section: Figure 2 Composing Quantification Domains For Weak Modalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5 In the philosophical literature, see, e.g.,Sloman (1970),Wertheimer (1972),Jones & Pörn (1986),McNamara (1996),Wedgwood (2006),Swanson (2008),Finlay (2009Finlay ( , 2010,Kolodny & MacFarlane (2010),Yalcin (2016), andSilk (2019). In the linguistic literature, see, e.g.,Horn (1972),Rivière (1981),Kratzer (1991),Saebø (2001),Copley (2004),Ninan (2005), von Fintel & Iatridou (2008), Lassiter (2011,Rubinstein (2012Rubinstein ( , 2014Rubinstein ( , 2017,Klecha (2014), Portner & Rubinstein (2016, andMatthewson & Truckenbrodt (2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Weak necessity without weak possibility: The composition of modal strength distinctions in Javanese

Klok

Hohaus

2020

S&P

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This paper investigates the semantics of the suffix -NE in Javanese (Austronesian; Indonesia), bringing to light new findings to bear on the composition of modal strength distinctions. In a transparent manner, this functional morpheme derives weak necessity modals from strong necessity modals, but cannot attach to possibility modals to derive weak possibility. Javanese thereby takes a different compositional route to weak necessity than most Indo-European languages, which might lexicalise modal strength distinctions or rely on counterfactual morphology for that purpose. We propose a new type of domain restriction analysis for weak necessity to capture both the defining properties of weak necessity as well as the restriction in Javanese to only necessity modals. Specifically, we propose that -NE requires quantification over a non-empty subset of a minimal witness set for the original quantification. The Javanese data thus show that weak necessity is not a unified phenomenon across languages, and our analysis contributes to a model of crosslinguistic variation concerning the relationship between gradability and modality, and the semantics of weak modal strength.

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“…In this section, we show that -NE-marked modals behave like weak necessity modals under the definition proposed by Rubinstein (2017), repeated here: (10)…”

Section: Meeting the Definition Of Weak Necessitymentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Weak Modal Strengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Domain Restriction Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figure 2 Composing Quantification Domains For Weak Modalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Weak necessity without weak possibility: The composition of modal strength distinctions in Javanese

Klok

Hohaus

2020

S&P

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Prolegomena to a theory of X-marking

Fintel

Iatridou

2023

Linguist and Philos

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The morphological marking that distinguishes conditionals that are called “counterfactual” from those that are not, can also be found in other modal constructions, such as in the expression of wishes and oughts. We propose to call it “X-marking”. In this article, we lay out desiderata for a successful theory of X-marking and make some initial informal observations. Much remains to be done.

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Eventive modal projection: the case of Spanish subjunctive relative clauses

Alonso-Ovalle,

Menéndez-Benito,

Rubinstein

2024

Nat Lang Semantics

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How do modal expressions determine which possibilities they range over? According to the Modal Anchor Hypothesis (Kratzer in The language-cognition interface: Actes du 19econgrès international des linguistes, Libraire Droz, Genève, 179–199, 2013), modal expressions determine their domain of quantification from particulars (events, situations, or individuals). This paper presents novel evidence for this hypothesis, focusing on a class of Spanish relative clauses that host verbs inflected in the subjunctive. Subjunctive in Romance is standardly taken to be licensed only in a subset of intensional contexts. However, in our relative clauses, subjunctive is exceptionally licensed in extensional contexts. At the same time, the interpretation of these relative clauses still involves modality, a type of modality that targets the goals of the agent of the main event. We argue that the pattern displayed by these relative clauses follows straightforwardly if subjunctive is associated with a modal operator that, like modal indefinites (Alonso-Ovalle and Menéndez-Benito in Journal of Semantics 35(1):1–41, 2017), can project its domain from a volitional event. Overall, our proposal supports the event-based analysis of mood (Kratzer in Evidential mood in attitude and speech reports. Talk delivered at the 1st Syncart Workshop, Siena, July 13, 2016; Portner and Rubinstein in Natural Language Semantics 28:343–393, 2020) and extends its application beyond attitudinal and modal complements.

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Weak Necessity

Cited by 3 publications

References 92 publications

Weak necessity without weak possibility: The composition of modal strength distinctions in Javanese

Weak necessity without weak possibility: The composition of modal strength distinctions in Javanese

Prolegomena to a theory of X-marking

Eventive modal projection: the case of Spanish subjunctive relative clauses

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