TIME AND MODALITY
Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory VOLUME 75 Managing Editors Marcel den Dikken, City University of New York Liliane Haegeman, University of Lille Joan Maling, Brandeis University Editorial Board Guglielmo Cinque, University of Venice Carol Georgopoulos, University of Utah Jane Grimshaw, Rutgers University Michael Kenstowicz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Hilda Koopman, University of California, Los Angeles Howard Lasnik, University of Maryland Alec Marantz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology John J. McCarthy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Ian Roberts, University of Cambridge For other titles published in this series, go to www.springer.com/series/6559
TIME AND MODALITY Edited by Jacqueline Guéron Université Paris 3, France and Jacqueline Lecarme CNRS - Université Paris 7, France
Jacqueline Guéron Université Paris 3 - Sorbonne Nouvelle France Jacqueline Lecarme Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle CNRS - Universit é Paris 7 France ISBN 978-1-4020-8353-2 e-isbn 978-1-4020-8354-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008927066 2008 Springer Science + Business Media, B.V. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 springer.com
The contributors to this book dedicate it to Carlota Smith.... O fearful meditation: where, alack, Shall Time s best jewel from time s chest lie hid? Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back, Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid? O, none, unless this miracle have might, That in black ink my love may still shine bright. William Shakespeare, Sonnet LXV
Preface The papers in this volume were first presented at the International Round Table Time and Modality held in Paris in December of 2005 and organized by the Jeune Équipe B 368 Syntaxe anglaise et syntaxe comparative (Université Paris3-Sorbonne Nouvelle) and by the Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and UniversitéParis 7). We wish to thank the institutions that provided financial support for the Round Table: the CNRS, the Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle, theconseil Scientifique(Universités Paris3and Paris 7) and the Bureaudes Relations Internationales (UniversitéParis3). vii
Contents Preface... Contributors... vii xv Introduction... 1 1 Tense... 2 2 Aspect... 3 2.1 Perfectand Perfectivity... 3 2.2 Eventuality Type... 4 3 Modals and Modal Verbs... 5 3.1 Subject/SpeakerOrientation... 5 3.2 The Temporal Location of Modal Verbs... 6 3.3 The Temporal/Causal Function of Modal Verbs... 7 3.4 The Temporal Syntax of Non-Root Modals... 8 3.5 Weak Necessity Modals... 9 4 The Role of Past Morphology in Modal Contexts... 9 5 The Subjunctive... 10 6 Genericity... 11 7 Copular Clauses... 11 8 Conclusions and Open Problems... 12 References... 14 Patterns in the Semantics of Generic Sentences... 17 Greg Carlson 1 The Setting..... 17 2 TheIssues... 18 3 Induction and Stipulation... 22 3.1 Rules and Induction... 22 3.2 What do Generic Sentencesdo?... 23 3.3 Inductive Generalizations Again... 24 ix
x Contents 4 Patterns... 25 4.1 Patterns and Non-Patterns... 25 4.2 Generic Sentences... 27 4.3 Restriction... 31 4.4 Review of Issues... 33 5 Weak and Really Strong Generalizations... 34 6 Conclusion... 36 References... 37 Intensional Subjects and Indirect Contextual Anchoring... 39 Ileana Comorovski 1 Introduction... 39 2 Specificational Copular Clauses... 40 2.1 Higgins s (1973)TaxonomyofCopular Clauses... 40 2.2 The SubjectofSpecificational Clauses... 41 2.3 The Copula of Specification... 42 3 Romanian Questions of the Form Care Copula DP?... 43 3.1 Two Types of Discourse-Linking... 43 3.2 Semantic Restrictions on the PostcopularDP... 44 3.3 Remarks on the Syntax of Romanian Questions of the Form Care Copula DP?... 49 3.4 Conclusion... 51 4 Indefinite Subjects, Topichood,and PointofView... 52 4.1 Indefinite Subjects and Topichood in Constituent Questions... 52 4.2 Topichood, Point of View, and the Conditional Mood... 53 5 Conclusions... 56 References... 56 Temporal Orientation in Conditionals (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love UFO s)... 59 Bridget Copley 1 UFOs and Other Oddities... 60 2 Away from an Explanation... 65 3 Towards an Explanation... 68 3.1 No Real Epistemic Eventives... 69 3.2 Antecedents Have Their Own Modal Flavors... 73 4 Conclusion... 76 References... 76 On the Temporal Syntax of Non-Root Modals... 79 HamidaDemirdache and Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria 1 Crosslinguistic Asymmetries in the Temporal Construals of Non-Root Modals... 80 2 TheGrammar of Temporal Relations... 82 2.1 Tenses and Aspects as Spatiotemporal Predicates... 82 2.2 Anaphora.... 84 3 Condoravdi (2002): PerfectModals... 87
Contents xi 4 TheTemporal PhraseStructure of Non-Root Modals... 89 4.1 Setting the Modal-Time... 89 4.2 Ordering the Modal-Time... 90 5 The Temporal Interpretation of English Non-Root Modals... 91 5.1 Present/Future Oriented Epistemic Modals... 91 5.2 Aspectually Complex Modals: Progressive and Perfect Modals... 95 6 TheTemporal Interpretation of Spanish Non-Root Modals...104 6.1 Modals Inflected for the Past...104 6.2 Modals Inflected for the Present...109 6.3 Modals Inflected for the Future...110 7 Conclusions...111 References...112 How to Say Ought in Foreign: The Composition of Weak Necessity Modals... 115 Kai von Fintel and Sabine Iatridou 1 A Basic Contrast...116 2 Weakness...117 3 The Crosslinguistic Picture...120 4 Flavors...126 4.1 Epistemic Modality...126 4.2 Goal-Oriented Modality...127 4.3 Deontic Modality...127 5 Counterfactuality?...128 6 A Consolation and aprecedent...131 7 Scope Confusion?...135 8 Ordering SourcePromotion...136 9 Why Counterfactual Marking?....139 10 Conclusion...139 References...140 On the Temporal Function of Modal Verbs... 143 Jacqueline Guéron 1 Modal Verbs Part I: Grammatical Properties...144 1.1 The Tense ofmodals...144 1.2 Absence of Agreement Morphology...146 1.3 The Temporal/Causal Function of Modal Verbs...149 2 Causality in Grammar...149 2.1 Two Syntactic Levels ofinterpretation...149 2.2 PointofView...150 2.3 The Instrument...150 2.4 Two Types of Causality...151 2.5 Metaphysical Causality on Higher vp Levels...161 2.6 On the Syntactic Determination of Causality...164 2.7 Metaphysical Intentionality...167
xii Contents 3 Modal Verbs Part II: Causality...167 4 Conclusion...169 References...170 The English Perfect and the Metaphysics of Events... 173 James Higginbotham 1 Introduction...173 2 Metaphysical Issues...176 3 Interactions with SequenceofTense...181 4 Shifted Perfects...184 5 Conclusion...192 References...192 Tense and Modality in Nominals... 195 Jacqueline Lecarme 1 Tense innominals...197 1.1 SpaceandTime...197 1.2 TheD-TRelation...198 1.3 Timeandthe Noun...202 1.4 Interim Discussion...204 2 Modality...205 2.1 TimeandWorlds...205 2.2 Generics and Habituals...206 2.3 AttitudeVerbs...208 2.4 Free Relatives...209 2.5 Interim Discussion...211 3 Evidentiality...211 3.1 Visual Evidentiality...212 3.2 Approaches to (Sentential) Evidentiality...214 3.3 Extending Kratzer s Theory...217 4 Conclusions...220 References...221 Time With and Without Tense... 227 Carlota S. Smith 1 Background and Principles...228 1.1 Background...228 1.2 Pragmatic Principles for TemporalInterpretation...230 1.3 Temporal Information in Language: A Classification...231 2 Tensed Languages...232 3 Tenseless Languages and Mixed-Temporal Languages...234 3.1 Mandarin Chinese...234 3.2 Inferred Temporal Location...235 3.3 Sentences With Overt Aspectual Viewpoints...237 3.4 Other Tenseless Languages...239 3.5 Mixed-Temporal Languages...240
Contents xiii 4 Zero-Marked Sentences:TheNeutralViewpoint...241 5 Formalizing the Analysis...243 6 Conclusion...246 References...247 The English Konjunktiv II... 251 Tim Stowell 1 TheSyntactic DistributionofK2...252 2 A Sociolinguistic Interlude...255 3 Subjunctive and Indicative Conditionals...257 4 Counterfactual Subjunctives Versus Other Types of Subjunctives.. 264 5 Further Aspects of English Counterfactual Subjunctives and SequenceofTense...266 6 Inversion in Conditionals...268 7 A VariantForm of the Subjunctive...269 8 Conclusion...271 References...271 Phasing in Modals: Phases and the Epistemic/Root Distinction... 273 Karen Zagona 1 Introduction...273 2 Epistemic and Root Modals...276 2.1 SubjectVersus Non-SubjectOrientation...277 2.2 Modal Evaluation Time...278 2.3 Aspectand Veridicality oftheevent...281 3 Modals and Phases...283 3.1 Toward a Phase-Based Analysis:Lexical Features of Modals...284 3.2 Modals as Tense Morphemes...285 4 Perfectivity and Root Modals...288 5 Conclusion...290 References...290 Index...293
Contributors Greg Carlson Linguistics Department,University of Rochester, Rochester,NY 14627-0096,USA carlson@ling.rochester.edu Ileana Comorovski Departement desciencesdulangage, Université denancy 2, 54015 Nancy, France Ileana.Comorovski@univ-nancy2.fr Bridget Copley Structures Formelles dulangage, CNRS-Université Paris 8, 2 rue de la Liberté, 93200 Saint-DenisFrance, bridget.copley@sfl.cnrs.fr HamidaDemirdache University of Nantes, LLING (EA 3827), Chemin de la Censive du Tertre BP 81227, 44312 Nantes Cedex3, France, hamida.demirdache@univ-nantes.fr Kai von Fintel Department of Linguistics and Philosophy,MIT,77Massachusetts Avenue 32-D808, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA, fintel@mit.edu Jacqueline Guéron Institut du Monde Anglophone, Université Paris 3-Sorbonne Nouvelle, 5 rue de I Ecole demédecine, 75006 Paris, France, gueron@ext.jussieu.fr James Higginbotham Department of Linguistics,University of Southern California, 3601 Watt Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1693,USA,higgy@usc.edu Sabine Iatridou Department of Linguistics and Philosophy,MIT,77Massachusetts Avenue 32-D808, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA, iatridou@mit.edu xv
xvi Contributors Jacqueline Lecarme Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle, CNRS-Université Paris 7, Case Postale 7031-2, placejussieu -75251Paris Cedex 05, France, lecarme@llf.cnrs.fr Carlota Smith Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA rmeier@mail.utexas.edu Timothy Stowell UCLA College of Letters and Science, 2300 Murphy Hall, Los Angeles CA 90095-1438, USA, stowell@humnet.ucla.edu Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria University of the Basque Country, Filologia eta Geografia-Historia Fakultatea, Hizkuntzalaritza eta Euskal Ikasketak Saila, Unibertsitateen Ibilbidea 5, Vitoria- Gasteiz 01006, Spain, fvpurgom@vc.ehu.es, myriam.uribe-etxebarria@ehu.es Karen Zagona Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, A210 Padelford Hall, Box 354340, Seattle, WA 98195-4340, USA, zagona@u.washington.edu