On Epistemic Modality: A Pragmatic Approach*
نویسنده
چکیده
Epistemic modals or predicates in English and Japanese are analyzed from three viewpoints: (i) reality of p (=propositional content), (ii) time of p, and (iii) causality of p, and three conditions are proposed: the Reality Condition, the Actuality Condition, and the Present Condition, which are in a hierarchical order. It is argued that when the epistemic modal expresses a cause inference, the p must be present or past, but not future which is expressed by the future will, in the real world.
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