A Montagovian treatment of modal subordination

On Context Dependence in Modal Constructions

This paper investigates a new representation format for dynamic discourse in DRT, where contextual dynamics is modeled in terms of update conditions. This new representation format is motivated by the study of context dependence in modal constructions, in particular by serious problems besetting earlier approaches to modality and modal subordination in DRT. We present an alternative DRT analysi...

A modal analysis of modal subordination

In this paper I will give a modal two-dimensional analysis of presupposition and modal subordination. I will think of presupposition as a non-veridical propositional attitude. This allows me to evaluate what is presupposed and what is asserted at different dimensions without getting into the binding problem. What is presupposed will be represented by an accessibility relation between possible w...

A Modal Analysis of Presupposition and Modal Subordination

In this paper I will give a modal two-dimensional analysis of presupposition and modal subordination. I will think of presupposition as a non-veridical propositional attitude. This allows me to evaluate what is presupposed and what is asserted at different dimensions without getting into the binding problem. What is presupposed will be represented by an accessibility relation between possible w...

Optional and Obligatory Modal Subordination ∗

This paper raises the empirical point that modal subordination is not always obligatory, and that moreover, this is a point of lexical variation. Some modals, like will, which I call definite modals, undergo modal subordination obligatorily, and some, like gonna, which I call nondefinite modals, do so optionally. I propose a dynamic framework in which, following from Frank (1997), information s...

Modal subordination is neither modal nor subordinate...discuss