The question of whether the notional category ‘future’ in natural languages is a tense or modality has received a lot of attention in linguistic semantics, and it seems inescapable to conclude that the semantics of future involves a modal component (e.g. see Bertinetto, 1979; Enç 1996, Copley, 2002; Squartini, 2004; Kaufmann 2005; Mari, 2009,2010,to appear, Klecha 2014, Giannakidou 2012, Gianna...

This two-part article critically reviews eight recent works in the field of mood and modality. Part I explores three different theoretical approaches – generative, cognitive–pragmatic, and typological – with the main focus on languages other than English. Within the framework of generative grammar, research issues include: the epistemic-root interpretations of modal verbs; transitive–intransiti...

We conduct a cross-modal priming experiment to determine the mental representation and access strategies for compound verbs (CV) in Bangla. Analysis of reaction time indicates that compositionality among CVs triggers priming effects for both the constituent verbs. On the other hand non-compositional CVs exhibit priming only for the polar verb. Thus, compositional CVs are decomposed into their c...

The work presented in this paper examines the time course of antecedent reactivation following movement gaps found in passive sentences. Using a cross-modal lexical priming technique, (re)activation of the subject noun phrase (NP) was examined at various critical points following the verb (near the posited gap) for verbal passive sentences and for active (control) sentences. Subjects made lexic...

In this paper we survey the various ways of expressing modality in Urdu/Hindi and show that Urdu/Hindi modals provide interesting insights on current discussions of the semantics of modality. There are very few dedicated modals in Urdu/Hindi: most of which has been arrived at constructionally via a combination of a certain kind of verb with a certain kind of embedded verb form and a certain kin...

1 Mandative constructions: Delimiting the object of the study Mandative constructions express that a certain action (should) be performed or a certain state be achieved. In terms of illocutionary acts, they are directives. They can be independent or dependent. The verbal syntagm of independent mandative constructions is either in the imperative or in the subjunctive mood (e.g. close the window,...

This paper proposes an analysis of a relatively under described existential construction in Tagalog. This construction at first glance appears to embed a relative clause under the existential predicate. However, it differs from this type of existential in two crucial respects. The complement of the existential verb allows extraction, demonstrating that it is not a DP. Additionally, rather asser...

We discuss and analyze two subject agreement markers in Logooli (Bantu, Kenya). We show that e(class 9 subject agreement) and ga(class 6 subject agreement) give rise to a variety of apparently evidential or modal meanings when they occur in constructions translated with “expletive” subjects. We propose a treatment of the Logooli data following Matthewson, Rullmann & Davis’s (2007) and Rullmann,...

Two experiments investigated the interaction of intonation boundaries and verb bias during spoken language comprehension in English. An online cross-modal naming task proved to be sensitive to the interaction of prosodic, syntactic, and semantic representations during resolution of a temporary syntactic closure ambiguity (e.g., Whenever the lady checks the room...). The results supported previo...

Immediate effects of verb-specific syntactic (subcategorization) information were found in a cross-modal naming experiment, a self-paced reading experiment, and an experiment in which eye movements were monitored. In the reading studies, syntactic misanalysis effects in sentence complements (e.g., "The student forgot the solution was...") occurred at the verb in the complement (e.g., was) for m...