| This dissertation deals primarily with epistemic modality: possibility and necessity relative to what is known. In modal logic, neither epistemic necessity nor possibility convey information: they do not enable the listener to rule out open possibilities. They merely indicate that a proposition is entailed by a context (necessity) or consistent with it (possibility). Natural language modality, in contrast, involves notions of evidence and causality that are not dealt with by modal logic semantics. Arguments are presented that epistemic must is an evidential marker in natural language, labeling an informative proposition as being a deduction, and that epistemic might indicates that there is evidence for the plausibility of a possible situation. Further, the use of intonation in possibility sentences to express degree of likelihood is examined. Instrumental data are presented that bear on this. |
