The relativization of modals
It is generally assumed that discourse contexts are rich
enough to supply the information needed to determine the
value of the modal base and ordering source relativizing
modal words, but the issue of how information relativizing
the modal is expressed in discourses, if it is expressed,
has not been explicitly addressed. In this paper, I
investigate how (i) how information relativizing the modal
is expressed or referred to, (ii) how modal sentences get
integrated into discourses, and, (iii) more specifically,
how they get integrated into discourses when the value of
the modal base is only partially determined. Treating the
conversational backgrounds that fix the modal base and
ordering source as discourse referents, cases of partial
information about their content are analyzed analogously
to how partially identified individuals are analyzed in
Groenendijk, Stokhof and Veltman 1996.
Virginia Brennan