Past forms of modal verbs
often do not mark past time
Modal verbs and tense
Past tense forms of the modals,
particularly would and could, do
sometimes have reference to
past time
Qualifications proffered by speakers or
Epistemic writers regarding the level of certainty of a
proposition’s truth.
Deontic and epistemic
modality
Express their attitudes as to whether a proposition
Deontic relates to an obligatory situation or permissible one,
Modality or somewhere in between
May is a way of
encoding possibility.
Have to is one of the
ways that English has
for encoding necessity
The notions of necessity Tendency to have
Deontic - preferences, wishes,
Core modal meanings and possibility are human subjects and
Modality, scope and
requirements or
interlinked. recommendations form the activity or other non-
contextual presuppositions.
state verbs
quantification
Must not = necessarily Tendency to have non-
(not (X)) human subjects and
Epistemic - presuppositions state verbs
are propositions assumed to
There are two operators – Do not have to = not be facts
Relative scope items that have scope – in
the same expression. (necessarily (X)) Dynamic modality
Have to/Must =
necessarily (X)
The set-theoretical truth
Cardinal quantifiers condition is tied to just the
cardinality of a set
Number of elements in
Cardinality
the set
Quantification Depends on how the totality of X
Proportional quantifiers is split between an intersection
and a remainder
When two quantifiers, or a
quantifier and negation, are
present, there can be differences
in meaning attributable to relative No As are Bs. | A∩B|= 0
scope. (can)
Relative scope
Relation modals - At least one A is a B. 0 <
quantifiers | A∩B| (may, might)
All As are Bs. A⊆ B
(must, has to, will,
should, ought to)