RT journal article
T1 Relevance and modality
A1 Berbeira Gardón, José Luis
A2 Filología Francesa e Inglesa
K1 relevance theory
K1 modality
K1 English modal verbs
K1 semantics
K1 pragmatics
AB This paper sets out to reasess some relevance-theoretic analyses of the English modals, in particular Walton (1988), Groefsema (1995), Klinge (1993) and Berbeira Gardón (1996a), and show how a unified treatment of modal verbs is possible within the framework of Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory. Before going through each of these proposals one by one, a summary is offered of the main theoretical assumptions common to all of them. In the last two sections, it is argued that a unified account of the English modals can be given if we assume that they encode that the state of affairs described in the proposition expressed is located in a potential world. This proposal draws heavily on Wilson and Sperber's (1988) account of non-declarative sentences.
SN 0214-4808
YR 1998
FD 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/15242
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/15242
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026