Modality [Paperback]

This is a book about semantic theories of modality. Its main goal is to explain and evaluate important contemporary theories within linguistics and to discuss a wide range of linguistic phenomena from the perspective of these theories. The introduction describes the variety of grammatical phenomena associated with modality, explaining why modal verbs, adjectives, and adverbs represent the core phenomena. Chapters are then devoted to the possible worlds semantics for modality developed in modal logic; current theories of modal semantics within linguistics; and the most important empirical areas of research. The author concludes by discussing the relation between modality and other topics, especially tense, aspect, mood, and discourse meaning.

Paul Portner's accessible guide to this key area of current research will be welcomed by students of linguistics at graduate level and above, as well as by researchers in philosophy, computational science, and related fields.

1. Introduction
2. Modal Logic
3. Major Linguistic Theories of Modality
4. Sentential Modality
5. Modality and Other Intensional Categories
Bibliography
Index

Modalityserves as an introduction, giving an overview of the main theories of modality, from modal logic, through Angelika Kratzer's seminal work, to more recent approaches. Here Portner manages to explain both the forest and the trees, illuminating, for each theory, both its intuitive appeal and its formal details. But the book is also a valuable reference for experts. It summarizes major areas of active debates, presents novel issues and challenges to current theories, and offers new solutions and directions, which will certainly inspire future research. --Valentine Hacquard,Language

Modern semantics and its interfaces with syntax and pragmatics have gone through an extraordinary development over the past twenty years, characterized by a break through in our understanding of major l#.