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Modes of Modality: Modality, typology, and universal grammar
Edited by Elisabeth Leiss and Werner Abraham
[Studies in Language Companion Series 149] 2014
► pp. 353–376

The modal category of sufficiency

| Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

This paper deals with constructions which express a notion of ‘sufficiency’. The presence of a degree quantifier such as enough, too, excessively or suffice constitutes their defining feature. On the proposed analysis, these constructions establish a relation of ‘necessity’ between the element that is in the scope of the quantifier and the state of affairs, specified in a complement clause or recoverable from the context, with respect to which the evaluation of sufficiency has to be interpreted. The study I present builds on this covert component of modal necessity and drawing on previous approaches explores the ways in which the relation of the sufficiency operators to possible worlds may be reconciled with their evaluating function in the real world.

Published online: 24 January 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.149.12mel
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