Modality

Ferenc Kiefer
Table of contents

Modality is a central notion in logic and it has attracted considerable attention in linguistics. Logical definitions of modality are based on the notions of necessity and possibility and modal notions must all be traceable to the logical notions of necessity and possibility. Logical treatments of modality are restricted to properties of propositions and exclude all nonpropositional features of sentences. In linguistics, normally a broader view of modality is espoused. Three major approaches can be distinguished. (i) Modality is related to necessity and possibility, it is used to relativize the validity of propositions to a set of possible worlds. On this view, modality is not necessarily propositional, it may also include nonpropositional aspects of the sentence. (ii) Any modification of a proposition comes under the heading of modality. According to this view, volitional, emotive, evaluative modifications, too, belong to modality, in spite of the fact that these modifications are not related to necessity and possibility. (iii) Modality is what the speaker is doing with a proposition. This notion of modality includes (i) and (ii); in addition, it also covers illocution, in particular, the speech acts of imposing obligation and granting permission. On this approach, there is no dividing line between semantics and pragmatics, or, at least much of what has traditionally been considered to be pragmatics belongs to semantics.

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