Epistemic Modals: High ma non troppo
Vincent Homer
March 2010 

I argue that epistemic modals in French are neither generated nor interpreted above Tense. I establish that cases of modal evaluation in the past cannot be dismissed as spurious effects (e.g. of free indirect discourse). And I show that scope paradoxes arise if epistemic modals are to be interpreted syntactically higher than T. A crucial piece in this argument is the establishment of a novel fact, i.e. that the root modal 'devoir' (and 'must' in English) is a positive polarity item.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/001086 (please use that when you cite this article, unless you want to cite the full url: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/001086)
Published in:	To appear in the Proceedings of NELS 40
keywords:	epistemic modals, root modals, negation, tense, polarity, ppi, syntax, semantics
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