Perspectives on possibility modals

Abstract

Possibility modals are standardly treated as expressing compatibility with contextually relevant information, rules, goals, desires, relevant circumstances, or combinations thereof; equivalently, existential quantification over relevantly accessible worlds. Problems are well-known especially for dynamic and teleological modals, but solutions are typically tailored to one specific modal flavor. I propose a unified semantics in terms of plural existential quantification that derives stronger readings when actions under the control of a relevant agent are salient, but trivializes to the familiar compatibility semantics otherwise.