Grading Modality: A New Approach to Modal Concord and its Relatives

Abstract

This paper addresses modal matching configurations, i.e. constructions where two modal elements co-occur in a sentence but modal force is only expressed once. It shows that the co-occurring elements only need to match in logical strength (e.g. necessity combines with impossibility) and do not have to match in modal force. It argues that previous approaches to modal matching (specifically: to modal concord), such as Geurts & Huitink (2006) and Zeijlstra (2008), cannot account for such matching in strength. A new approach to modal matching is presented, which treats it as degree modification over gradable modals, solving this puzzle: The matching requirement is argued to be a polarity presupposition on the modal degree modifier. The paper concludes by extending the analysis to the German particles ruhig, bloß and JA (see Grosz to appear).