A unified analysis of the future as epistemic modality the view from Greek and Italian

Anastasia Giannakidou (1) , Alda Mari (2)

1 University of Chicago
2 IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod

We offer an analysis of the Greek and Italian future morphemes as epistemic modal operators. The main empirical motivation comes from the fact that future morphemes have systematic purely epistemic readings-not only in Greek and Italian, but also in Dutch, German, and En-glish will. The existence of epistemic readings suggests that the future expressions quantify over epistemic, not metaphysical alternatives. We provide a unified analysis for epistemic and predic-tive readings as epistemic necessity, and the shift between the two is determined compositionally by the lower tense. Our account thus acknowledges a systematic interaction between modality and tense-but the future itself is a pure modal, not a mixed temporal/modal operator. We show that the modal base of the future is nonveridical, i.e. it includes p and ¬p worlds, parallel to epistemic modals such as must, and present arguments that future morphemes have much in common with epistemic modals and predicates of personal taste. We identify, finally, a subclass of epistemic futures which are ratificational, and argue that will is a member of this class.

Mots clés: future; prediction; epistemic modality; MUST; (non)veridicality; predicates of personal taste; tense; denial; being wrong

Anastasia Giannakidou, Alda Mari. A unified analysis of the future as epistemic modality the view from Greek and Italian. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 2018, 36 (1), pp.85-129. ⟨10.1007/s11049-017-9366-z⟩. ⟨ijn_02194772⟩