The Furdalian concept of ‘open linguistics’ exemplified with an investigation into the semantic field of English possibility modals
The Furdalian concept of ‘open linguistics’ exemplified with an investigation into the semantic field of English possibility modals

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the paper is to present its author’s view on the Furdalian (1977) concept of open linguistics and exemplify it with an investigation into linguistic modality. The author applies concepts and research tools from philosophy and logic in order to explain phenomena pertaining to the semantics of English modals: can, could, may and might. The described study uses the model of the semantic field of modal expressions (Kratzer 1991) and authentic samples of language use excerpted from The Corpus of Contemporary American English. The analysis establishes the conversational backgrounds that underlie the modal readings of the studied verbs and confirms the interactions of possibility modals with the imperfective and the perfect, which yield the epistemic flavor. It also reports on the interaction of possibility modals with negation, which leads to changes in the modal force.

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