Cognitive constraints on modality : an Artificial Language Learning study ...

• Main Authors: Maldonado, Mora, Marie-Léa Le Clainche
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: OSF Registries 2024
• Subjects: Linguistics; FOS Languages and literature; Typological Linguistics and Linguistic Diversity; Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics; Social and Behavioral Sciences; Koryak
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17605/osf.io/8a37q; https://osf.io/8a37q/

Semantic research has recognized two main axes of variation in modal meanings: force (quantification strength) and flavour (the type of quantified possibilities). Interestingly, there is substantial cross-linguistic variation in how these two axes are specified: many languages (e.g., English, German) only distinguish modal force, some languages (e.g., St'át'imcets, Nez Perce) have modals that specify flavour but not force, and others have modals that serve to express both force and flavor (e.g., Javanese Paciran) or neither one (e.g., Washo; Koryak). Different constraints have been proposed to capture this cross-linguistic variation in modal expression. Here, we explore a constraint that proposes that the force and flavor of a modal are two distinct properties that need to be treated as independent axes of meaning or natural clssses (Steinert-Threlkeld et al 2023). Modals can express different combinations of force and flavor, but if a modal expresses two combinations of flavor and force (e.g. deontic ...