| Abstract [eng] |
This dissertation deals with semantics of modality in general and semantics of the Norwegian modal verbs in particular. My lead-off assumption is that modality deals with people’s attitude towards the trustworthiness of propositions (epistemic attitude) and the presence or absence of obstacles for a state of affairs to occur (non-epistemic attitude). I distinguish between neutral and non-neutral attitude on the one hand and between simple and complex attitude on the other. Neutral attitude means that, in the speaker’s view (or someone else’s view, if the speaker is reporting others’ attitude), there are no obstacles to accept a proposition as correct or a state of affairs as likely to occur. However, the speaker may equally accept that the same proposition may turn out to be incorrect, or the same state of affairs may turn out not to be worth to occur. In either case, no conflict will arise between the speaker’s beliefs (expectations) and the reality. Non-neutral attitude means that the speaker only is willing to accept a proposition as correct, or a state of affairs as likely to occur. If the proposition turns out to be incorrect, or the state of affairs turns out not to be likely to occur, a conflict arises between the speaker’s beliefs (expectations) and reality. At the same time, the speaker may signal that other participants may have different attitudes than her own, which does not mean that the speaker is unsure about her own attitude. I use the terms simple and complex attitude to distinguish between cases where the speaker in her utterance expresses only her own non-neutral attitude without admitting any alternative attitudes (simple), and cases where she expresses her own non-neutral attitude at the same time as she signals in the same utterance that other participants may have a different attitude towards the status of the target of attitude (complex). The notion of complex attitude is a major feature of this study. Then I apply this model on the Norwegian modal verbs KUNNE, MÅTTE, SKULLE, VILLE and BURDE. I argue that the present tense form kan typically expresses neutral attitude, while the present tense forms må, skal and vil typically express non-neutral simple attitude. The present tense form bør typically expresses non-neutral complex attitude, as does the preterite form burde. The preterite forms skulle and ville may be used with non-temporal meaning, to transform a non-neutral simple attitude into complex attitude. |
