Modalité, typologie et cognition : la construction devoir + INFINITIF comme périphrase future et évidentielle

Abstract

ABSTRACT To pay homage to the memory of Michael Herslund we will examine the hypothesis that the French modal verb devoir + Infinitive can be seen as an evidential future periphrasis from a typological perspective in uses such as La pluie doit s’abattre sur une bonne partie du pays (‘The rain will pour down on a good part of the country’). More specifically, we will scrutinize the cases where devoir is in the Present, the inflectional Future and the Conditional. On the basis of recent authentic material it will be contended that evidentiality in these cases is reportive.