Abstract
This paper analyzes a verbal periphrasis in European Portuguese (EP) and Italian (I), formed by a verb meaning ‘to end’, a ‘by’-preposition and a verb in the infinitive form (V). We show that this periphrasis—for short, [end by V]—behaves differently from the aspectual terminative periphrasis formed with the verb end , by focusing on three semantic criteria. We argue that the meaning of [end by V] involves a specific type of epistemic modality related to expectation. We compare the periphrasis with the discourse particles afinal (EP) and alla fine (I), both etymologically related to a form meaning ‘end’, which can also express expectation-related modality and have been analyzed as epistemic modal operators sensitive to a temporal succession of epistemic states (Amaral and Del Prete 2016, 2017). To account for the semantic properties of [end by V], we propose a formal analysis of this periphrasis in which the ‘end’-verb, combined with the ‘by’-preposition, selects a property of eventualities P as argument and presupposes the existence of a sequence of events s →. The periphrasis makes a twofold semantic contribution: (i) it asserts that a P -eventuality occurs at the end of the sequence s →, and (ii) it implies that the occurrence of the P -eventuality at the end of s → is ranked below some alternative outcome on a likelihood/preference scale. We discuss the implications of our analysis for the study of epistemic modality. EARLY ACCESS
Highlights
In this paper we focus on a Romance verbal periphrasis formed by a verb meaning ‘to end’ followed by a ‘by’-preposition and a verb in the infinitive, V
Before we provide a formal account of the semantics of [end by V], we need to make a distinction between two kinds of epistemic attitudes, as they are relevant for the interpretations we obtain and they bear on the difference between the periphrasis and the modal particles afinal/alla fine
In this paper we demonstrated that the periphrasis [end by V] in European Portuguese (EP) and I is not aspectual but rather a periphrasis contributing expectation-related modality
Summary
In this paper we focus on a Romance verbal periphrasis formed by a verb meaning ‘to end’ followed by a ‘by’-preposition and a verb in the infinitive, V. We show that in European Portuguese and Italian [end by V] has a modal implication, related to the propositional attitude of expectation. The related concept of Truth Unpersistence (∼TP) has been proposed to account for the epistemic interpretation of the particles alla fine (I)/afinal (EP) (Amaral & Del Prete 2016, 2017) These particles convey an epistemic change: a proposition that was either expected or believed to be true at some point in time turns out to be false at a subsequent point in time. This comparison will bring to light that there is a crucial semantic difference between the periphrasis and the particles: the former conveys expectation-related modality, whereas the latter convey both belief-related modality and expectation-related modality. We conclude by discussing the implications of our work to studies on epistemic modality and the linguistic encoding of epistemic change
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