Reportative evidentials and modal subordination

Abstract

Modal subordination is the phenomenon whereby a proposition in the scope of a modal expression is semantically subordinated to a proposition in the scope of another modal expression in a preceding sentence. This paper discusses to what extent reportative evidentials participate in modal subordination by describing and analyzing the modal subordination behavior of the German modal verb sollen in its reportative use. In doing so it contributes, indirectly, to the ongoing discussion in the literature on whether evidentials are a subcategory of epistemic modals, providing further evidence for the position that not all evidentials have an epistemic meaning component. It is shown that reportative sollen licenses modal subordination in first position, but can itself not be subordinated. This is explained by analyzing it as taking an informational rather than a realistic modal base (which is what epistemic modals combine with). While sollen cannot be subordinated, it nevertheless licenses inter-sentential anaphoric dependencies for anaphora in its scope when it occurs in second position, a property that is usually taken to be evidence for modal subordination. The paper puts forth the hypothesis that this is made possible by sollen being interpreted in coordination with the first modal, instead of subordination.