Modality and Propositional Attitudes

By: Michael Hegarty

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Paperback | 28 March 2019

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Paperback
302 Pages

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22.86 x 15.24 x 1.6

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This book shows that the semantic analysis of modal notions of possibility and necessity can be used to enhance our understanding of the interpretation of reports of belief or emotional state. It introduces intuitive notation and terminology to express ideas in modern theories of modal interpretation that are normally represented in complex logical formulas, effectively updates the 1960s-era link between possible worlds and the semantics of propositional attitude ascriptions, and reconciles two disparate views of the role of events in semantic interpretation, that of Donald Davidson and that of David Lewis. It reduces a host of variable behaviors of propositional attitude ascription to an intuitive and precise distinction between ascriptions that merely express a commitment to propositional content versus ones that attribute a mental state to the holder of the propositional attitude. This leads to an explanation of the nature and effects of the language disorder of fluent aphasia.

Industry Reviews

'This is the most comprehensive survey of modality - a truly wide-ranging reappraisal of this most difficult field of modern linguistics.' Werner Abraham
'Michael Hegarty's book, Modality and Propositional Attitudes, provides an up-to-date and fully detailed account of the semantics of modality, providing new demonstration in support of the view argued for by Kratzer (1981, 1991) that modal statements involve quantification over possible worlds, as well as considering recent developments and answers to criticism illustrated in Kratzer (2012).' Eugenio Goria, The Linguist List (linguistlist.org)
'Hegarty's text is unique in a number of ways ... the book is well worth the journey ... for those who question the empirical scientific import of formal semantics,this book also serves as a powerful testimony to the viability of the field and its formalisms.' Ryan Mark Nefdt, The Linguist List (linguistlist.org)

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