Invariantist ‘might’ and modal meaning change

Author(s)
Yanovich, Igor
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Abstract
Invariantism proposed by Braun (Linguistics and Philosophy 35(6):461–489, 2012) aims to maintain full identity of semantic content between all uses of ‘might’. I invoke well-known facts regarding diachronic change in meanings of modals to argue that invariantism commits us to implausible duplication of familiar processes of lexical semantic change on the level of “lexical pragmatics”, with no obvious payoff.
Date issued
2013-07
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85850
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Journal
Linguistics and Philosophy
Citation
Yanovich, Igor. “Invariantist ‘might’ and Modal Meaning Change.” Linguist and Philos 36, no. 2 (April 2013): 175–180.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0165-0157
1573-0549
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