Title: Anticipative and Ethic Modalities: Japanese Hazu and Beki
Abstract: The Japanese modals hazu and beki respectively correspond to alleged weak epistemic and deontic necessity readings of English ought. I propose a novel analysis of weak necessity as generic as opposed to the individual modality of both strong necessity and possibility modals, using ingredients from extant analysis of modality in a possible-world framework. On my view, the modal flavor of hazu is anticipative, replacing the epistemic modal base with a circumstantial one, that of beki ethic, differing from deontic modality in that its replaces individuated with idealistic norms. Both share the absence of agent-variables in the conversational background, which distinguishes them from individual modals. I conclude that the view from Japanese with its articulated and unambiguous modal inventory explains the strong/weak necessity distinction better than extant analyses.
Publication Year: 2020
Publication Date: 2020-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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