Gradable epistemic modals, probability, and scale structure

By Daniel Lassiter. 2010

91 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The epistemic modals possible, probable, likely, and certain require a semantics which explains their behavior both as modal operators and as gradable adjectives. An analysis of these items in terms of Kennedy & McNally's theory of gradability suggests that they are associated with a single, fully closed scale of possibility. An implementation using the standard theory of modality due to Kratzer is shown to make incorrect predictions in several domains. However, if the scale of possibility is identified with standard numerical probability, the facts about gradability are explained and the undesirable predictions of Kratzer's theory are avoided.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Language and Linguistics, Philosophy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5b499411cd5afe03d7b23b1b7703f71af2699eed

How researchers see this paper

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In Artificial Intelligence

1. Pranav Anand
2. Valentine Hacquard
3. Alda Mari
4. Anastasia Giannakidou

In Language and Linguistics

1. Pranav Anand
2. Valentine Hacquard
3. Alda Mari
4. Anastasia Giannakidou

In Philosophy

1. Pranav Anand
2. Valentine Hacquard
3. Alda Mari
4. Anastasia Giannakidou

Citations in the corpus

• Epistemics and attitudes (2013, background): “23 Yalcin (2010) and Lassiter (2010) both note that the better possibility relation in Kratzer 1991 results in questionable inferences when measures should be additive, as is arguably the case for likelihood measures.”