Mood / Paul Portner
- Author
- Portner, Paul
- Published
- Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2018.
- Edition
- First edition.
- Physical Description
- vi, 282 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.
- Series
- Contents
- Machine generated contents note: 1.Introduction -- 1.1.What do we study when we study mood? -- 1.1.1.Conceptual preliminaries -- 1.1.2.The general concept of mood -- 1.2.Main findings about the nature of mood -- 1.3.Background on modality -- 1.3.1.Classifications of modality -- 1.3.2.Modality in possible worlds semantics -- 1.4.The flow of information in discourse -- 1.4.1.The dynamic approach -- 1.4.2.Speech act theory -- 1.4.3.Update potential and illocutionary force -- 1.5.Looking ahead -- 2.Verbal mood -- 2.1.Subsentential modality -- 2.2.Indicative and subjunctive -- 2.2.1.Ideas about the indicative/subjunctive contrast -- 2.2.2.Semantic theories of verbal mood in complement clauses -- 2.2.3.Clauses which are not complements to a selecting predicate -- 2.3.Beyond verbal core mood -- 2.3.1.Other mood-indicating forms -- 2.3.2.The roles of semantics, syntax, and non-grammatical factors -- 3.Sentence mood -- 3.1.Sentence mood, clause type, and sentential force -- 3.1.1.Clause types as grammatical categories -- 3.1.2.Sentential forces as pragmatic categories -- 3.1.3.The syntax/sentence mood interface -- 3.2.Sentence mood in speech act theory -- 3.2.1.The performative hypothesis -- 3.2.2.Adjustments to classical speech act theory -- 3.2.3.The dynamic force hypothesis in speech act theory -- 3.3.Sentence mood in the dynamic approach -- 3.3.1.Declaratives in the dynamic approach -- 3.3.2.Interrogatives in the dynamic approach -- 3.3.3.Imperatives in the dynamic approach -- 3.3.4.Minor types: optatives and exclamatives -- 3.4.Theories of clause type systems and sentence mood -- 3.4.1.Clause type systems in speech act theory -- 3.4.2.Clause type systems in the dynamic approach -- 3.4.3.Other properties of clause type systems -- 3.5.Looking ahead -- 4.Core mood, reality status, and evidentiality -- 4.1.Prospects for a unified theory of core mood -- 4.2.Reality status and evidentiality -- 4.2.1.Reality status -- 4.2.2.Evidentiality -- 4.2.3.Final remarks.
- Summary
- This book presents the essential background for understanding semantic theories of mood. 'Mood' as a category is widely used in the description of languages and the formal analysis of their grammatical properties. It typically refers to the features of a sentence-individual morphemes or grammatical patterns-that reflect how the sentence contributes to the modal meaning of a larger phrase, or that indicate the type of fundamental pragmatic function that it has in conversation. In this volume, Paul Portner discusses the most significant semantic theories relating to the two main subtypes of mood: verbal mood, including the categories of indicative and subjunctive subordinate clauses, and sentence mood, encompassing declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives. He evaluates those theories, compares them, and draws connections between seemingly disparate approaches, and he formalizes some of the literature's most important ideas in new ways in order to draw out their most significant insights.0Ultimately, this work shows that there are crucial connections between verbal mood and sentence mood which point the way towards a more general understanding of how mood works and its relation to other topics in linguistics; it also outlines the type of semantic and pragmatic theory which will make it possible to explain these relations. The book will be a valuable resource for researchers and students from advanced undergraduate level upwards in the fields of semantics and pragmatics, philosophy, computer science, and psychology.
- Subject(s)
- ISBN
- 019954753X
9780199547531
9780199547524
0199547521
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