Past forms of modal verbs

often do not mark past time

Modal verbs and tense
Past tense forms of the modals,
particularly would and could, do
sometimes have reference to
past time

Qualifications proffered by speakers or

Epistemic writers regarding the level of certainty of a
proposition’s truth.
Deontic and epistemic
modality
Express their attitudes as to whether a proposition
Deontic relates to an obligatory situation or permissible one,
Modality or somewhere in between

May is a way of
encoding possibility.

Have to is one of the

ways that English has
for encoding necessity

The notions of necessity Tendency to have

Deontic - preferences, wishes,
Core modal meanings and possibility are human subjects and
Modality, scope and

requirements or
interlinked. recommendations form the activity or other non-
contextual presuppositions.
state verbs
quantification

Must not = necessarily Tendency to have non-

There are two operators –
Relative scope items that have scope – in
the same expression.
(not (X)) human subjects and
Epistemic - presuppositions state verbs
are propositions assumed to
Do not have to = not be facts
(necessarily (X)) Dynamic modality

Have to/Must =
necessarily (X)

The set-theoretical truth

Cardinal quantifiers condition is tied to just the
cardinality of a set

Number of elements in
Cardinality
the set

Quantification Depends on how the totality of X

Proportional quantifiers is split between an intersection
and a remainder

When two quantifiers, or a

quantifier and negation, are
present, there can be differences
in meaning attributable to relative No As are Bs. | A∩B|= 0
scope. (can)
Relative scope

Relation modals - At least one A is a B. 0 <

quantifiers | A∩B| (may, might)

All As are Bs. A⊆ B

(must, has to, will,
should, ought to)