By Modals, Analogies

Interlude II I agree with your conclusion, apart from #1, which I feel is epistemic. There's sometimes a Necker cube effect, with isolated sentences. Both epistemic and deontic contexts may be possible for an utterance; and both epistemic and deontic elements may be present in a context (indeed,...

I don't think the "opportunity" meaning of "to get to do something" enters into this question, but rather "I've got to do something" meaning "I have to do something". I think that maybe only the British use the past tense of "I've got to do it": "I had got to do it" = "I had to do it". And...

1. 'Last week, I may go sailing.' I find this sentence baffling: it seems to contradict itself. The contradiction seems to reside in the opposition of 'may' and 'last week'. I myself would describe this as a conflict of context (past) and tense (non-past). How would you describe it? The...

Hello Equivocal, welcome to English Forums. It will take me a little time to read through and understand the implications of your posts, which look very interesting. In the meantime, I'd also be interested in your thoughts on the following: 1. 'Last week, I may go sailing.' I find this...

Hello JT Hello Mr P. 1. If it's a 'variant', it's a variant on a norm. What would the 'norm' be here? JT: You've got this all messed up, Mr P. But I knew where you were going with this miles ago. You're still making the same error that is common to prescriptivists, making innacurate...

The parking lot can park a lot of cars. Your focus on "can" is throwing you off the track. The problem lies with the verb "park". "park" is the verb which requires an animate agent, not "can"! A parking lot ('car park' in British English) cannot move the car into a parking space. That is why...