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Modal predicates

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Abstract

I propose a semantics for a class of English predicates characteristically associated with possibility. The central idea is that such predicates are typically associated with an ordering source, and that differences among them are due to differences in their ordering sources. The ‘dispositional predicates’ that have been central to philosophical discussions are shown to be derivable as a special case from this more general class.

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Maier, J. Modal predicates. Linguist and Philos 39, 443–457 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-016-9196-1

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