Herb,

I have wondered for some time if the verb "will" in the sentence:
"I will read the book" was temporal or modal. What do you think?

Eduard 




On Thu, 30 Mar 2006, Herbert F.W. Stahlke wrote...

>Bob,
>
>You're right, of course, that native speakers don't tend to be =
>historical linguists and that our theories of language much explain 
the =
>language as it is today.  Also, because of processes like analogy 
and =
>leveling, odd changes that happen by accident tend to either 
disappear, =
>get isolated to a few relic forms, or generalize.  In the latter 
case, =
>they become a part of the theory.  In the former they end up in the =
>lexicon.
>
>My objection to the CIV model as an explanation for the lack of 
overt =
>tense marking on modals, and Johanna is right that deontics tend to =
>behave more as if they have tense than do epistemics, is that it 
pretty =
>much ignores a very good historical reason for modals not to have 
tense =
>marking.  But then I tend to look more at historical relics in 
language =
>than at syntactic theory, an admitted weakness of mine. I find the =
>historical approach fits in better with sociolinguistic theory than 
does =
>a syntactic theory approach, to give a vastly over-broad 
generalization =
>about how I look at these problems.
>
>Herb
>
>
>
>=20
>A couple of points.
>
>Herb,
>I know that you have forgotten more about linguistics than I would 
ever
>know.  However, I am sure that users of the language today don't have
>knowledge of historical accidents.
>
>> I'm not sure whether I want to make a theoretical argument out  > 
of a
>historical accident.
>
>**************
>Martha's representation of the verb expansion rule is  a good 
example of
>how a description is a theory.=20
>
>*****
>  MV =3D T + (M) + (have + -en) + (be + -ing) + V
>
>This rule describes your comment that the first element in the verb
>string carries the tense (i.e., is the "finite" verb).
>
>An alternate version of this formula has a different opening slot:  a
>choice of T or M.
>
>******
>If (T) -- tense is separate from modals, then modals are without 
tense.=20
>That predicts a sentence like 1 is grammatical.
>
>1)  *Bob wants to can drink English.
>
>And, it needs to tell a story why (-s) does not go on to modals, but
>does on have and be. =20
>
>Martha's alternative (T or M) does not have these problems.=20
>
>Bob Yates
>Central Missouri State University
>
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