Date: Sun, 3 Jul 1994 12:30:20 CST

From: salikoko mufwene mufw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU

Subject: Re: Double modals in Utah



In Message Sat, 2 Jul 1994 15:27:24 CDT,

"Donald M. Lance" ENGDL%MIZZOU1.BITNET[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uicvm.uic.edu writes:



The way to check for 'modal status' is to see whether the verb would be

used in the indicative mood with no -s when the subject is 'he'.

George has said many things about modals.

?Need he say more?

?He need say no more.

?He dare not repeat the threat to be unresponsive.

*/?Dare he refuse to answer Sali's question?



Any sentence frame with a subject other than third person singular will not

serve as a good test for 'modal status' of the auxiliary. And the frame must

not be subjunctive. 'Dare' and 'need' act like modals only in rather

limited senses/situations.



So would you say they are regular verbs with limited modal uses, or would

you charaterize them as modal verbs with idiosyncratic regular verb

characteristics, or would you consider the alternative that function rather

than form determines whether or not a verb is modal?

Sali.

Salikoko S. Mufwene

Linguistics, U. of Chicago

s-mufwene[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uchicago.edu

312-702-8531