LINGUIST List 5.1179

Tue 25 Oct 1994

Sum: Modality

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Dear Netters,
 I posted two inqueries on "modality" on behalf of a collegue of mine
several weeks ago. The following are his summary.

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 On September 19th I asked two different queries about modality. The
next day I got six e-mails. Thank you very much for answering my
questions.
 As to _(im)possible_, Prof. Crouch and Prof. Cowan say that both
adjectives do not express possibility in the construction 'It be (im)-
possible for NP to VP'. But this is not the case. As Prof. Hilton cor-
rectly points out, in the construction mentioned above _(im)possible_
can express possibility, especially a general possibility. Here are
three examples given by Prof. Spackman and Prof. Ulicny.
 (1) It is possible for lines to cross.
 (2) It is impossible for rats to fly.
 (3) It is possible for computers to have better chess skills than
 people.
 To my surprise, Prof. Cowan and Prof. Kiesling say that the construc-
tion 'It be impossible that S' sounds strange. However, there are two
examples where "impossible" is followed by _that_-clause, as in;
 (4) It's impossible that he forgot our meeting: he must have stayed
 away on purpose. (taken from _Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
 English_)
 (5) "I have memorized it," Noelle replied.
 he stared at her in disbelief. It was imposible that she could
 have learned the entire part in only three days. (taken from
 _The Other Side of Midnight_ written by Sidney Sheldon)
According to my American consultant, examples (4) and (5) are perfectly
acceptable.
 As to _must not_ and _mustn't_, most people say that _must not_ can
be used in an epistemic sense, but _mustn't_ cannot be. According to
Prof. Cowan and Prof. Kiesling, when _must not_ is employed epistemical-
ly, _not_ instead of _must_ should be stressed. Eastwood (1994) claims
that _mustn't_ is American usage, but in contrast, Prof. Kiesling and
Prof. Ulicny assert that it is British usage.
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 If you have any comments or questions about his summary, please
contact me directly.

Sincerely,
Hiroaki Tanaka,
Tokushima University, Japan.
e-mail: GCA001363niftyserve.or.jp