37.9, Calls: Languages - "Special Issue: Linguistic Modality and Mood" (Jrnl)
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Subject: 37.9, Calls: Languages - "Special Issue: Linguistic Modality and Mood" (Jrnl)
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Date: 23-Dec-2025
From: Alda Mari [alda.mari at cnrs.fr]
Subject: Languages - "Special Issue: Linguistic Modality and Mood" (Jrnl)
Journal: Languages
Issue: Linguistic Modality and Mood
In the past few decades, and since Kratzer’s seminar work in the later
70s Kratzer (1977, 1981, 1991), the phenomenon of modality has
received substantial attention in linguistic theory— especially in
formal semantics and the syntax- semantics interface, and recently
also in experimental semantics-pragmatics (e.g. Phillips and Knobe
(2017); Liu et al. (2021)). Modality generally refers to the
expression of a speaker’s reduced commitment towards to the truth of
the propositional content (De Haan (1999); Aikhenvald and Dixon
(2014); Matthewson (2013); Giannakidou and Mari (2016); Krifka
(2024)), and common types include epistemic and deontic modality, but
also teleological and bouletic modality, called jointly directive
modality Giannakidou and Mari (2021, 2026), as well as ability
modality (Portner (2008) uses the label ‘priority modality’).
The truth of modal sentences relies on establishing conditions under
which the sentential content could, would, should or must be true (see
eg. Von Fintel and Iatridou (2007)). Per definition, since modal
sentences are not factual, they are nonveridical, which means that
modal sentences convey, to varying degree, uncertainty about the
propositional content, as has been recognized in recent work, for
instance in the form of the Nonveridicality Axiom (Giannakidou (1998);
Giannakidou and Mari (2018b, 2021), see also the Diversity Condition
of Condoravdi (2002)). For this reason, Karttunen (1972) called modal
verbs, ‘weak’. The Nonveridicality Axiom has been proposed as a
presupposition of linguistic modality, and it says that when a modal
expression is used the speaker entertains two possibilities: p and its
negation. In other words, when a speaker chooses to modalize a
sentence, the hearer is entitled to conclude that the speaker does not
know that the prejacent proposition p is true.
There are various ways languages encode modality: with modal verbs,
ad- verbs, particles, or mood morphemes. The phenomenon of mood
choice— typically a choice between the subjunctive and the indicative—
is a case in point. Various theories have been proposed through the
years, from realis vs. irrealis to preferential ordering and
(non)veridicality to explain it (see Giannakidou and Mari (2021) for
the most recent articulation of the latter; also Farkas (1985); Giorgi
and Pianesi (1997); Godard (2012); Gosselin (2015); Portner (2018);
Bove (2020); Baunaz and Pusk´as (2022); Marques (2024)).
The subjunctive/indicative divide characterizes many European
languages, and tells us a lot about the nature of the propositional
attitude verbs (Anand and Hacquard, 2008; Grano, 2017; Giannakidou and
Mari, 2021). However, it is by no means confined to those. Matthewson
(2010) is a landmark work on the subjunctive of Salish languages, and
mood distinctions do occur in almost all of the world’s languages,
often interacting with the tense, aspect, and evidential systems of
individual languages.
Mood morphemes can come in the form of verbal suffixes but also as
independent particles or adverbs, and typically manifest a dependency
on the higher verb, or other element, that selects them. The use of
subjunctive morphemes in unselected positions (e.g. in questions, with
modal verbs) exhibits the property often recognized as modal spread
Giannakidou and Mari (2018a); Liu et al. (2021); Krifka (2024); Mari
(2024)), i.e. a manifestation of multiple exponents of modality in the
same clause.
In this volume, we welcome contrastive and comparative analyses of
languages or language varieties on the issues of mood, modality and
the role of particles, adverbs and mood morphemes. Topics include, but
are not restricted to:
- Foundational issues such as mood selection patterns, flexible mood
choice.
- Interactions between mood morphemes and the tense/aspect system of
languages.
- Interaction between mood, modality and evidentiality.
- The role of modal adverbs in modal spread and independently.
- Crosslinguistic variation in the types of marking involved for mood
and modality.
- Non-canonical uses of modal and mood elements such as appearing in
questions.
- The role of the QUD in mood choice.
We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors
ini- tially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words
summarizing their intended contribution to alda.mari at cnrs.fr and
giannaki at uchicago.edu
Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of
ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full
manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.
Completion Schedule:
Abstract submission deadline: February 15th, 2026
Notification of abstract acceptance: February 30th 2026
Paper submission: September 15th 2026
All fees have been waived.
References:
Aikhenvald, A. Y. and Dixon, R. (2014). The grammar of knowledge: a
cross linguistic typology. Oxford University Press.
Anand, P. and Hacquard, V. (2008). Epistemics with attitude. In
Semantics and linguistic theory, pages 37–54.
Baunaz, L. and Pusk ́as, G. (2022). Subjunctive and complementizers.
In A Cross-linguistic Approach to the Syntax of Subjunctive Mood,
pages 163–193. Springer.
Bove, K. P. (2020). Mood selection in yucatec Spanish: Veridicality as
the trigger. Lingua, 240:102858.
Condoravdi, C. (2002). Temporal interpretation of modals: Modals for
the present and for the past. In The construction of meaning. D.
Beaver, Luis D. Cassillas Maritinez, Brady Z. Clark, S. Kaufmann
(eds.).
De Haan, F. (1999). Evidentiality and epistemic modality : setting
boundaries.
Southwets Journal of Linguistics.
Farkas, D. (1985). Intensional descriptions and the Romance
subjunctive mood.
Garland Pub, New York.
Giannakidou, A. (1998). Polarity sensitivity as (non) veridical
dependency. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Giannakidou, A. and Mari, A. (2016). Epistemic future and epistemic
must: Nonveridicality, evidence, and partial knowledge. In Mood,
Aspect, Modality Revisited. New answers to old questions, ed. by
Blaszack, J. et al., University of Chicago Press, pages 75–124.
Giannakidou, A. and Mari, A. (2018a). The semantic roots of positive
polarity: epistemic modal verbs and adverbs in English, Greek and
Italian. Linguistics and Philosophy, 41(6):623–664.
Giannakidou, A. and Mari, A. (2018b). A unified analysis of the future
as epistemic modality: The view from Greek and Italian. Natural
Language & Linguistic Theory, 36:85–129.
Giannakidou, A. and Mari, A. (2021). Truth and veridicality in grammar
and thought: Mood, modality, and propositional attitudes. University
of Chicago Press.
Giannakidou, A. and Mari, A. (2026). Modal Sentences. Cambridge
University Press.
Giorgi, A. and Pianesi, F. (1997). Tense and Aspect. From Semantics to
Morphosyntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Godard, D. (2012). Indicative and subjunctive mood in complement
clauses: from formal semantics to grammar writing. Empirical issues in
syntax and semantics, 9:129–148.
Gosselin, L. (2015). Sémantisme modal du verbe recteur et choix du
mode de la complétive. Lexique 22, 223-246
Grano, T. (2017). The logic of intention reports. Journal of
Semantics, 34(4):587–632.
Karttunen, L. (1972). Possible and must. In Syntax and Semantics
Volume 1, pages 1–20.
Kratzer, A. (1977). What ”must” and ”can” must and can mean.
Linguistics and philosophy, 1:337–355.
Kratzer, A. (1981). The notional category of modality. In H. J.
Eikmeyer H. Rieser (eds.) Words, Worlds, and Contexts. New Approaches
in Word Semantics, pages 38–74. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Kratzer, A. (1991). Modality. In von Stechow, A. and Wunderlich, D.,
editors, Semantics: An international handbook of contemporary
research.
Krifka, M. (2024). Structure and interpretation of declarative
sentences. Journal of Pragmatics, 226:51–63.
Liu, M., Rotter, S., and Giannakidou, A. (2021). Bias and modality in
conditionals: Experimental evidence and theoretical implications.
Journal of psycholinguistic research, 50(6).
Mari, A. (2024). Scope ambiguities in future questions: reflection and
queclamative with italian mica. In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung
28.
Marques, R. (2024). Explaining the subjunctive in factive contexts.
Isogloss, 10(2):1–27.
Matthewson, L. (2010). Cross-linguistic variation in modality systems:
The role of mood. Semantics and Pragmatics, 3:1–74.
Matthewson, L. (2013). Gitksan modals. International Journal of
American Linguistics, 79(3).
Phillips, J. and Knobe, J. (2017). The psychological representation of
modality. Mind & Language, 32(3):256–279.
Portner, P. (2008). Modality. OUP Oxford.
Portner, P. (2018). Mood. Oxford University Press.
Von Fintel, K. and Iatridou, S. (2007). Anatomy of a modal
construction. Linguistic Inquiry, 38(3):445–483.
Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis
Pragmatics
Psycholinguistics
Semantics
Text/Corpus Linguistics
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