Modal Categories of the Portuguese Grammar in the Mirror of Logical Analysis - II

This publication is the second part of the paper dedicated to the aspects of the logical analysis of the grammatical modality forms in the Portuguese language. The first part deals with the general nature of the modality in speech and language, distinguishing two levels of modality in language – a nominal and a verbal one − and seeing how they are embedded in the morphology of the Portuguese language. This part distinguishes and analyses the modi of the predicative modality in Portuguese. Several Portuguese grammatical examples are given to prove the extent to which the Portuguese verbal morphology corresponds to the logical conditions of the contextual truth of a sentence in accordance with the classical formal logic and the modern modal logic. Two kinds of modal predicative taxis are distinguished: an independent and a dependent one. The independent modal taxis operates on the basis of the laws of the classical formal logic that regulate the coordination of truth functions of the correlative sentences in the context. The modes of coordination in the independent modal taxis express one of the three kinds of logical relation between sentences: contrariety, sub-contrariety, and contradiction. The dependent modal taxis is governed by the principles of the intensional (modal) logic that determine the subordination of the dependent clause in its truth modality to the main clause. The truth modal subordination of the dependent clause to the main clause is based on the deontic opposition between the real and the possible worlds. The paper gives a logical explanation why, in Portuguese, not only the virtual, but also the real events (objective facts) are designated by the forms of subjunctive (i.e. conditionally untrue forms) tenses. Respectively, the independent modal taxis is defined as coordinative, and the dependent modal taxis is defined as subordinative one. The paper may be of interest to specialists in general linguistics, logical analysis of language, theoretical grammar, Romance languages and the Portuguese language studies.

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