Pragmatic Ambiguity: The Thetic Function of Modality

• Authors: Amedeo Conte , Paolo Di Lucia
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the pragmatic aspects of ambiguity present in deontic sentences, which may have three pragmatic functions: a prescriptive or a descriptive or a constitutive function. This type of ambiguity is investigated on the lexical, phrasal, and sentential level. The discussion focuses on the deontic constructions of the German verb sollen and the English shall as they are used in legal texts. It also includes comments on the thetic function of the Latin imperative mood and the subjunctive mood.

Keywords

EN

modality; deonticity; speech act; mood; ambiguity; pragmatics

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Journal: Lodz Papers in Pragmatics
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 191-199

Dates

published

2009-01-01

online

2010-01-06

Contributors

author

Amedeo Conte

• University of Pavia

author

Paolo Di Lucia

• University of Milan

References

• Amselek, Paul, ed. Théorie des Actes de Langage, Éthique et Droit. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1986.
• Bybee, Joan L. and William Pagliuca. The Evolution of Future Meaning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1987.
• Conte, Amedeo Giovanni. "Aspekte der Semantik der deontischen Sprache." In Deontische Logik und Semantik, edited by Amedeo Giovanni Conte, Risto Hilpinen and Georg Henrik von Wright, 59-73. Wiesbaden: Athenaion, 1977.
• Conte, Amedeo Giovanni. "Konstitutive Regeln und Deontik." In Ethik. Akten des Fünften Wittgenstein-Symposiums (Kirchberg am Wechsel 1980), edited by Edgar Morscher and Rudolf Stranzinger, 82-86. Wien: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1981.
• Conte, Amedeo Giovanni. "Ermeneutica dell'ambiguità." In Horizontes de la Hermenéutica, edited by Marcelino Agís Villaverde, 207-214. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 1998.
• Conte, Amedeo Giovanni. "Due specie di ambiguità nel linguaggio normativo. Ambiguità semantica vs. ambivalenza pragmatica." In Ricerche di filosofia del diritto, edited by Amedeo G. Conte, Paolo Di Lucia, Antonio Incampo, Giuseppe Lorini, Wojciech Zelaniec, and Lorenzo Passerini Glazel, 91-102. Turin: Giappichelli, 2006.
• Conte, Maria-Elisabeth. "Epistemico, deontico, anankastico." In From Pragmatics to Syntax. Modality in Second Language Acquisition, edited by Anna Giacalone Ramat and Grazia Crocco Galèas, 3-9. Tübingen: Narr, 1995.
• Daube, David. Forms of Roman Legislation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.
• Di Lucia, Paolo. L'universale della promessa. Milan: Giuffrè, 1997.
• Di Lucia, Paolo. "Sollen in Herbert Spiegelberg." In Linguistica giuridica/Rechtslinguistik, edited by Daniela Veronesi, 69-84. Padua: Unipress, 2000.
• Di Lucia, Paolo. Normatività. Diritto linguaggio azione. Turin: Giappichelli, 2003.
• Driedger, Elmer A. The Composition of Legislation. Legislative Forms and Precedents. Second edition. Ottawa: The Department of Justice, 1976.
• Eckhardt, Karl August. Sachsenspiegel. Quedlinburger Handschrift. Hannover, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1966.
• Eike von Repgow. Sachsenspiegel (Landrecht). Herausgegeben von Cl. Frhr. von Schwerin, Stuttgart: Reclam, 1987.
• Hedenius, Ingemar. Om rätt och moral. Stockholm: Tidens Förlag, 1941.
• Hilbert, David and Wilhelm Ackermann. Grundzüge der Theoretischen Logik. Vierte Auflage, Berlin: Springer, 1959.
• Lorini, Giuseppe, ed. Atto giuridico. Bari, Adriatica Editrice, 2000.
• Sigwart, Christoph. Logik. Fünfte durchgesehene Auflage. Tübingen: Narr, 1924.
• Spiegelberg, Herbert. Sollen und Dürfen. München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, (manuscript).
• Spiegelberg, Herbert. Gesetz und Sittengesetz. Strukturanalytische und historische Vorstudien zu einer gesetzesfreien Ethik. Zürich: Max Niehans, 1935.
• Spiegelberg, Herbert. Antirelativismus, Kritik des Relativismus und Skeptizismus der Werte und des Sollens. Zürich: Max Niehans, 1935.
• Spiegelberg, Herbert. "Zur Ontologie des idealen Sollens." Philosophisches Jahrbuch der Görres-Gesellschaft 66 (1958): 243-253.
• Spiegelberg, Herbert. Sollen und Dürfen. Philosophische Grundlagen der ethischen Rechte und Pflichten. Bearbeitet und herausgegeben von Karl Schuhmann. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1989.
• Spiegelberg, Herbert. "Rules and order. Toward a phenomenology of order." In The Grinnell Symposium, edited by Paul Kuntz, 290-308. Washington: Washington University Press, 1968.
• Watson, Alan. "The Imperatives of the Aedilician Edict." 1971. In: Studies in Roman Private Law, edited by Alan Watson, 333-343. London: The Hambledon Press, 1991, doi: 10.1163/157181971X00046.[Crossref]
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig. Bemerkungen über die Philosophie der Psychologie. Oxford: Blackwell, 1980.
• Wright, Georg Henrik von. Norm and Action. A Logical Enquiry. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963.
• Wright, Georg Henrik von. "Norms, truth and logic." In Practical Reason, edited by Georg Henrik von Wright, 130-209. Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10016-009-0009-7