Discourse-Initial Too and Epistemic Modality Sumiyo Nishiguchi Tokyo University of Science

1. ELSJ Spring Forum 2011 Shizuoka University April 24, 2011 Discourse-Initial Too and Epistemic ModalitySumiyoNishiguchiTokyo University of Science Q: Why do discourse-initial too and mo “too” not require their antecedents? • Discourse-initial too • (2)It’s nice here, too. • has not been discussed so far • appears discourse-initially • uttered unexpectedly without sounding remotely peculiar • no antecedent • no contrastive focus • Proposal: discourse-initial toois • an epistemic necessity modal (epistemic must) • an emphatic marker, similar to indeed or really. • a sentential modal that associates with a whole proposition. • (5)[| too |] = lp<s, t>. lw.w’.[wRw’ -> p(w’) = 1] • (R: epistemic accessibility relation, w: possible world) • In all the worlds epistemically accessible from the actual world to the speaker, the proposition to which too is attached is true (Kratzer 1981). • Speaker believes that the proposition holds true. • The interpretation of (2) is true, if and only if the speaker believes that the location s/he is in is nice. • Japanese additive particle mo “too/also” • (4) #(Kyoto-wa i-shi,) • Kyoto-TOP good-and • Nara-mo ii. • Nara-also good • “Kyoto is good and so is Nara.” • Nara is contrasted with its antecedent Kyoto • Regularmo-sentences are felicitous only when they follow another sentence • Japanese discourse-initial mo ``too/also” • (3)Yo-mofuke-ta. • night-also grow-PAST • Mo neru-to shi-yo. • already sleep-COMP do-let’s • “It’s late, indeed. It’s time to go to bed.” • There is no antecedent for yo “night” • Yo“night” is not particularly contrasted with anything else • Romero and Han (2004) • Reallyand indeed are epistemic adverbs which express the speaker’s evaluations. • Nara is really good. • (6) is true if Nara is good in any of the speaker’s belief world. Given such a meaning, the sentential modal too should take higher scope over the proposition TP It T’ T MODALP is Modal PredP too PredPAdvP <is> AP here nice Conjunctive adverb too (1)Kyoto is nice. Nara is nice, too meaning of also felicitous only when it follows another sentence Kyoto is the antecedent for Nara • The syntactic structure of the expletive construction • Tooc-commands PredP in base position. • Niceand here are assumed to be raised higher so that too is spelled out in the lower position compared to them. • Numata(1986) attenuation • Teramura(1984) admiration • No discussion about discourse-initial behaviorof mo Conclusion: This paper presented an analysis of the novel use of too from semantic and syntactic perspectives