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Lucia Black
Romance Languages, Linguistics

Eric Pederson, Mentor

Propositional Modality and Cognition:
An Exploration into the Role of Force Dynamics in Epistemic Reasoning

The idea that force dynamics is cognitively operative in the deontic domain is generally accepted. This paper examines the role of force dynamics and the metaphor of force in linking the deontic and epistemic domains in English. It provides a selective overview of the theoretical claims about propositional modality and force dynamics, and of the diachronic and language acquisition research linking polysemous forms (deontic and epistemic modal auxiliaries). The experiment designed for this paper aims to strengthen the claim that force dynamics is operative in epistemic reasoning as well. Participants were given tasks involving varying degrees of inferential pressure and given a choice of auxiliaries of varying degrees of epistemicity. Generally, high inference tasks correlated with participants choosing an epistemic modal of high certainty, and low inference tasks correlated with the choice of epistemic modal of lower certainty. Limitations of note include the small sample size and the inclusion of negation and some less-used auxiliaries as choices. Participants’ varying understanding of the task presented and varying levels of self-confidence also was brought to bear in their subjective choice of modal auxiliary.