Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T00:15:39.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What is modal about I thought that…?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2005

RENAAT DECLERCK  and
SUSAN REED
RENAAT DECLERCK
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Campus Kortrijk, E. Sabbelaan 53, B-8500 Kortrijk, Belgiumrenaat.declerck@kulak.ac.besusan.reed@kulak.ac.be
SUSAN REED
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Campus Kortrijk, E. Sabbelaan 53, B-8500 Kortrijk, Belgiumrenaat.declerck@kulak.ac.besusan.reed@kulak.ac.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Some nonmodal tense forms (e.g. thought) can trigger one or two kinds of modal interpretation, viz. suspended factuality (implicating present counterfactuality) of the complement clause (I thought you weren't married) or discourse tentativeness (I thought you might lend me your camera). The authors explain how this nonmodal use of the past tense – the thinking is represented as a past fact – can lead to one of these modal interpretations of the complement clause. In doing so they discuss various observations in connection with these and other I thought that…constructions and similar uses of other past-tense and past-perfect forms.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , November 2005 , pp. 311 - 332
Copyright
Cambridge University Press 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We wish to thank the anonymous referees of ELL for their useful comments on the first draft of this article.