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영어

Modal expressions such as CAN and V-(u)l-swu iss ‘can’ are ambiguously interpreted. That is, The English modal can is ambiguous between a root modal (i.e., RM) reading denoting an ability/capability reading and an epistemic modal (i.e., EM) reading denoting a possibility/probability reading. In the same vein, The modal external negation disambiguates the modal reading: only the RM reading survives, while the EM reading is suppressed. The embedded focus bearing element in the EM reading cannot bear a presupposed interpretation in spec-C, since the plain topic cannot be compatible with the embedded spec-C. Thus, the focus bearing element between an interrogative C and wh-in-situ in the EM reading always induces the intervention effect. More importantly, when the nun-marked subject occurs in the modal V-(u)l-swu iss ‘can’ context, only the RM reading survives. That is, the plain topic plays an important role that disambiguates the modal reading. This leads us to believe that the real reason why the modal external negation context induces the sentence to only bear the RM reading is because the subject in such a context plays a topic. It logically follows that the subject in the modal external negation context such as V-(u)l-swu eps ‘cannot’ should be a topic, which always induces the intervention effect to be cancelled.