German modal verbs

This file defines the German modal verbs as auxiliaries cited by their infinitives: dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen and wollen, and the Konjunktiv II sollte. On Kratzer's analysis a modal has a fixed force and a flavor that the context supplies, so that its meanings are the products of its force with a set of flavors, and Steinert-Threlkeld, Imel and Guo give German as a language whose modals specify force but not flavor. können expresses ability, the possibility that something is so, and in colloquial German permission; dürfen permission; mögen possibility, in formal registers; müssen necessity or compulsion and logical deduction; sollen obligation; wollen desire or intention. sollte expresses a possible obligation and logical probability, 'should' or 'ought to', and is listed apart from sollen for its weaker force. The senses are Durrell's.

Implementation notes

The senses are read as flavors in the usual way: ability as circumstantial, permission and obligation as deontic, possibility, deduction and probability as epistemic, and desire as bouletic. Senses that are not flavors are left out: the liking of mögen, the intention and prediction of sollen, and the reports of sollen and claims of wollen, which are evidential. The probability that dürfen expresses in its Konjunktiv II dürfte belongs to that form and is not a sense of dürfen.

References

• [Dur11]
• [Kra81b]
• [STIG23]

def German.Modals.duerfen : Auxiliary

dürfen 'may, be allowed to' is a deontic possibility modal.

Equations

• German.Modals.duerfen = { form := "dürfen", modality := {Modality.ModalForce.possibility} ×ˢ {Modality.ModalFlavor.deontic} }

def German.Modals.koennen : Auxiliary

können 'can' is a possibility modal of ability, of epistemic possibility and, colloquially, of permission.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

def German.Modals.moegen : Auxiliary

mögen 'may' is an epistemic possibility modal.

Equations

• German.Modals.moegen = { form := "mögen", modality := {Modality.ModalForce.possibility} ×ˢ {Modality.ModalFlavor.epistemic} }

def German.Modals.muessen : Auxiliary

müssen 'must, have to' is a necessity modal of obligation and of logical deduction.

Equations

• German.Modals.muessen = { form := "müssen", modality := {Modality.ModalForce.necessity} ×ˢ {Modality.ModalFlavor.deontic, Modality.ModalFlavor.epistemic} }

def German.Modals.sollen : Auxiliary

sollen 'be supposed to' is a deontic necessity modal.

Equations

• German.Modals.sollen = { form := "sollen", modality := {Modality.ModalForce.necessity} ×ˢ {Modality.ModalFlavor.deontic} }

def German.Modals.wollen : Auxiliary

wollen 'want to' is a bouletic necessity modal.

Equations

• German.Modals.wollen = { form := "wollen", modality := {Modality.ModalForce.necessity} ×ˢ {Modality.ModalFlavor.bouletic} }

def German.Modals.sollte : Auxiliary

sollte 'should, ought to', the Konjunktiv II of sollen, is a weak necessity modal of obligation and of logical probability.

Equations

• German.Modals.sollte = { form := "sollte", modality := {Modality.ModalForce.weakNecessity} ×ˢ {Modality.ModalFlavor.deontic, Modality.ModalFlavor.epistemic} }

def German.Modals.allModals : List Auxiliary

The modal verbs.

Equations

• German.Modals.allModals = [German.Modals.duerfen, German.Modals.koennen, German.Modals.moegen, German.Modals.muessen, German.Modals.sollen, German.Modals.wollen, German.Modals.sollte]

theorem German.Modals.sollen_flavors_ssubset_sollte : sollen.toModalItem.flavors ⊂ sollte.toModalItem.flavors

sollte has the flavors of sollen and the epistemic one besides.