A Study on The Semantics of Portuguese Imperfective Modals in Epistemic Contexts

The paper argues that Brazilian Portuguese imperfective modal auxiliares tinha que/devia/podia convey a "past perspective" in contexts other than justification ones (against HACQUARD, 2006; FERREIRA, 2018; VIANA MENDES, 2019; in favor of VON FINTEL; GILLES, 2006; RULLMANN; MATTHEWSON, 2018). In ignorance contexts, both present and past perspectives are felicitous (against VIANA MENDES, 2019), but in some contexts, the present perspective gives the wrong interpretation. The past perspective is a byproduct of the semantics of the modal, that has an "anchor", variable to be contextually fulfilled (KRATZER, 2018), and the past imperfective inflection. The past imperfective inflection allows for two anchors: the past situation, s<s0, which is included in the event denoted by the prejacent which may extent until the speech situation, or the anchor may be the speech situation, s0, and its surrounding evidences. The event is evaluated according to what the speaker knew or to what the speaker knows. The paper tries to clarify these two readings. The anchor provides the premises against which the modal is evaluated (YALCIN, 2007). If the anchor is a past state of mind, then it implies uncertainty and low probability.