Icelandic Modal Verbs Revisited

Abstract

The syntactic differences between epistemic modals and root modals have often been described in terms of raising vs. control: Epistemic modal verbs are then said to be like raising verbs in not assigning a thematic role to their subject and hence allowing raising of embedded arguments to their subject position, whereas root modals are like control verbs, assigning a thematic role to their subject and hence disallowing raising of embedded arguments. This is, for instance, the analysis proposed for Icelandic modals by Thráinsson & Vikner (1995). In this paper it is argued that the control analysis of root modals is appropriate for the so-called subject-oriented readings of root modals but probably not for non-subject-oriented readings.