ABSTRACT

Once we have an idea of the possible modal notions that languages encode, we tum to theories of the development of modality. We look at the role of pragmatics and conversational implicature in the emergence of epistemic modality from deontic modality. We then use these accounts to propose solutions to the development of negative types, given that negation itself is a modality and therefore subject to the same conditions on development as epistemic and deontic modality.