Boulomaic Implicata

From an online study:

Simpson‘s approach is based mainly on Roger Fowler‘s (1986) approach.

According to Simpson (1993),

‗Fowler […] identifies a variety of grammatical means for conveying modal commitment, amongst which are included modal auxiliaries, modal adverbs (or sentence adverb), evaluative adjectives, generic sentences and verbs of knowledge, prediction and evaluation‘ (Simpson, 1993: 47).

Simpson identifies THREE modal systems in English, namely

1. deontic modality,

2. boulomaic modality and

3. epistemic modality.

He defines those modal systems as follows:

"(1) Deontic modality, first of all, is the modal system of ‗duty‘, as it is concerned with the speaker‘s attitude to the degree of obligation attaching to the performance of certain actions. […] Deontic expressions may also combine adjectives and participles in ‗BE…THAT‘ and ‗BE …TO‘ constructions representing a comparable continuum of commitment. […]"

"(2) Boulomaic modality […] is extensively grammaticized in English in expressions of ‗desire‘."

"Modal lexical verbs, indicating the wishes and desires of the speaker, are central in the boulomaic system,[…]"

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(3) "The epistemic system is possibly the most important regarding the analysis of point of view in fiction […] [it] is concerned with the speaker‘s confidence or lack of confidence in the truth of a proposition expressed."

(Simpson, 1993: 47-8)

In fact, Grice criticised Davidson for failing to perceive the richness of boulomaic modality. For Davidson, it's all about 'wanting'. But surely there is more to desire than wanting (the floor also wants sweeping).