Realmente: advérbio modal e implicatura generalizada

Abstract

The paper compares necessariamente p, p, and realmente p in Brazilian Portuguese. It argues that realmente is an epistemic modal. The main difference with respect to necessariamente is the ordering source: the former takes the real world, the latter, the normal course of events. Realmente has a lexicalized ordering source: real-. The ordering is established by the similarity to the real world. The result is a hiper-realist basis. Thus, realmente p entails p, but since it activates an ordering source, there are alternatives; it implies that there are non-p worlds. To utter p implies that the speaker is faithful. To utter realmente p fires a generalized implicature that p is in discussion, as claimed by Guimarães (2016), because it suspends the maxim of quality: it states that the real world belongs to p. We present the contours of this implicature.