Limiting Cases of Modal Modification: Reply to Kosterec

Kosterec (2019) points out that my current theory of modal modifiers cannot deal satisfactorily with limiting cases. This note solves the problem. The form of the solution is to leave the existing theory as is and instead add a clause handling the limiting case which Kosterec brings up and another clause handling the limiting case at the other end of the spectrum. My theory of modal modifiers, as set out in (2013), works well, as long as the argument property being modified is either (i) a purely contingent property or (ii) a contingent property with an essential core, provided the resulting modified property (MF) is not applied to an element of the essential core of F.1 To stick with the original example of mine that Kosterec takes over, we treat this predication as a datum: