Semantic Ambiguity in German können: Competing Redehintergründe in Modal Interpretation

Abstract

The German modal verb können is one of the most productive and semantically complex expressions of modality, as it may convey ability, possibility, permission, and epistemic possibility. Previous studies have generally treated these interpretations as instances of lexical polysemy or classified them into different types of modality, without systematically explaining the mechanism through which one interpretation becomes dominant in a given context. This study investigates the mechanism underlying the semantic ambiguity of können through the concept of Redehintergrund. Adopting a qualitative corpus-based approach, it analyzes all occurrences and inflected forms of können in NADI Volume 28 (2021). The analysis is based on modal force, Redehintergrund, linguistic cues, and discourse context. The findings demonstrate that können consistently realizes the modal force of possibility, whereas its interpretive variation is determined by the Redehintergrund activated by context. Five principal Redehintergründe are identified: intrasubjective-circumstantial, extrasubjective-circumstantial, normative, teleological, and epistemic. The analysis further shows that multiple Redehintergründe may coexist within the same utterance, giving rise to competing modal interpretations. The dominant interpretation emerges from the interaction of subject type, the semantic class of the infinitive, voice, adverbials, mood, clause structure, and discourse context. On this basis, the study proposes the Competing Redehintergründe Model, which explains the semantic ambiguity of können not as a consequence of changes in lexical meaning or modal force, but as the outcome of competition among contextually activated Redehintergründe. The proposed model extends the distinction between modal force and modal background and provides a more systematic framework for analyzing the semantic ambiguity of German modal verbs.