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Modality

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10 views3 pages

Modality

Uploaded by

nina.jenko.music
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Modality

WAYS OF EXPRESSING MODALITY

 modal verbs: can, could, may, might, must, have got to, will,
would, shall, should, ought to, need, dare
 modal frameworks: it is unlikely that, I think that, there is a
chance that, I wish that ...
 modal adverbials: definitely, surely, maybe ...
 modal tenses (modal past & modal past perfect)
 mood (subjunctive & imperative)

TYPES OF MODALITY

 DYNAMIC (ability, theoretical possibility, disposition, volition,


habit ...)
 DEONTIC (permission, obligation, prohibition, order, request,
suggestion, advice ...)
 EPISTEMIC (hypothetical possibility, probability, certainty, logical
deduction ...)

CAN

 DYNAMIC: ability, zero ability, theoretical/circumstantial


possibility
 DEONTIC: permission (may be interpreted as a suggestion,
request, piece of advice, recommendation, command)
 EPISTEMIC: impossibility (negated contexts only)

COULD

 DEONTIC: tentative form for asking/granting/denying


permission
 EPISTEMIC: speculation, possibility, hypothesis
 the past tense equivalent of can when describing permanent
ability (dynamic) or habitual permission (deontic), and in
negated contexts (dynamic & deontic)

MAY

 NEUTRAL/LOW-DEGREE MODALITY: subordinate clauses of


concession or purpose, subordinate clauses beginning
with whatever/whoever/whenever/however, exclamatory
wishes
 DEONTIC: non-habitual permission (may be interpreted as an
invitation, offer, suggestion, request, recommendation)
 EPISTEMIC: the speaker's deduction, speculation, knowledge

MIGHT

 EPISTEMIC: the more tentative/hypothetical form of


expressing the speaker's deduction, speculation, knowledge
 the past tense equivalent of may in neutral/dynamic
uses (listed above)
 MUST
 DYNAMIC: the subject's properties/disposition,
circumstantial necessity
 DEONTIC: obligation (the deontic source is typically the
speaker; this is different in formal registers, conditionals and
impersonal syntactic constructions), offer, invitation,
request, reproach
 EPISTEMIC: logical necessity, deduction, conclusive
judgment

HAVE (GOT) TO

 DYNAMIC: circumstantial necessity


 DEONTIC: obligation (typically with an external deontic
source), offer, invidtation, request, reproach
 EPISTEMIC: logical necessity, deduction, conclusive
judgment (esp. in AmE)
 the future/past tense equivalent of must in dynamic
and deontic uses

WILL

 DYNAMIC: the subject's properties (volition, determination,


refusal) and disposition (characteristic behaviour, habits,
inference, power)
 DEONTIC: obligation, suggestions, requests, promises,
threats (contextually determined)
 EPISTEMIC: reasonable conclusion, prediction,
expectation (based on previous experience over a longer
period of time)

WOULD

 DYNAMIC: would like (tentative expression of volition)


 DEONTIC: tentative, polite requests
 EPISTEMIC: tentative expressions of prediction,
expectation
 the past tense equivalent of will in dynamic uses

SHOULD

 NEUTRAL/LOW-DEGREE MODALITY: subordinate clauses of


purpose, putative should (substitute for the mandative
subjunctive), evaluative should (substitute for the indicative)
 DEONTIC: obligation, duty, advice, suggestions,
recommendations (the strength may vary and is contextually
determined)
 EPISTEMIC: the speaker's tentative assessment of the
likelihood, the speaker's present evaluation of a past event
(reproach), the speaker's assumptions and perplexity (in
rhetorical questions)

OUGHT TO

Similar to should.

Ought to does not, however, have the neutral/low-degree modality. It also


does not appear in formal notices to express obligation.

NEED

 DEONTIC: necessity (replacement for must in questions & used in


statements and indirect questions only if these are embedded in a
negative context)

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