CATEGORY OF FUTURALITY WITHIN THE SYSTEM OF MODUS CATEGORIES

Abstract

The aim of the investigation under consideration is to study the nature of the category of futurality within the system of modus categories in the French language. The object of the work is the category of futurality in contemporary French, the subject is the study of the category of futurality in contemporary French within the system of modus categories of evidentiality, modality and persuasiveness. In the course of the study, the distinctions between modality and modus have been outlined, the place of the category of futurality within the modus categories has been identified, the peculiarity of the category of futurality as a modus category has been analysed. Conclusions: the peculiarity of futurality as a modus category is that it belongs to the modus categories denoting action/event, real in the future “in the speaker’s view”. In this sense the category of futurality is closer to the categories of modality (real information stated by the speaker) and predicativity (confidence in the information stated by the speaker) in meaning, whereas differing from them by the semantics of the stated temporality denoting the relation of consequence in reference to the moment of speaking. The category of futurality is connected with other modus categories: category of assertion with semantics of neutral prospection, category of persuasiveness with the seme of assurance in reference to the future and category of modality with the seme of reality in reference to the future. The major types of modal meanings forming the modus category of futurality are: 1) speaker’s estimation of the subject matter of the utterance from the perspective of reality/irreality in the future; 2) estimation of the environment of the utterance from the perspective of probability/necessity/desirability in the future; 3) speaker’s estimation of the level of assurance (persuasiveness) of the subject matter of the utterance from the perspective of the future; 4) communicative function of the utterance defined by the purpose of the speaker from the perspective of the future (wish, intention, preference); 5) confirmation/negation of objective relations between objects, phenomena, events of the future.