Modal Verbs as Means of Expressing Assumptions in the Newspaper Discourse of the English Language

Abstract

The article deals with English modal verbs, which convey the modal meaning of assumptions in the newspaper discourse. An assumption is a special type of modality It is established that this function is performed by the modal verbs can, may, must, should, ought to, will, would. Modal verbs express a wide range of modal meanings, including those which refer to the process of drawing conclusions, i.e. the speaker's conclusions, which are the result of his reasoning, etc. Different shades of assumptions (from a higher degree of probability to doubt and even inconsistency with reality) are caused by both the lexical meaning of modal verbs and the communicative type of the sentences, which contain these modal verbs. The article analyzes the communicative types of sentences containing the modal verbs expressing assumptions, singles out various fragments of objective reality, which serve as the object of making assumptions, as well as determines the temporal orientation of the assumption to the present, past or future. The modal verbs, which reflect the speaker’s attitude to the contents of the utterance in terms of the correspondence between the expressed facts and reality, are used as means of expressing assumptions about the facts, which the speaker does not want to categorically affirm or deny. Mitigation of categorical statements allows the reader to think about the message more critically and take a more active position in the perception of information.