Abstract
The article deals with the concepts of modality and the way it influences utterances in a fictional discourse. The confidence / uncertainty of the utterances with epistemic modal verbs (must, have to / have got to, might, may, could, should, ought to, would, will) was analyzed and ranked on the probability scale of Renooij S. and Witteman C. It was found that must, have to, modified with epistemic words will and would and hypothetic will belong to “probable” (85%) part of the scale, should, ought to, and hypothetic would belong to “fifty-fifty” (50%) part of the scale, might, may, could belong to “uncertain” (25%) part of the scale, might not, may not, could not, would not, should not belong to “improbable” (15%) part of the scale, can’t, will not belong to “impossible” (0%) part of the scale.The article also analyzed modality strength and degree of modal verbs and direction of uncertainty of utterances with modal verbs. An important point discovered in the research is that other epistemic words that co-occur with epistemic modal verbs influence their direction of uncertainty, strength and degree of modality. The influence of epistemic words on modal verbs with a strong deontic component and futurality component was studied. The article also studies the structural composition of utterances with different modal verbs. It’s discovered that should, ought to, could are often followed by existential propositions and may, could are followed by contradictory propositions.
Highlights
Today, a great importance is paid to the study of a probability scale
Berry N. (Berry, 1960) says that words of confidence are placed along a continuum with such intermediate terms as suppose, think, sure, certain, positive, where each subsequent term conveys a higher degree of confidence
Wesson C. (Wesson, 2009) offers a seven-point probability scale, where a greater confidence is conveyed with every higher point
Summary
A great importance is paid to the study of a probability scale This scale is used to describe the strength of faith in terms of accuracy or quality of prediction, judgment, or choice, and is “described through a continuum ranging from complete certainty to complete doubt or impossibility” (Wesson 2009: 151). Different scholars (Berry N., Wesson C., Teigen K., Renooij S., and Witteman C.) place epistemic words and expressions differently on a probability scale. The relevance of this study is that so far no comprehensive analysis of epistemic modal verbs to denote confidence / uncertainty in English fictional written discourse has been made. The aim of the study is to analyze epistemic modal verbs in English fictional discourse and place them on the probability scale of Renooij S. and Witteman C.
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