Modal Expressions Research Articles

Linguistic Means of Expressing Epistemic Modality in an English-language Scientific Text

Modality is a complex grammatical and functional-semantic category which is reflected in various types of discourse. The relevance of studying epistemic modality, reflecting the author’s knowledge of the reported information and his/her attitude to it from the point of view of its reliability, is determined by the necessity to analyze the linguistic features of its expression in a scientific text. The aim of the paper is to study morphological, lexical-syntactical and lexical means of expressing modality and to identify their pragmatic functions in English-language texts concerned with engineering. The study of the linguistic component in a scientific text will help foreign researchers present their scientific works in accordance with the authentic features of English. This determines the theoretical significance of studying the author’s means of expressing epistemic modality as a method for reasoning their scientific propositions, interacting with the target reader and expressing academic responsibility. The study of theoretical works by foreign and Russian scientists has shown that epistemic modality of a scientific text implements mainly the properties of the author’s subjective approach. However, unlike other types of discourse, the modality of a scientific text identifies a certain degree of objectivity in the author’s approach since it is characterized by the assessment of the reported information in terms of its reliability/unreliability. The given study assumes that the category of modality of any text, including a scientific one, is difficult to analyze statistically. It is known that the expression of the English text modality is characterized by imperceptible “transitions” between different levels of its implementation. Therefore, the paper considers some linguistic means at the morphological, lexical-syntactical and lexical levels. They include the verbal category of the imperative, subjunctive and presumptive types of mood, infinitive constructions, modal verbs and modal words of various parts of speech with the seme “expectation/assumption”. The article underlines an additional pragmatic aspect of modality means in an English-language scientific text concerned with the need for soft persuasion of the professional community to accept the information presented.

MODALITY AS A TOOL OF AUTHORIAL PRESENCE IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS

This study explores how modality is used in editorials related to Covid-19 from two Pakistani newspapers, to establish the author's presence in the text. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 50 editorials, and a concordance tool was employed to categorize the data. Modal verbs and other linguistic elements with modal meanings were analyzed using the interpersonal metafunction, as per Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics. The findings indicate that editorial writers predominantly employed modal verbs of prediction such as 'will' and 'would' when discussing the pandemic, and generic phrases were frequently used to express an objective, explicit orientation of modality. The fact that predictive modals are utilized in editorials implies that the main aim of the writers is to forecast upcoming occurrences. Additionally, the study found that the editors from both newspapers showed an equal interest in finding solutions to the pandemic by using obligatory modals such as 'should' and 'must'. It was found that the editors employed various linguistic techniques, including modality, in their editorials with the aim of impacting and molding the way readers view the pandemic. Keywords: modality, authorial presence, modal expressions, modal verbs.

SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC FEATURES OF OBVIOUSLY AND APPARENTLY

In this paper we are going to show how disjuncts obviously and apparently from the same category of truth-orientated disjuncts behave in different contexts. We are also going to measure the frequency of their occurrence, determine the meanings they convey and observe the position they take. Both disjuncts ‘present comment on the truth value of what is said, expressing the extent to which, and the conditions under which, the speaker believes that what is saying is true' (Quirk et al, 1985:p.620). The primary function of these two is to modify the whole sentence, but they can also highlight the meaning of the modal expression they are used with. The comment expressed by obviously does not intend to convince the interlocutor to trust the speaker's judgement but to act as an eye-opener for interlocutors to discern the truth themselves based on the evidence given. The comment expressed by apparently relies either on speaker's perception of things or someone else's perception which is not to be believed blindly without questioning. In other words, apparently ’qualifies claims based on reported information and inference' (Rozumko, 2019). Hence conviction expressed by it drifts from the truth conveying a certain degree of doubt.

양태 표현 ‘-(으)ᄅ까 보-’, ‘-나 보-’에 대하여

양태 표현 ‘-(으)ᄅ까 보-’, ‘-나 보-’에 대하여

Modality, expected utility, and hypothesis testing

We introduce an expected-value theory of linguistic modality that makes reference to expected utility and a likelihood-based confirmation measure for deontics and epistemics, respectively. The account is a probabilistic semantics for deontics and epistemics, yet it proposes that deontics and epistemics share a common core modal semantics, as in traditional possible-worlds analysis of modality. We argue that this account is not only theoretically advantageous, but also has far-reaching empirical consequences. In particular, we predict modal versions of reasoning fallacies from the heuristics and biases literature. Additionally, we derive the modal semantics in an entirely transparent manner, as it is based on the compositional semantics of Korean modal expressions that are morphosyntactically decomposed into a conditional and an evaluative predicate.

Viktor von Weizsäcker's Notion of Pathic: Affective Liminality, Modalization of Experience and Illness.

The work presents and discusses Viktor von Weizsäcker's notion of pathic. This concept developed over the course of thirty years represents the culmination of his theoretical thought. The pathic (das Pathische) is closely related to the meaning of 'pathological' and to the meaning of 'suffering'. Yet the pathic does not designate neither a condition of mere illness nor a condition of passivity. Pathic can be considered as the essential nature of the becoming in contrast with the ontic existence. The pathic assumes the changing form of five modal expressions ('will', 'can', 'may', 'shall' and 'must'). The pathic refers the way through which the liminal relationship of the living being with the world and its becoming is expressed. Life is a modal tension between the coming into the world and the coming out of it, so the pathic is the mutable subjective form of this tension. The pathic is the core notion at basis of the foundation of a new medical anthropology where the intersubjective doctor-patient relationship is of the most importance.

Discourse markers in L1 and L2 Italian: A cartographic analysis of the sentence-internal position

This article compares the use of discourse markers (DMs) in Italian as a second language (L2) produced by Belgian-Dutch learners, with the DMs produced by Italian native (L1) speakers. The quantitative analysis of the data shows that L1 speakers produce more DMs than L2 speakers, whereas the comparison between the levels of proficiency in L2 reveals an effect of the type of task on the frequency of DMs. From the qualitative analysis, interesting discrepancies emerge between the L1 and the L2 use of DMs, especially those uttered in sentence-internal position. We offer an analysis within the cartographic approach and we demonstrate that the sentence-internal DMs with an epistemic value realize specific syntactic positions dedicated to the expression of modality within the IP layer. We also show that the L2 learners, despite projecting the correct syntactic structure, realize it with pragmatically infelicitous forms as a result of linguistic interference with their L1. Our study brings original evidence on the syntactic status of DMs: given their multifunctionality, more syntactic options are available depending on the markers’ discursive and pragmatic import. Furthermore, sentence-internal DMs reveal intriguing properties of the L2 acquisition at the syntax and discourse–pragmatics interface.

Modals and Quasi-Modals in English World-Wide

This study explores the distribution of modals and quasi-modals in the twenty English dialects represented in the Global Web-based English Corpus (GloWbE). Intervarietal trends are observed across and within the Englishes of the “Inner circle” and “Outer circle.” Ratios calculated for onomasiological pairings of modal expressions suggest that Inner circle varieties tend to be associated more closely than Outer circle varieties—and “epicentral” varieties more so than non-epicentral ones—with trends of frequency change that have been identified in previous diachronic studies of the reference varieties, British and American English. A further type of change is revealed by semantic analysis: Inner circle varieties tend to embrace epistemic modality more readily than Outer circle varieties. Possible explanations considered for intervarietal differences include areal proximity, epicentrality, evolutionary status, and colloquiality.

Статус глагола mögen и его грамматической формы möchte в немецком языке

The aim of the research is to identify the semantic changes in the modal verb ‘mögen’ and its subjunctive form ‘möchte’ in German. The paper clarifies the status of the modal verb ‘mögen’ in diachrony and synchrony, explains the participation of ‘mögen’ and its form ‘möchte’ in the process of grammaticalization. The modal verb ‘mögen’ is considered from the perspective of its frequency in oral and written speech at various stages of the development of the German language and the identification of its modal meanings. The acquired modal meanings make it possible to speak about the expression of the category of modality by the verb ‘mögen’, namely the expression of volitive and epistemic modality. As linguistic analysis shows, the verb ‘mögen’ in its volitive meaning, used in the form of the subjunctive mood ‘möchte’, has a close meaning with the verb ‘wollen’ in the German language. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the substantiation of the linguistic status of the modal verb ‘mögen’ and its form ‘möchte’ in German as grammatical precedent units. As a result, it has been proved that the verb form ‘möchte’ should not be considered as a notional verb different from ‘mögen’.

The Modal Future

<i>The Modal Future</i>

The Expressions of Epistemic Modality in English and Vietnamese: A Contrastive on “thấy” and “nghĩ” in Vietnamese and Mental Verbs in English

Epistemic modality is described as the speaker's judgment, assessing the degree of the factual proposition, or the speaker's confidence or non-confidence in the truth value of the proposition. The paper focuses on the expression of “thấy”, “nghĩ” predicates in Vietnamese and compares with mental verbs in English. To achieve the research objectives, the paper uses descriptive, statistical and comparative methods to clarify modality in general and epistemic modality in particular. The paper initially contributes to clarifying the definition, category, and identification of epistemic modality in terms of grammar and vocabulary. Next, the paper points out the similarities and differences in the expression of epistemic modality in English and Vietnamese. The results show that the nature of vocabulary and syntax basically exists value of factuality and non-factuality. The most important feature of epistemic modality is subjectivity and objectivity. The speaker "I/Tôi" clearly expresses or implies commitment for what is said. Understanding and applying modality in general and epistemic modality in particular will help learners acquire language and culture better in the process of communication and translation.

Belarusian Modals of Necessity. A Corpus-Based Analysis

The paper presents an analysis of standard Belarusian modals of necessity, based on the Belacorpus, a corpus of contemporary written Belarusian I built in 2010. I investigate the modals’ semantics (which types of modality they express), their frequency in the corpus and their distribution across textual genres. My study confirms what was already observed in previous accounts of Belarusian modals. Namely, only two of them, music’ and pavinen, are polyfunctional (that is, they can express more than one type of modality – dynamic, deontic and epistemic) and thus prototypical (core) members of the modal category. All other modal expressions are dedicated to one type of modality and are thus peripheral. The corpus analysis has also revealed a number of previously unnoticed properties of Belarusian modals, such as: the extreme rarity of the epistemic use of polyfunctional music’ and pavinen; the uneven distribution of peripheral modals across different types of texts; and the fact that the two standards in which Belarusian is codified, taraškevica and narkamaŭka, present no significant difference as far as the use of modals is concerned, with the notable exception of modal mec’ ‘have’, which is much more frequent in taraškevica texts.

A semantic universal for modality

This paper articulates a new semantic universal for modal expressions in natural language, dubbed the Independence of Force and Flavor (IFF). This property accommodates counterexamples to Nauze 2008’s proposed universal from variable-force variable-flavor modals (Bochnak 2015a,b) and attitude verbs (Močnik &amp; Abramovitz 2019), while still ruling out unattested modals. It may also be seen as a form of convexity applied to modals. EARLY ACCESS

Вербалізація спонукальної модальності в прозових творах для дітей: семантика і прагматика

Introduction. Children's literature is a special type of literature that combines aesthetic, didactic, and educational functions. The language of works for children is as closely related as possible to the implementation of these functions, which are aimed at the formation of a complete, independent, empathic personality. Imperative sentences play an important role at all stages of the development of a child's language competence. Purpose. The article aims to investigate the peculiarities of the verbalization of the imperative modality in prose for children, to determine which (non)specialized syntactic means for expressing the imperative modality are emphasized in prose works for children, the conditions of their actualization, which modifiers of the semantic-syntactic structure are used. Methods. Descriptive and interpretive methods were used to achieve the goal, and partly quantitative methods were used. Results. The Ukrainian language has developed a set of specialized and non-specialized means of verbalizing the imperative modality. The current importance of this or that syntactic means of verbalization of motivational modality in prose language for children depends on the age of the child. The most used one in the language of prose for children is the semantic-syntactic structure with a verbal predicate expressed in the imperative form. Prose works for children also use imperative nominative, vocative sentences and imperative sentences with a non-verbalized predicate of the adverbial and object type, but numerically, their use is infrequent. Besides, the use of simple imperative sentences with homogeneous members and the use of composite imperative sentences are also infrequent. Sporadic use of complex sentences or with different types of linking help to gradually develop the child's cognitive and evaluative abilities. Personal pronominal noun, modifiers (filler words, particles, addressing personally, exclamations) in imperative sentences strengthen / weaken its variant meaning, add additional shades of meaning to the main meaning of the statement or a separate component. The results of the research will be useful for editors of prose works for preschoolers and children of primary school age. Conclusion. In the language of prose for children, only specialized means of verbalization of the imperative modality are used, among which the semantic-syntactic structure with a verbalized predicate expressed in the imperative form is the most used. Imperative nominative, vocative sentences and imperative sentences with non-verbalized predicate of adverbial and object type, simple imperative sentences with homogeneous members, composite imperative sentences are sporadically used. We see the prospects for further scientific research in the following: to investigate the verbalization of the imperative modality on a wider empirical material, to trace the dynamics of the actualization of specialized and non-specialized means of verbalization of the imperative modality in prose works for children of different ages and in spontaneous children's speech, to propose a classification of children's expressions of the imperative modality.

Deontic Variation in the ‘Advice’ for the Cure of the Plague by the Royal College of Physicians of London (1665 vs 1636 editions)

The ‘Advice’ drawn up by the College of Physicians for the prevention and cure of the plague was first published in 1578. It was attached to the Orders, a list of directions drawn up by the Privy Council to prevent or limit the spread of the disease. Like the Orders to which it was appended, the ‘Advice’ went through several reprints until 1630, when it had to be rewritten. The 1630 edition of the ‘Advice’ no longer confined itself to medical prescriptions, but included advice about medical provision in the city, the movement of goods and people, and referred to the political measures taken in foreign cities. In this revised, extended version, the ‘Advice’ was reprinted in 1636 and in 1665, when it finally appeared without the preceding Orders. This paper focuses on the pragma-linguistic changes displayed by the 1665 edition as compared with the 1636 edition of the ‘Advice’ in terms of mood and modality (Palmer 1986) and argues that the more mitigated expression of deontic modality and the preference for assertive acts over directive ones (Searle 1985) characterizing the later edition reflect the new editorial and historical context in which the text was produced.

Deontic Modality in the GDPR Based Finnish Privacy Notices in the Light of the Transparency Principle

Since its inception the General Data Protection Regulation has introduced a number of rights and obligations that relate to the personal data processing. As the Regulation requires that all information about data subjects’ rights be conveyed in a clear and plain language (transparency principle), this study focuses on the linguistic means of expressing rights and obligations in the GDPR based privacy notices. The article aims at scrutinising the features and context of deontic expressions which may influence the clear message. The research corpus consists of fourteen privacy notices of Finnish design companies which were analysed in order to identify deontic expressions. They were juxtaposed with the GDPR text and some discrepancies were found in their frequency and modal patterns. The qualitative analysis of the expressions with the help of Easy Language Meter criteria for Finnish revealed that privacy notices show simplifying tendencies like choice of modal expressions, the use of certain subjects and the way of addressing the reader. These comply with the Plain Language principles and thus the transparency principle highlighted in the GDPR.

Effects of Elastically Supported Boundaries on Flutter Characteristics of Thin-Walled Panels

In order to investigate flutter characteristics of thin-walled panels with elastically supported boundaries, a method for dealing with the stiffness matrix constraint relationship is developed based on penalty functions. Combined with the first-order piston theory, flutter velocities and frequencies of thin-walled panels with the different cases of elastically supported boundaries are calculated. Firstly, a thin-walled panel is discretized by the finite element method, and springs with real stiffness coefficients are introduced to simulate elastically supported boundaries. Then, the pressure difference between the outer and inner surfaces of the panel and modal aerodynamic expressions are obtained by introducing the first-order piston theory. Finally, flutter equations are obtained in the time domain by combining the structural dynamic equations with the modal aerodynamic forces. Subsequently, they are transformed to the frequency domain at the flutter state. Then, flutter characteristics of the panel are obtained using the U−g method. The results show that the existence of elastically supported boundaries may reduce the flutter velocity and flutter frequency of the panel but can be enhanced and recovered through some appropriate damping configuration schemes. Calculating the flutter characteristics of thin-walled panels under elastically supported boundaries can more accurately simulate real supported situations and result in a safer design scheme for thin-walled panel structures.

The Italian epistemic marker mi sa [to me it knows] compared to so [I know], non so [I don't know], non so se [I don't know whether], credo [I believe], penso [I think

The two studies presented in this paper concern the Italian epistemic marker mi sa [lit. to me it knows], which seems to have no equivalent in other European languages and has received very little attention in the literature. No analysis of the occurrences of mi sa in contemporary spoken corpora can be found (first gap) as well as no investigation on the epistemic relationship between mi sa and (1) the other modal expressions that use the verb sapere [to know] in the first person singular of the simple present, i.e., so [I know], non so [I do not know], non so se [I do not know whether] as well as (2) its supposed synonyms credo [I believe] and penso [I think] (second gap). The two studies are closely intertwined, the first being an exploratory, qualitative pilot study for the second. Study 1 aims to fill the first gap through the analysis of the contemporary Italian spoken corpus KIParla. The quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed five types of occurrences (theoretically reducible to two main ones), the most numerous of which are ‘mi sa che + proposition’. Study 2 aims to fill the second gap through a questionnaire administered online. The quantitative and statistical results showed the epistemic relationships between the six markers: for the majority of the participants, in the epistemic continuum that goes from unknowledge to uncertainty and then to knowledge, (1) non so refers to unknowledge; non so se, mi sa, credo and penso refer to uncertainty; so refers to knowledge; (2) mi sa, credo, penso confirm to be synonyms; (3) non so se is evaluated as much more uncertain than mi sa, credo, penso. These four epistemic markers seem to occupy a different position along the uncertainty continuum ranging between two poles: doubt (high uncertainty) and belief (low uncertainty).

Semantic Analysis of Modality in Siin Seereer

The present work is devoted to the semantic analysis of modality in Siin Seereer. The latter is an African language belonging to the West Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family. It is a language through which the enunciator can express his/her ideas and point of views through the expression of modality. Thus, there are lots of operators used in Siin Seereer language to deal with modality (deontic, epistemic, dynamic, etc.). So, the article aims to highlight the different types of operators used to deal with modality, their grammatical categories, their formations and structures. In addition, the article will help understanding the functioning of Siin Seereer language in general and of the different types of modality, their relationships, their interdependency (if there is any) in particular. However, to find some results, field surveys, interviews and a lot of research will be done.

Communicative Aspect of the Literary Text

The subject of the study is a communicative aspect of poetic and prose texts. It is based on dialogization between the addressant and the addressee and a change in semantic positions. The purpose of the study is to analyze the features concerning the explication of dialogical relations in the outward monologic&#x0D; speech of literary discourse. The research, carried out on the basis of the communicative and cognitive approach, is based on the concepts, methods and results of the communicative stylistics of the text, first of all by N.S. Bolotnova and Tomsk linguistic schools.&#x0D; Moreover, we have taken into consideration the scientific substantiations by&#x0D; R.O. Yakobson and Yu.M. Lotman that a literary text (especially a poetic one) is&#x0D; associated with the concept of a secondary linguistic structure and its main prin-&#x0D; ciples are comparison and opposition.&#x0D; The resulting inferences allow us to determine the features of the commu-&#x0D; nicative approach to the analysis of a literary text: 1) external dialogization con-&#x0D; sists in the interaction of the author and the reader, which is expressed in the&#x0D; interpretative activity of the latter in decoding a poetic work; 2) the internal di-&#x0D; alogization of the narrative monologue manifests itself as a contact between the&#x0D; subjects of the work and is represented by lexico-grammatical and tropical means&#x0D; with the expression of subjective modality.&#x0D; The results of the study can be used in scientific-research and teaching&#x0D; activities related to the study of the artistic discourse communicativeness.