Transcript MOOD AND MODALITY - State University of Zanzibar

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MOOD AND MODALITY
• Mood is a set of contrasts which are often
shown by the form of the verb and which
express the speaker’s attitude or writer’s to
what is said or written.
• Three types of mood
1. Indicative
2. Imperative
3. subjunctive
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Modality
• Modality is the expression of the speaker’s attitude
concerning the truth of a proposition or the
realisability of a proposition by some agent.
• Mood is a grammatical category associated with the
semantic dimension of modality. Mood is to modality
as tense is to time: tense and mood are categories of
grammatical form, while time and modality are the
associated categories of meaning.
• Modal auxiliary verbs are used to show modality.
• The English modals include can, could, may, might, will,
would, shall, should, must and ought(to),together with
their negated forms
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Characteristics of Modal Auxiliary:
a) Modals occur in the first position in the VP:
• He might be coming.
b) They are mutually exclusive:
• *He might can go.
c) They trigger off the base form of the following
verb:
• I must go.
d) They take the negative not/n’t directly:
• She may not come.
• I can’t go through with it.
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Characteristics of Modal Auxiliary:
e) They do not occur in non-finite constructions:
• *musting
• *to might
• *shall+ed
f) They do not exhibit past/non-past contrasts in the
same way as other verbs. May and might can
appear in structures where past/ non-past
contrasts are not involved:
• I may go to London tomorrow.
• I might go to London tomorrow.
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Characteristics of Modal Auxiliary:
g) They can all refer to the future, but with
varying degrees of certainty:
• He will come.
• He may come.
• He should come.
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Quasi-modals of two kinds:
a) Peripheral or Marginal modals: verbs like
dare, need, ought to and used to which share
some of the syntactic characteristics of
modals:
• I daren’t move.
• You needn’t bother.
• He ought to have been practising.
• She used to be bothered by such things.
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Quasi-modals of two kinds:
b) Quasi-modals or periphrastic modals: verbs
which share much of the meaning of modals.
These include:
• BE to —She is to try tomorrow.
• BE able to —He isn’t able to work so hard now.
• BE about to —I’m not about to throw it all away.
• BE going to —They’re going to regret this.
• HAVE to —We have to change these reports.
• HAVE got to—You’ve got to help.
• HAD better —It’d better be good.
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Families of meanings expressed by
modal auxiliaries :
• There are three main families of meanings
that the modal auxiliaries express :
1. Epistemic (concerned with the logical
structure of statements which imply that
propositions are known or believed)
2. Deontic (metaphysically, It is obligatory)
3. Dynamic. ( Ability)
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The Epistemic vs deontic contrast
• Epistemic: the term derives from the Greek
word for "knowledge“. modality expresses
meanings relating primarily to what is
necessary or possible given what we know (or
believe)
• Deontic modality expresses meanings
relating primarily to what's required or
permitted: this term derives from the Greek
word for "obligation".
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Dynamic modality
(1) epistemic modality is about the truth of the
proposition, such as guessing (‘They may
have gone home at this hour’)
2) deontic modality is about the realisability of
the proposition by some agent, such as
granting permission (‘They may go home at
this hour’).
3) dynamic modality expresses ability or inability
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Meanings expressed by the modals
• Can/Could: possibility, ability, permission
I. The sports can take place in doors.
II. In those day only men could vote in election.
III. They say bill can cook better than his wife.
• May/ Might: : possibility, permission
I. There might be some complaints
II. You may be right
III. You may borrow my bicycle if you wish
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Meanings expressed by the modals
• Must: Logical Necessity, Obligation
I. The Smiths must have a lot of money
II. She must be a sleep
III. We must all share our skill and knowledge.
• Will/ Would: Prediction, Volition (intention,
willingness, insistence)
I. You will feel better after this medicine
II. Oil will float on water (habitual prediction)
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Meanings expressed by the modals
• Volition is term used in the semantic analysis
of grammatical categories, referring to a kind
of relationship between an agent and a verb.
A volitional verb or construction is one where
the action takes place as a consequence of the
agent’s choice. A non-volitional verb or
construction is one where the agent has no
determining infuence on the action.
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Meanings expressed by the modals
• Will/ Would: Volition (intention, willingness,
insistence)
I. We won’t stay longer than two hours.
II. Will/would you help me to address this
letters? (Common in request and offer)
III. She ‘would keep interrupting me. (for
insistence the modal is always stressed)
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Meanings expressed by the modals
• Shall/ Should: Prediction/Volition with 1st p.
I. According to the opinion poll I shall win quite
easily.
II. We shall uphold the wishes of the people.
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Meanings expressed by the modals
• Ought to/ Should: Tentative inference ( The
speaker does not know if his statement is true,
but cautiously conclude that it is true.
I. The mountain ought to be visible from here.
II. These plant ought to reach maturity after
five years.
• Ought to/ Should: Obligation.
I. You ought to do as he says
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Meanings expressed by the modals
• Need, have to: Logical necessity, Obligation
• There has got to be some accident
• You have got to be back by ten o’clock
NB. Must has no past form and no non finite
form, hence have to is used in many context
where must is impossible.
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References:
• Cristal, David (2008) A dictionary of linguistics and
phonetics. Blackwell: USA
• McMahon, A and Aart, B. (2006) The Handbook of
English Linguistics. Blackwell: USA
• Pullum, K.F and Huddleston, R (2007) A student
Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: UK
• Quirk, R and Greenbaun, S. () A student Grammar of
the English language. Longman. UK
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References:
• Richards, J. Platt, J. And Weber, H. (1985) Longman
Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. Longman. UK
• Roughtledge, C and Chapman, S (2009) Key Ideas in
Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language. Edinburg. UK
• Swan, Michael. (2008) Practical English Usage. Oxford:
UK
• Todd, Loreto and Hancock, Ian (2005) International
English usage. Routledge: London
• Trash, R.L (2004) Language and Linguistics; The Key
Concept. Rougtledge: UK
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