A cross-linguistic study of modality

Abstract

This work is a typological study of modality. My research began as an attempt to find cross-linguistic correlations of a syntactic (and concomitantly semantic) nature in the development of modality such as are discussed for English by Traugott ( 1972), Lightfoot (1979), and Plank (1984). It became clear, over time, that discussions of modality to be found in other languages were not set on the same seemingly sound footing as established diachronic discussions of English modal verbs. It was also clear that modality was not a very clear notion in anyone='s mind and relied usually on language-specific categories of forms which were syntactically set apart from other forms of similar categories (usually modal verbs as distinct from main or auxiliary verbs). Often these forms did not offer good cross-linguistic proof of the need for a distinct category in any language, as the notions expressed by modal forms in a distinct grammatical category in one language were often expressed by lexical items in a non-distinct category in another language (e.g. modal verbs of English non-modal verbs - Gm mogen = Eng.'like', sollen='be supposed to' 'said to' ) . It was also evident that the difficulty, synchronically, of establishing reasonable definitions of modal notions and forms became even more apparent when equivalences were sought diachronically. It was clear that there had to be greater investigation of what con-stituted modality before it could be easily understood how modal notions developed or changed.