Modality

Artur Lipiński, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
artur.lipinski@amu.edu.pl

Modality is a linguistic feature that enables speakers and writers to express varying degrees of certainty, obligation, or attitude toward the proposition conveyed in an utterance. It plays a crucial role in shaping the interpersonal and epistemic stance of the speaker.

Statham identifies four modal stances that can be adopted by opinion holders: probability, frequency, obligation, and inclination. Probability refers to the degree of belief an opinion sender holds regarding the likelihood of an event occurring. This stance can be conveyed through modal auxiliary verbs such as shall, should, can, could, will, would, may, must, and might. It may also be expressed through quasi-modals like ought to, need to, and has to; or through modal adverbs such as probably, possibly, certainly, and maybe. Example: She will probably arrive late. Frequency denotes how often an event or action is perceived to occur. This can be indicated using adverbs such as usually, sometimes, always, never, seldom, and rarely, often in combination with modal expressions (61). Example: They rarely agree on political issues. Obligation concerns the degree to which the speaker believes a certain action should be carried out. It is typically expressed through modal adverbs like definitely, absolutely, and possibly, reflecting various levels of assertiveness.Example: We definitely need to submit the paper today.Inclination reflects the speaker’s perception of a subject’s willingness or tendency to act. Examples include adverbs such as willingly, readily, gladly, and easily. Example: She readily agreed to help. In broader linguistic theory, scholars also distinguish between epistemic modality, which conveys the speaker’s judgement about the truth or certainty of a proposition, and deontic modality, which expresses obligation, necessity, or permission regarding actions or states of affairs.

Keywords: epistemic modality, deontic modality, linguistics

References:
Cheng, M. (2015). The power of persuasion: Modality and issue framing in the 2012 Taiwan presidential debates. Discourse & Society, 27(2), 172–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926515611556
Cornillie, B. (2009). Evidentiality and epistemic modality: On the close relationship between two different categories. Functions of Language, 16(1), 44–62. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.16.1.04cor
Statham, P. (2021). Critical discourse analysis: A practical introduction to power in language. Routledge.