Page 153 - Costellazioni 6

GÜNTER RADDEN, Meaningful Grammar

the discussion of the going to-Future in Section 2.3, we want to go beyond
a purely descriptive analysis. In particular, we will try to answer the
questions: (i) What role do modal verbs have in modality? (ii) How are
the modal senses related and motivated?

(i) All four types of modality share the property of being expressed as
modal verbs. Notions of modality can, as has been shown for epistemic
modality, be expressed by a variety of lexical items of different word class-
es, but modal verbs are expressions of modality par excellence: They are,
in fact, only used to express modality and might even be said to be the
unifying feature of modality. Let usbriefly look at the core modal verbs.
The modals may, can, must, should, ought, will, shall are character-
ized by certain “defective” properties: lack of non-finite forms (infinitive,
rd
gerund, present and past participles); lack of3 person singular -s inflec-
tion; lack of Past Tense forms or use of them as distal markers (might,
could); no use as main verb; no co-occurrence with other modal verbs.
These “defects” of modal verbs are vestiges of their older stages as
preterite present verbs, but these “irregularities” have become markers
of their grammatical function in present-day English. Modals lack non-
finite forms because the speaker’s assessment or attitude pertains to the
rd
message as a whole, they lack the 3 person singular -s because the verb
st
agrees with the unnamed speaker, i.e. the 1 person singular I, they lack
Past Tense forms because the speaker’s contribution occurs at the present
moment. These unique properties characterize modal verbs formally as
grammatical markers.
Let us compare the usages of the enabling modals can and may and
the compelling modals must and have to in the four types of modality. In
Table 5, the predominant modals for a given type of modality are printed
in bold, less common ones in regular typeface, and rare ones in parentheses.

disposition > intrinsic > deontic > epistemic
Enabling can can can (can)
modalities: (may) may may
Compelling must (must) have to must have to
modalities:
Table 5: The modals can, may, must and have to in the four types of
modality.

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