Modality and Modal Sense Representation in E-HowNet

This paper explains how we define and represent modality in E-HowNet. Following Lyons (1977, reviewed in Hsieh 2003, among others), we hold that modals express a speaker’s opinion or attitude toward a proposition and hence have a pragmatic dimension and recognize five kinds of modal categories, i.e. epistemic, deontic, ability, volition and expectation modality. We then present a representational formalism that contains the three most basic components of modal meaning: modal category, positive or negative and strength. Such a formula can define not only modal words but also words that contain modal meanings and cope with co-compositions of modals and the negation construction.