The set of English modal verbs is widely recognised to communicate two broad clusters of meanings: epistemic and root modal meanings. A number of researchers have claimed that root meanings are acquired earlier than epistemic ones; this claim has subsequently been employed in the linguistics literature as an argument for the position that English modal verbs are polysemous (Sweetser 1990). In t...

modal verbs and their different meanings can be investigated on the basis of various theoretical frameworks. in this paper, persian modal verbs are examined and analyzed in terms of degrees and kinds of modality proposed by palmer (1990). our analysis shows that although bǎyad ‘must’ does not entail the proposition, it is used to express three degrees of epistemic modality, two degrees of dynam...

This work investigates the role of semantic clause types and modality in argumentative texts. We annotate argumentative microtexts with Situation Entity (SE) classes and additionately label the segments that contain modal verbs with their modal senses. We analyse both the correlation of SE classes and of modal verbs and senses with components of argument structures (such as premises and conclus...

This work investigates the role of semantic clause types and modality in argumentative texts. We annotate argumentative microtexts with situation entity (SE) classes and additionally label the segments that contain modal verbs with their modal senses. We analyse the correlation both of SE classes and of modal verbs and senses with components of argument structures (such as premises and conclusi...

This paper sets out to answer a fundamental question: ‘How do tutors hedge their comments using modal verbs?’ A total of 126 feedback reports comprising 35,941 words were collected from two Humanities departments in a UK higher education institution. Although this is a relatively small corpus, it is a specialised corpus. The research focuses on a specific genre – written feedback –, thus the fi...

The current study attempted to investigate the effect of Systemic-Theoretical Instruction (STI) on English-language learners’ acquisition of the concepts of modal verbs through exploiting metaphors. To this end, the effect of the main treatment of the study, i.e. Concept-Based Instruction (CBI) was investigated through conceptual metaphors, in two gender (male vs. female) ...

in the present paper, we are to put forth a paradigm for the systematic study of modality in persian.with this end in view, we consider modality as a linguistic phenomenon that can be expressed at the level of sentence, at the level of constituents smaller than sentence and/or at the level of discourse. in such a system where sentential modality, sub-sentential modality and discourse modality a...

is paper investigates existing proposals for the apparent correlation between modal flavour and temporal orientation, through the lens of attitude verbs. Work thus far has focussed on modal auxiliaries, but attitude verbs with modal-quantificational analyses can shed new light on understanding the temporal orientation of modals elements. Landau (2000) notes that complements of partial control a...