- •The reflexive voice. Non-traditional voices.
- •Clause-sentence-utterance-logical proposition
- •Informative type of sentence
- •Communicative & structural types of sentences
- •The article.
- •Category of modality in the sentence
- •Modal words
- •Statives
- •The category of mood. Indicative. Imperative.
- •Terminative/non-terminative, transitive/intransitive verbs Grammatical categories of the verb
- •The verb – meaning, form, function. Principles of classification.
- •The Theory of parts of speech in prenormative &classical gr-s.
- •The theory of parts of speech in American Descriptive Grammar.
- •The Theory of Progress, the Functional Theory.
- •Origin of the structure of Modern e-sh: Phonetic Approach, the Theory of Substratum.
- •Phonetic approach
- •The Theory of Substratum
- •Basic features of English syntax
- •Analytical features ofword-building
- •Prenormative eg
- •Prescriptive eg
- •Classical scientific grammar of e-sh
- •American descriptive grammar of eng
- •Transformational grammar
- •Noun. Number.
- •Noun. Case.
- •Scientific Principles for the Classification of Parts of Speech in Native Grammars of English. The Notion of Grammatical Category.
- •The adjective
- •Tense & Aspect of the verb
- •Numeral
- •Notional and formal words
- •Predicativity of the s-ce.
- •The verb: person and number. Other morphological categories
- •Syntax of classical scientific grammar
- •Quotation groups
- •Grammatical trends in word-changing noun adj PrN
- •Trends in Modern English word-changing verb
- •Generative semantix/syntax
- •The category of Voice
- •The Reflective Voice (rv)
- •Pronoun
- •Phrases (Ps)
- •Sentence definitions
- •Principles of clause-classification
- •Complex sent. As a syntactic unity
- •The subjunctive mood
Category of modality in the sentence
Ch. Balie: “ In every s-ce there are 2 obvious aspects → dictum and modus. Dictum expresses the meaning of the s-ce what is said about the subj. modus expresses the speaker’s attitude to what is being said. Mod-ty is a universal category of lang-e which expresses the relation of s-ce meaning to reality as it is presented by the speaker. The most important and most universal means of expressing s-ce mod-ty is the verbal category of mood. Since every predicate in a s-ce stands in one of 3 moods the mod-ty expressed in this way is called the objective mod-ty. Objective mod-ty is subdivided into 2 groups: mod-ty of reality (indicative mood) and mod-ty of unreality (the imperative, subjunctive moods).
In case of obj. Mod-ty there are no indicators of the speaker’s personal attitude towards the meaning of the s-ce, Ex. It’s cold today. It will be cold today.
In add-n to obj. Mod-ty very often there may appear in a s-ce lang-e forms expressing the speaker’s personal attitude. This is the 2nd kind of mod-ty → the subjective mod-ty. It is expressed by a great variety of lang-e forms.
1st of all these are parenthesis. They may be single words: probably, certainly, luckily; phrases: in my opinion, to my mind, to tell the truth, to put it mildly, to be honest; a great number of parenthetical clauses: I think, I hope, I doubt, I’m afraid, as john told me and so on.
2. Various evaluating words; N-s. Adj-s, Adv-s;
Syntactic character → these are tag-questions;
Intonation can also be used to turn affirmation into supposition.
Modal verbs are not included either into the objective or subjective modality. They express different kind of mod-ty which shows the relations between the action and the doer.
Ex. Peter must (obligatory) do it. May – probable, can – possible due to his phis. or mental ability, should – desirable, has to – is induced, is to – planned.
Since there are many means of expressing mod-ty in the s-ce some scholars present the category in the form of the linguistic field. The most important of these means are the mood forms which presuppose the general character of the s-ce mod-ty and means of subjective mod-ty serve as additional devices which may either strengthen or weaken the objective mod-ty → the primary mod-ty of the s-ce, while the subjective is called the secondary mod-ty. Ex. he will do it (obj. mod-ty). Of course, he will do it (obj. mod-ty. Probably he will do it (obj. mod-ty).
Modal words
The distinction between modal words and adverbs is, as we saw in our general survey of parts of speech, based on two criteria: (1) their meaning: MWs express the speaker’s view concerning the reality of the action expressed in the sentence, (2) their syntactical function: they are not adverbial modifiers but parentheses, whether we take a parenthesis to be a special part of the sentence or whether we say that it stands outside its structure.
All MWs express some kind of attitude of the speaker concerning the reality of the action expressed in the sentence. MWs have been variously classified into groups according to their meaning: those expressing certainty, such as certainly, surely, undoubtedly; those expressing doubt, such as perhaps, maybe, possibly, etc.
In the vast majority of cases the MW indicates the speaker’s attitude towards the whole thought expressed in the sentence (or clause), e.g. She is a delicate little thing, perhaps nobody but me knows how delicate. (LAWRENCE). However, occasionally a MW may refer to some one word or phrase only, and have no connection with the rest of the sentence.
The use of MW depends to a great extent on the type of the sentence. A MW can also make up a –ce be itself. This happens when it is used to answer a general ?, that is a ? admitting of a Yes- or No – answer. Certainly, perhaps, maybe, etc. May be used in this way. In these cases MW-s are the main part of the s-ce. This bring them close together with a s-ce words yes and no. The problem of MW-s is connected with the very difficult problem of modality as a whole. This has been treated repeatedly by various scholars both with reference to Eng. and to Russ. And in a wider context of general linguistics as well. There are various means of expressing modality – modal words, modal verbs (can, must, etc.) and the category of mood. Since two of them or even all three may be used simultaneously, it is evident that there may be several layers of modality in a s-ce. A great variety of combinations is possible here.
SENTENCE MODIFYING ADVERBS, SMTIMES NOT ONLY ADVERBS, BUT EVEN PHRASES