Download Modality

The category of modality in the
English and German languages
Teacher: Klachkova Mariya
Antonivna
by Tatiana Slavnikova
Group 10 – 1
Financial – economical
lyceum
The object and the
objectives of the work
The object of our work is the category of
modality in the English and German
languages.
The objectives of this work are:
to define the category of modality
to investigate and compare the ways
and means of expressing modality in
English and German.
The Category of Modality in
Modern Linguistics
Modality is:
expression of speaker`s attitude to
what his/her utterance denotes;
what makes the difference between a
factual assertion, and a more guarded
view or a bolder claim.
The Category of Modality in
the English and German
Languages
The modality in English and German can
be expressed by:
d) lexical
means (modal
b)grammatiwords and
c) lexicocal means
a)phonolo- (mood forms grammatical
modal
gical means of the verb)
means
expressions)
(stress and
(modal
conveying
conveying
intonation); grammatical
verbs);
subjective
modality;
modality;
The Modality in the English
Language
Ways of expressing
modality
Phonological means
Examples
I do really wish it hadn't
been you.
Grammatical means
Do listen to him.
Modal verbs
I must have a little rest.
Lexical means
He will undoubtedly win.
The Modality in the
German Language
Ways of expressing
modality
Modal verbs
The modal adverbs
The modal particles
Examples
Er kann seinen kranken
Bruder besuchen.
Ich komme vielleicht
morgen.
Gute Kleider
sind eben teuer.
CONCLUSION
 In German when a sentence has a modal
predicate the verb it modifies is transmitted to
the end of the sentence. In English the word
order is much simpler. When a modal verb is
used, the verb it modifies goes after the modal
one.
- Ich muss in den Tierpark gehen. - I must
go to the zoo.
- Wir können es holen. - We can get it.
 in the English language there
are no modal equivalents for
wollen (to want to)
 in the German language there
are no modal equivalents for dare
and need.
 Each modal adverb in English has
its modal equivalent in German.
English
German
surely
wohl
certainly
freilich
hardly
schwerlich
however
immerhin
 The German modal particles are always
uninflected words similar to the grammatical
particles in English which are also uninflected.
However, the English grammatical particles in
fact include function words such as sentence
connectors, sentence substitutes,
conjunctions, interjections and even adverbs,
which the German particles do not do.
German
Warum musst du denn
verreisen?
Es war schön, ja es war
großartig.
English
Tell me, why must you go
away?
It was lovely, indeed, it
was splendid.
Modality is the functional polysemantic
category, expressed with the help of different
ways in the Germanic and Slavonic languages.
In the contextually intonational conditions
modality becomes apparent in the variety of
its nuances. The variety of grammatical,
grammatically lexical and lexical modal ways
and their combinations gives the opportunity
to express very subtly divided modal nuances.
Thank you for
your attention!