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Modal Word
Modal words are words in a language that express modality, i.e., possibility, necessity, or contingency. One kind of modal word is the modal verb A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', ''necessity'', ''possibility'' or ''advice''. Modal v ... (''should'', ''can'', ''might'', and ''ought'', as well as ''oblige'', ''need'', and ''require''). Other types of modal words in English include modal adjectives (''likely'', ''probable'', ''necessary''), modal adverbs (''probably'', ''perhaps'', ''certainly''), modal prepositions (''despite'', ''unless'', ''if''), and modal nouns (''possibility'', ''probability'', ''certainty''). References Linguistics Semantics Words {{authority control, qid=Q123236362 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modality (linguistics)
In linguistics and philosophy, modality refers to the ways language can express various relationships to reality or truth. For instance, a modal expression may convey that something is likely, desirable, or permissible. Quintessential modal expressions include modal auxiliaries such as "could", "should", or "must"; modal adverbs such as "possibly" or "necessarily"; and modal adjectives such as "conceivable" or "probable". However, modal components have been identified in the meanings of countless natural language expressions, including counterfactuals, propositional attitudes, evidentials, habituals, and generics. Modality has been intensely studied from a variety of perspectives. Within linguistics, typological studies have traced crosslinguistic variation in the strategies used to mark modality, with a particular focus on its interaction with tense–aspect–mood marking. Theoretical linguists have sought to analyze both the propositional content and discourse effect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586. It is the second-oldest university press after Cambridge University Press, which was founded in 1534. It is a department of the University of Oxford. It is governed by a group of 15 academics, the Delegates of the Press, appointed by the Vice Chancellor, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, Oxford, Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho, Oxford, Jericho. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modal Verb
A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', ''necessity'', ''possibility'' or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the base (infinitive) form of another verb having semantic content. In English, the modal verbs commonly used are ''can'', ''could'', ''may'', ''might'', ''must'', ''shall'', ''should'', ''will'', ''would'', and ''ought''. Function Modal verbs have a wide variety of communicative functions, but these functions can generally be related to a scale ranging from possibility ("may") to necessity ("must"), in terms of one of the following types of modality: *epistemic modality, concerned with the theoretical ''possibility of propositions being true or not true'' (including likelihood and certainty) * deontic modality, concerned with ''possibility and necessity in terms of freedom to act'' (including permission and dut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modal Adjective
Modal adjectives are adjectives, such as ''likely'', ''probable'' and ''necessary'', that express modality, i.e., possibility, necessity, or contingency. In English Modal adjectives can express modality regarding a situation or a participant in that situation. With situations, some usual syntactic patterns include an extraposed subject, such as the underlined elements in the following examples with the modal adjective in bold. Here the modal adjective is analyzed semantically as a sentential modal operator. # ''It's possible that some of them are broken.'' # ''It's likely that they will come.'' # ''It is necessary'' (''for us'') ''to make a choice''''.'' For participants, however, the usual syntactic construction has the adjective phrase in attributive modifier function, as in the following examples, where the modal adjective is again in bold and this time the participant in underlined. # ''We've found a potential replacement.'' # ''They need to file the necessary papers.'' # ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modal Adverbs
Modal adverbs are adverbs, such as ''probably'', ''necessarily'', and ''possibly'' that express modality, i.e., possibility, necessity, or contingency. In English ''The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language'' provides the following non-exhaustive list of modal adverbs at different levels of strength. Strong: ''assuredly'', ''certainly'', ''clearly'', ''definitely'', ''incontestably'', ''indubitably'', ''ineluctably'', ''inescapably'', ''manifestly'', ''necessarily'', ''obviously'', ''patently'', ''plainly'', ''surely'', ''truly'', ''unarguably'', ''unavoidably'', ''undeniably'', ''undoubtedly'', ''unquestionably'' Quasi-strong: ''apparently'', ''doubtless'', ''evidently'', ''presumably'', ''seemingly'' Medium: ''arguably'', ''likely'', ''probably'' Weak: ''conceivably'', ''maybe'', ''perhaps'', ''possibly'' Syntax and meaning Modal adverbs often appear as clause-initial adjuncts, and have scope over the whole clause, as in (1) with the adverb in bold. # ''Probably, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent gestures in sign languages), phonology (the abstract sound system of a particular language, and analogous systems of sign languages), and pragmatics (how the context of use contributes to meaning). Subdisciplines such as biolinguistics (the study of the biological variables and evolution of language) and psycholinguistics (the study of psychological factors in human language) bridge many of these divisions. Linguistics encompasses Outline of linguistics, many branches and subfields that span both theoretical and practical applications. Theoretical linguistics is concerned with understanding the universal grammar, universal and Philosophy of language#Nature of language, fundamental nature of language and developing a general ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semantics
Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction between sense and reference. Sense is given by the ideas and concepts associated with an expression while reference is the object to which an expression points. Semantics contrasts with syntax, which studies the rules that dictate how to create grammatically correct sentences, and pragmatics, which investigates how people use language in communication. Lexical semantics is the branch of semantics that studies word meaning. It examines whether words have one or several meanings and in what lexical relations they stand to one another. Phrasal semantics studies the meaning of sentences by exploring the phenomenon of compositionality or how new meanings can be created by arranging words. Formal semantics (natural language), Formal semantics relies o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
