Meanings of English Modal Verbs

Yaquan CHEN

【中圖分类号】G424       【文献标识码】A

【文章编号】2095-3089（2019）23-0211-01

一、Introduction

English verbs， in general， can be divided into two broad categories， namely， auxiliary verbs and lexical verbs. Within the category of auxiliaries， there are two subdivision – modal verbs and non-modal verbs.In the next section， the meanings of the modal verbs will be looked through by analyzing the examples given in the topic or taken from a corpus （ICEGB）， and at the end， a brief summary of the whole essay will be presented.

二、An analysis of meanings expressed by modal verbs

1.Epistemic.

Epistemic modality usually concerns what is necessary， what is possible and the judgment one makes based on what is known. By using certain modal verbs， speakers are able to integrate their modality into the utterance and thus express their personal inference， prediction， opinion and attitude. For example，

（1）   It may rain tomorrow.

（2）   He might be in his office.

With the help of modal verbs， a certain degree of possibility is revealed on both examples. In the （1） example， the speaker indicates that it is possible that it will rain tomorrow. The reason why the speaker makes this judgment may be based on the weather today or simply just because he has seen the weather forecast. In （2）， the speaker may not know for sure that ‘he is in his office， but the speaker is inferring that he is according to what the speaker has known.

From all the examples above， epistemic modality is concerned with making inference and deduction about what could be true according to ones knowledge and experience or judging what is necessary to do according to the current situation.

2.Deontic.

If the modal verbs convey the meanings of permission and requirement， then we say these modals are interpreted deontically. When using deontic modal verbs， a speaker is actually giving permission or laying responsibility， and thus certain actions in response to the permission or given obligation will ensue. Firstly， the following pairs of examples illustrate how permission is expressed by using modal verbs：

（3）You can come in now.

（4） May I make a suggestion？

In example （5）， can here gives a permission.the sentence virtually means ‘you are allowed to come in now. Yet， in （6）， by using may， the speaker is instead asking for permission to do something. Interrogatives appear more often in the sentences with the sense of permission than others. In asking and giving permissions， can and may can be used interchangeably in almost all circumstances， except that may show more formality than can.

Permission and requirement are the two common modal meanings in deontic modality. One is related with the agreement or consent of an action， and the other is concerned the obligation and responsibility of that one is supposed to do. Correspondingly， there should be movements and actions after the utterance because of the ‘performative attribute of deontic modality. Yet， most often deontic modality does serve to ‘request some further action， though of course it may not have the desired perlocutionary effect.

3.Dynamic.

According to Palmer‘dynamic modality is concerned with the ability or volition of the subject of the sentence， and therefore he uses the term ‘subject-oriented to describe the property of this modality. Except for indicating ability and volition， courage also belongs to dynamic interpretation. for examples：

（5）John could speak three languages.

（6）They can do better than theyve been doing.

Both of the modal verbs ‘could and ‘can here are interpreted dynamically because they manifest the speakers ability. The first example here shows that John is multilingual and he is capable of speaking three languages. The second one also indicates that the speaker thinks their ability is beyond that and they should be able to perform better than they have been doing.

三、Are there ambiguous sentences

According to Huddleston and Pullum （2005： 55）， there are many ambiguous sentences examples which allow more than one interpretation. However， I disagree with this idea. It is true that some modal verbs can be interpreted differently when they are used in different contexts， but it does not mean that they are ambiguous， because the modal meanings expressed are clear and certain if the contexts are given.

四、Conclusion

Modal verbs are quite helpful in both speech and writing as they can convey modal meanings in a subtle and convenient way simply by inserting them before the main verbs. It is wrong to assume that one modal verb can only have one corresponding modality. There are modals that can be used widely in many contexts to express different meanings. Yet， it is indeed true that ambiguity is just an illusion that is created by omission of the context. Once the context is given it would leave on doubts about what modality the sentence expresses. Therefore， there is no such saying as there are ambiguous sentences.