Mood And Modality
Mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to signal modality.
Modality is a facet of illocutionary force, signaled by grammatical devices (that is, moods), that expresses:
- the illocutionary point or general intent of a speaker
- a speaker’s degree of commitment to the expressed proposition's believability, obligatoriness, desirability, or reality
The term mood is used by some authors in the same sense modality is.
Others distinguish the two, as we do here, by using mood to refer to the contrastive grammatical expressions of different modalities and reserving modality to refer to the meanings so expressed.
If, in addition, modality is used to refer to meanings expressed by lexical means as well as grammatical, it is effectively a synonym of illocutionary force.
(English)
Here are some examples of mood and modality; items that signal certain modalities:
- Verbal inflections
- Auxiliary verbs
Richards, Jack, John Platt, and Heidi Weber. 1985.Longman dictionary of applied linguistics. Harlow, Essex, England: Longman.
Quirk, Randolph, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, and J. Svartvik. 1985.A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.
Palmer, F. R. 1986.Mood and modality. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University.
Mish, Frederick (editor). 1991.Webster's ninth new collegiate dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster. 1,564 pages. 0877795088; indexed 0877795096; deluxe 087779510X.
Hartmann, R.R.K., and F.C. Stork. 1972.Dictionary of language and linguistics. London: Applied Science.
Givón, T. 1984.Syntax: A functional-typological introduction. Volume I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Crystal, David. 1985.A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. 2nd edition. New York: Basil Blackwell.
Chung, Sandra, and Alan Timberlake. 1985.Tense, aspect, and mood . In Shopen 1985d
Bybee, Joan L. 1985.Morphology: A study of the relation between meaning and form. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Broader Terms
More specific terms
- NT2 ↓ Alethic Modality
- NT2 ↓ Deontic Modality ►
- NT2 ↓ Epistemic Modality ►
- NT2 ↓ Irrealis Modality ►
- NT2 ↓ Necessity
- NT2 ↓ Possibility
- NT2 ↓ Realis Modality
Related terms
- RT⇆ Auxiliary Verb
- RT⇆ Event
- RT⇆ Grounding
- RT⇆ Illocutionary Force
- RT⇆ Illocutionary Force Indicating Device
- RT⇆ Illocutionary Point
- RT⇆ Infinitive
- RT⇆ Inflection
- RT⇆ Inflectional Affix
- RT⇆ Nonfinite Verb
- RT⇆ Preterit
- RT⇆ Proposition
- RT⇆ Serial Verb Construction
- RT⇆ Synonym Lexical Relation
- ExactMatch: https://glossary.sil.org/term/mood-and-modality
