Modalitäten

ModalitiesThe article deals with three dimensions of modality: (i) types of modality, (ii) modal relations, and (iii) modality forms. The first question concerns the totality of modal functions including those encoded by modal verbs both in deontic and in epistemic reading as well as grammatical and semi-grammatical modal signals. The second problem deals with various categorial interfaces and affinities between modality and other verbal categories, i.e. time, voice, and aspect. In the third section diverse forms of encoding modality are discussed. The general claim of the article is that modality signals indicate not only their genuine relation to "facticity", but also a variety of cross-categorial interactions in the verbal paradigm as a whole.