./main.vrb:8: Missing Number

A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a likelihood, ability, permission, request, capacity, proposition, order, obligation, or communication. Modal verbs ever accompany the base (infinitive) grade of another verb having semantic content.^[1] In English, the modal verbs unremarkably used are tin, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, and must.

Function [edit]

A modal auxiliary verb gives data about the role of the primary verb that it governs. Modals accept a broad variety of communicative functions, but these functions tin generally exist related to a calibration 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 beingness true or not true (including likelihood and certainty)
deontic modality, concerned with possibility and necessity in terms of liberty to act (including permission and duty)
dynamic modality,^[2] which may be distinguished from deontic modality in that, with dynamic modality, the workout factors are internal – the subject area's own ability or willingness to act^[iii]

The following sentences illustrate epistemic and deontic uses of the English language modal verb must:

epistemic: You must exist starving. ("I recall it is almost a certainty that yous are starving.")
deontic: You must go out now. ("Yous are required to get out at present.")

An cryptic example is Y'all must speak Spanish. The primary meaning would be the deontic meaning ("You are required to speak Spanish.") merely this may be intended epistemically ("Information technology is surely the case that y'all speak Spanish.") Epistemic modals tin be analyzed as raising verbs, while deontic modals tin can be analyzed as command verbs.

Epistemic usages of modals tend to develop from deontic usages.^[4] For example, the inferred certainty sense of English language must developed after the strong obligation sense; the probabilistic sense of should developed afterward the weak obligation sense; and the possibility senses of may and tin can developed after than the permission or ability sense. Two typical sequences of development of modal meanings are:

internal mental ability → internal power → root possibility (internal or external power) → permission and epistemic possibility
obligation → probability

In Germanic languages [edit]

English [edit]

The following table lists the modal auxiliary verbs of standard English and various senses in which they are used:

Modal auxiliary	Epistemic sense	Deontic sense	Dynamic sense
tin can	That can indeed hinder.	You tin can sing underwater.	She can really sing.
could	That could happen soon.	–	He could swim when he was immature.
may	That may be a problem.	May I stay?	–
might	The weather might meliorate.	–	–
must	It must be hot outside.	Sam must go to school.	–
shall	–	You shall not pass.	–
should	That should exist surprising.	Yous should stop that.	I should like that.
volition	She will try to lie.	I will see yous later.	–
would	Nothing would accomplish that.	–	Nosotros would eat out on Sundays.

The verbs in this listing all have the following characteristics:

They are auxiliary verbs, which means they permit subject-auxiliary inversion and tin accept the negation not,
They convey functional pregnant,
They are lacking insofar every bit they cannot be inflected, nor do they appear in non-finite grade (i.e. not every bit infinitives, gerunds, or participles),
They are withal always finite and thus announced as the root verb in their clause, and
They subcategorize for an infinitive, i.due east. they take an infinitive every bit their complement

The verbs/expressions dare, ought to, had meliorate, and need non behave similar modal auxiliaries to a big extent, although they are not productive (in linguistics, the extent commonly or frequently used) in the office to the same extent as those listed here. Furthermore, at that place are numerous other verbs that can be viewed as modal verbs insofar as they clearly express modality in the aforementioned way that the verbs in this list do, east.thousand. announced, have to, seem etc. In the strict sense, though, these other verbs do non qualify as modal verbs in English because they do non allow subject-auxiliary inversion, nor do they permit negation with not. Verbs such as be able to and be about to permit subject field-auxiliary inversion and do not require do-support in negatives but these are rarely classified as modal verbs because they inflect and are a modal structure involving the verb to be which itself is not a modal verb. If, however, 1 defines modal verb entirely in terms of meaning contribution, then these other verbs would too be modals and so the listing hither would have to be greatly expanded.

Defectiveness [edit]

In English, modals form a very distinctive grade of verbs. They are auxiliary verbs as are be, do, and have, simply unlike those iii verbs, they are grammatically lacking. For example, take → has vs. should → *shoulds and practise → did vs. may → *mayed, etc. In clauses that contain ii or more verbs, any modal that is present e'er appears leftmost in the verb catena (chain). Thus, modal verbs are always finite and, in terms of syntactic structure, the root of their containing clause. The post-obit dependency grammar trees illustrate this point:

The verb catenae are in bluish. The modal auxiliary in both copse is the root of the entire sentence. The verb that is immediately subordinate to the modal is always an infinitive. The fact that modal auxiliaries in English language are necessarily finite means that within the minimal finite clause that contains them, they tin never be subordinate to another verb, e.grand.,

a. Sam may have done his homework. The modal auxiliary may is the root of the clause.

b. *Sam has may done his homework. Fails because the modal auxiliary may is not the root of the clause.

a. Jim volition be helped. The modal auxiliary volition is the root of the clause.

b. *Jim is will be helped. Fails considering the modal auxiliary will is not the root of the clause.

Such limits in form (tense, etc.) and syntactic distribution of this class of verbs are motivation of the designation defective. Other constructions are frequently used for such a "missing" course in place of a modal, including "exist able to" for can, "have to" for must, and "be going to" for shall and will (designating the future). It is of note that in this manner, English modal auxiliaries are different modal verbs in other closely related languages; see below.

Practise constructions [edit]

In English language, primary verbs but non modal verbs always require the auxiliary verb do to form negations and questions, and practice tin can be used with main verbs to form emphatic affirmative statements. (Neither negations nor questions in early modern English used to require do.) Since modal verbs are auxiliary verbs as is practice, in questions and negations they announced in the word order the same as do.

	normal verb	modal verb
affirmative	he works	he can work
negation	he does non work	he cannot work
emphatic	he does piece of work hard	he can work hard
question	does he work here?	can he work at all?
negation + question	does he not work hither?	can he not work at all?

Some class of auxiliary "exercise" occurs in all West Germanic languages except Afrikaans.^[5] Its occurrence in the Western frisian languages is restricted to Saterland Western frisian, where it may be a loan from Low High german.^[six] In both German and Dutch, the construction has been known since the Eye Ages and is common in dialects, but is considered ungrammatical in the modern standard language.^[7] The Duden lists the following iii potential uses of tun (to practice) in modernistic German, with only the get-go being considered standard:^[8]

	case	English language translation
verb topicalization	Essen tue* ich schon immer am Liebsten.*	To swallow (stressed topic of the sentence) I've ever liked the nigh.
present/future auxiliary	Ich tu bloß schnell die Blumen gießen.	I'll just chop-chop h2o the flowers
subjunctive auxiliary	Das täte* mich schon interessieren.*	That would certainly interest me

Comparison with other Germanic languages [edit]

The English modal verbs share many features and often etymology with modal verbs in other Germanic languages.

The table below lists some modal verbs with common roots in the Due west Germanic languages English, German, Dutch, Low Saxon, Westward Frisian and Afrikaans, the North Germanic languages Danish, Swedish and Faeroese, and the extinct E Germanic Gothic language. This list comprises cognates, which evolved from sometime Germanic modal auxiliaries. It does non attempt to be complete for any one of the modern languages, every bit some verbs have lost or gained modal character later in separate languages. (English modal auxiliary verb provides an exhaustive listing of modal verbs in English, and German language verb#Modal verbs provides a list for German language, with translations. Dutch verbs#Irregular verbs gives conjugations for some Dutch modals.)

Words in the same row of the table beneath share the same etymological root. Because of semantic drift, however, words in the same row may no longer be proper translations of each other. For instance, the English and German verbs will are completely different in meaning, and the German one has nothing to practise with constructing the future tense. These words are fake friends.

In (modern) English language, Afrikaans, Danish, and Swedish, the plural and singular forms are identical. For German, Dutch, Low Saxon, West Western frisian, Faroese and Gothic, both a (non the) plural and a atypical class of the verb are shown. Forms within parentheses are obsolete, rare, and/or mainly dialectal in the modern languages.

Etymological relatives (non translations)

English	High german	Dutch	Low Saxon	West Frisian	Afrikaans	Danish^[ix]	Swedish	Faroese^[ten]	Gothic^[11]
tin	können, kann	kunnen, kan	könen, kann	kinne, kin	kan	kan	kan	kunna, kann	kunnum, kann
shall	sollen, soll	zullen, zal	schölen, schall	sille, sil	sal	skal	ska(ll)	skula, skal	skulum, skal
will	wollen, will	willen, wil	wüllen, will	wolle, wol	wil	vil	vill	vilja, vil	wileima, wiljau ^[12]
(mote), must	müssen, muss	moeten, moet	möten, mutt	moatte, moat	moet	måste	måste	?	-,gamōt
may	mögen, mag	mogen, mag	mögen, mag	meie, mei	magazine	må	(må)	mega, má	magum, mag
(wit)	wissen, weiß	weten, weet	?	witte, wit	weet	ved	vet	vita, veit	witum, look
(tharf^[13])	dürfen, darf	durven, durf	dörven, dörv	doarre, doar	durf	?	får	?	þaúrbum, þarf

The English language could is the preterite form of can; should is the preterite of shall; might is the preterite of may; and must was originally the preterite class of mote. (This is ignoring the use of "may" every bit a vestige of the subjunctive mood in English.) These verbs take acquired an contained, present tense meaning. The German language verb möchten is sometimes taught as a vocabulary word and included in the listing of modal verbs, but it is actually the by subjunctive grade of mögen.

The English verbs dare and need have both a modal utilize (he dare not exercise information technology), and a non-modal apply (he doesn't cartel to do it). The Dutch, West Frisian, and Afrikaans verbs durven, doarre, and durf are not considered modals (simply they are there, nevertheless) considering their modal use has disappeared, merely they have a non-modal use analogous with the English dare. Some English language modals consist of more than one word, such as "had better" and "would rather".^[fourteen]

Owing to their modal characteristics, modal verbs are among a very select grouping of verbs in Afrikaans that accept a preterite form. Most verbs in Afrikaans only have a present and a perfect form.

Some other English verbs express modality although they are not modal verbs considering they are non auxiliaries, including want , wish , hope , and similar . All of these differ from the modals in English language (with the disputed exception of ought (to)) in that the associated principal verb takes its long infinitive form with the particle to rather than its short form without to, and in that they are fully conjugated.

Morphology and syntax [edit]

Germanic modal verbs are preterite-present verbs, which means that their present tense has the grade of a vocalic preterite. This is the source of the vowel alternation between singular and plural in German, Dutch, and Depression Saxon. Considering of their preterite origins, modal verbs besides lack the suffix (-s in modern English, -t in High german, Dutch, Depression Saxon and West Frisian, -r in the North Germanic languages, -þ in Gothic) that would normally mark the third person singular form. Afrikaans verbs do not conjugate, and thus Afrikaans non-modal verbs do not have a suffix either:

	normal verb	modal verb
English language	he worksouthward	he can
German	er arbeitet	er kann
Dutch	hij werkt	hij kan
Low Saxon	he warkt	he kann
Westward Frisian	hy wurket	hy kin
Afrikaans	hy werk	hy kan
Danish	han arbejder	han kan
Swedish	han arbetar	han kan
Faeroese	hann arbeiðir	hann kann
Gothic	is waurkeiþ	is kann

The master verb that is modified by the modal verb is in the infinitive form and is not preceded by the word to (German language: zu, Low Saxon to, Dutch and W Western frisian te, Afrikaans om te,). In that location are verbs that may seem somewhat like in meaning to modal verbs (east.1000. similar, want), just the construction with such verbs would exist different:

	normal verb	modal verb
English	he tries to work	he can work
High german	er versucht zu arbeiten	er kann arbeiten
Dutch	hij probeert te werken	hij kan werken
Low Saxon	he versöcht to warken	he kann warken
Westward Frisian	hy besiket te wurkje	hy kin wurkje
Afrikaans	hy probeer om te werk	hy kan werk
Gothic	is sokeiþ du waurkjan	is kann waurkjan

Similarly, in North Germanic languages, the infinitive marker (at in Danish and Faroese, att in Swedish) is not used for main verbs with modal auxiliaries: Han kan arbejde, han kan arbeta, hann kann arbeiða (he tin can work). However, there as well are some other constructions where the infinitive mark need not exist employed, every bit in Swedish han försöker arbeta (he tries to piece of work).

Less defective [edit]

In English language, modal verbs are called defective verbs considering of their incomplete conjugation: they accept a narrower range of functions than ordinary verbs. For example, nigh accept no infinitive or gerund.

In many Germanic languages, the modal verbs may exist used in more functions than in English. In German, for example, modals tin can occur equally non-finite verbs, which means they can be subordinate to other verbs in verb catenae; they demand not appear as the clause root. In Swedish, some (but non all) modal verbs have infinitive forms. This for instance enables catenae containing several modal auxiliaries. The modal verbs are underlined in the post-obit table.

Linguistic communication	Sentence
English	he must be able to do it
German	er muss das tun können
Swedish	han måste kunna göra det

The Swedish judgement translated word past give-and-take would yield the impossible "*he must can do it"; the same goes for the German one, except that German has a unlike discussion club in such clauses, yielding "*he must it exercise can".

In other languages [edit]

Hawaiian Pidgin [edit]

Hawaiian Pidgin is a creole language most of whose vocabulary, but not grammar, is drawn from English. As is generally the case with creole languages, it is an isolating language and modality is typically indicated by the use of invariant pre-verbal auxiliaries.^[15] The invariance of the modal auxiliaries to person, number, and tense makes them analogous to modal auxiliaries in English language. However, as in most creoles the main verbs are besides invariant; the auxiliaries are distinguished past their use in combination with (followed by) a chief verb.

At that place are various preverbal modal auxiliaries: kaen "tin can", laik "want to", gata "take got to", haeftu "accept to", baeta "had meliorate", sapostu "am/is/are supposed to". Different in Germanic languages, tense markers are used, albeit infrequently, before modals: gon kaen kam "is going to be able to come". Waz "was" can indicate by tense earlier the future/volitional marking gon and the modal sapostu: Ai waz gon lift weits "I was gonna lift weights"; Ai waz sapostu go "I was supposed to go".

Hawaiian [edit]

Hawaiian, like the Polynesian languages generally, is an isolating linguistic communication, so its verbal grammar exclusively relies on unconjugated verbs. Thus, as with creoles, in that location is no real distinction between modal auxiliaries and lexically modal main verbs that are followed by another main verb. Hawaiian has an imperative indicated by e + verb (or in the negative by mai + verb). Some examples of the treatment of modality are as follows:^[16] ^{: pp. 38–39} Pono conveys obligation/necessity as in He pono i na kamali'i a pau e maka'ala, "Information technology'due south correct for children all to beware", "All children should/must beware"; power is conveyed past hiki as in Ua hiki i keia kamali'i ke heluhelu "Has enabled to this kid to read", "This kid can read".

French [edit]

French, like some other Romance languages, does not take a grammatically distinct form of modal auxiliary verbs; instead, information technology expresses modality using conjugated verbs followed by infinitives: for example, "to exist able" (Je peux aller, "I can go"), devoir "to take an obligation" (Je dois aller, "I must go"), and vouloir "to want" (Je veux aller "I desire to go").

Italian [edit]

Modal verbs in Italian grade a distinct class (verbi modali or verbi servili).^[17] They can be easily recognized by the fact that they are the only grouping of verbs that does non have a fixed auxiliary verb for forming the perfect, but they can inherit it from the verb they accompany – Italian tin can take ii different auxiliary verbs for forming the perfect, avere ("to have"), and essere ("to exist"). At that place are in total 4 modal verbs in Italian: potere ("can"), volere ("want"), dovere ("must"), sapere ("to be able to"). Modal verbs in Italian are the only group of verbs allowed to follow this particular beliefs. When they exercise not back-trail other verbs, they all apply avere ("to accept") every bit a helping verb for forming the perfect.

For case, the helping verb for the perfect of potere ("tin") is avere ("take"), equally in ho potuto (lit. "I-have been-able","I could"); nevertheless, when used together with a verb that has every bit auxiliary essere ("exist"), potere inherits the auxiliary of the second verb. For case: ho visitato il castello (lit. "I-have visited the castle") / ho potuto visitare il castello (lit. "I-take been-able to-visit the castle","I could visit the castle"); just sono scappato (lit. "I-am escaped", "I take escaped") / sono potuto scappare (lit. "I-am been-able to-escape", "I could escape").

Annotation that, like in other Romance languages, there is no stardom between an infinitive and a bare infinitive in Italian, hence modal verbs are non the only group of verbs that accompanies an infinitive (where in English language instead there would be the form with "to" – encounter for case Ho preferito scappare ("I have preferred to escape"). Thus, while in English a modal verb can exist easily recognized by the sole presence of a blank infinitive, there is no easy way to distinguish the four traditional Italian modal verbs from other verbs, except the fact that the former are the but verbs that do non take a fixed auxiliary verb for the perfect. For this reason some grammars consider also the verbs osare ("to dare to"), preferire ("to refer to"), desiderare ("to desire to"), solere ("to apply to") equally modal verbs, despite these always use avere as auxiliary verb for the perfect.^[17]

Mandarin Chinese [edit]

Mandarin Chinese is an isolating language without inflections. As in English, modality tin exist indicated either lexically, with main verbs such as yào "desire" followed by some other main verb, or with auxiliary verbs. In Mandarin the auxiliary verbs have half dozen backdrop that distinguish them from main verbs:^[xviii] ^{: pp.173–174}

They must co-occur with a verb (or an understood verb).
They cannot be accompanied by aspect markers.
They cannot exist modified by intensifiers such as "very".
They cannot exist nominalized (used in phrases meaning, for example, "one who can")
They cannot occur before the subject area.
They cannot have a directly object.

The complete list of modal auxiliary verbs^[18] ^{: pp.182–183} consists of

three significant "should",
four meaning "exist able to",
two pregnant "have permission to",
1 pregnant "dare",
one meaning "be willing to",
four meaning "must" or "ought to", and
1 significant "volition" or "know how to".

Spanish [edit]

Spanish, like French, uses fully conjugated verbs followed by infinitives. For example, poder "to be able" (Puedo andar, "I can walk"), deber "to have an obligation" (Debo andar, "I must walk"), and querer "to want" (Quiero andar "I want to walk").

The correct apply of andar in these examples would be reflexive. "Puedo andar" ways "I can walk", "Puedo irme" means "I tin go" or "I can take myself off/away". The same applies to the other examples.

See as well [edit]

English language auxiliaries and contractions
German modal particle
Grammatical mood
Modal logic

References [edit]

^ Palmer, F. R., Mood and Modality, Cambridge University Presents, 2001, p. 33
^ A Brusque Overview of English Syntax (Rodney Huddleston), section 6.5d
^ Palmer, op. cit., p. 70. The subsequent text shows that the intended definitions were transposed.
^ Bybee,Joan; Perkins, Revere; and Pagliuca, William. The Evolution of Grammer, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994, pp.192-199
^ Langer, Nils (2001). Linguistic Purism in Activeness: How auxiliary tun was stigmatized in Early New High German. de Gruyter. p. 12. ISBN9783110881103.
^ Langer, Nils (2001). Linguistic Purism in Activity: How auxiliary tun was stigmatized in Early New Loftier High german. de Gruyter. p. 14. ISBN9783110881103.
^ Langer, Nils (2001). Linguistic Purism in Action: How auxiliary tun was stigmatized in Early New High German. de Gruyter. p. 14. ISBN9783110881103.
^ Langer, Nils (2001). Linguistic Purism in Action: How auxiliary tun was stigmatized in Early on New High German language. de Gruyter. p. 7. ISBN9783110881103.
^ The forms are given as in §85 and in §84 2 of Dansk grammatik (in Danish) past Niels Nielsen, Gleerups förlag, 1959, but with modernised orthography.
^ The forms are given equally in §77 and in §83 h) of An introduction to modern Faroese by Westward. B. Lockwood, Thórshavn, 1977.
^ These starting time person forms are given as in §96 and in §101 of Germanische Sprachwissenschaft, Two. Formenlehre (in High german) by Hans Krahe, Sammlung Göschen, Band 780, 1942.
^ Krahe (op.cit., §101) treats this verb separately. He notes, that in Gothic the endings are the usual ones for the optative preterite, and assumes that this reflects the original situation. Later, he argues, in e.m. Anglo-Saxon, they were replaced past the ordinary indicative preterite forms, under influence of the preterite-nowadays verbs proper.
^ Obsolete or dialectal, confused with and replaced by dare (OED, s.five. †tharf, thar, 5. and dare, 5. ¹).
^ Ian Jacobs. English language Modal Verbs. August 1995
^ Sakoda, Kent, and Jeff Siegel, Pidgin Grammar, Bess Press, 2003.
^ Alexander, W. D., Introduction to Hawaiian Grammar, Dover Publ., 2004
^ ^a ^b Verbi servili – Treccani
^ ^a ^b Li, Charles North., and Sandra A. Thomson, Standard mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammer, 1989.

Modalverben

Bibliography [edit]

The Syntactic Evolution of Modal Verbs in the History of English
Walter W. Skeat, The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology (1993), Wordsworth Editions Ltd.

{Aggrandize section|date=May 2008}

External links [edit]

German Modal Verbs A grammer lesson covering the German modal verbs
(in Portuguese) Modal Verbs
Modal Verb Tutorial

shorgraters.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_verb