Mood and Modality [Paperback]

Palmer investigates the category of modality, drawing on a wealth of examples from a wide variety of languages.Since the publication of F. R. Palmer's Mood and Modality in 1986, when the topic of 'modality' was fairly unfamiliar, there has been considerable interest in the subject as well as in grammatical typology in general. Modality is concerned with mood (subjunctive etc.) and with modal markers such as English modal verbs (can, may, must etc.) and is treated as a single grammatical category found in most of the languages of the world. Palmer investigates this category, drawing on a wealth of examples from a wide variety of languages.Since the publication of F. R. Palmer's Mood and Modality in 1986, when the topic of 'modality' was fairly unfamiliar, there has been considerable interest in the subject as well as in grammatical typology in general. Modality is concerned with mood (subjunctive etc.) and with modal markers such as English modal verbs (can, may, must etc.) and is treated as a single grammatical category found in most of the languages of the world. Palmer investigates this category, drawing on a wealth of examples from a wide variety of languages.Since the publication of F. R. Palmer's Mood and Modality in 1986, when the topic of modality was fairly unfamiliar, there has been considerable interest in the subject as well as in grammatical typology in general. Modality is concerned with mood (subjunctive etc.) and with modal markers such as English modal verbs (can, may, must etc.) and is treated as a single grammatical category found in most of the languages of the world. Palmer investigates this category, drawing on a wealth of examples from a wide variety of languages.Preface; Note on the text; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction; 2. Modal systems: propositional modality; 3. Modal systems: event modality; 4. Modal systems and modal verbs; 5. Indicative and subjunctive; 6. Realis and Irrealis; 7. Subjunctive and irrealis; 8. Past tense as modals.