THE PROBLEM OF MODALITY IN MODERN LINGUISTIC

Abstract

The study of modality in linguistics, that is, the pragmatic, semantic, and syntactic processes involved in its realization, has become increasingly more popular in recent years, paralleling the advent of Cognitive Linguistics as well as constructionist grammars. Interest in the subject of modality and its implications to language, however, is as ancient as the study of philosophy itself. Modality has enjoyed a long and heavily debated history as a subject of logical discussion by classical philosophers such as Aristotle and Socrates.