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languagebraindump · 3 years

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Modality in languages

What’s up with that? I mean, sounds too fancy, right? Well, modality allows us to express the 'possibility' of a past, present, or future situation. It helps us convey our desires, the likelihood of a situation, and that something is permissible. In some languages, it is well-developed and standardized (like in English) or like in Polish or Japanese, not so much.

Another definition that will help us understand things better is ‘displacement.’

In linguistics, displacement is the capability of language to communicate about things that are not immediately present (spatially or temporally). (Wikipedia)

Animals communicate things that are only happening now; in front of their eyes. Human beings can go further than that. We can talk about the past, future, present, alternative past situations, imaginary/unreal situations, etc.

Modality is a sign of displacement. It helps us express extra information about a verb, for example, whether the verb is possible to happen, how sure I am about the verb to happen, whether it’s a good idea or maybe it is just my guess. AMAZING feature.

Whenever I ask my students: "What does it mean that a verb is modal?" No one knows. They just learn 1:1 translations. I know, it’s easier that way, and not everyone wants to be a proficient user of a foreign language. But I really believe that adopting that bottom-up approach in learning is so much better and efficient. Let’s start small, let’s define the core meaning first, let’s build a solid foundation on which we can build up our knowledge.

Modality in English

I’m sharing this with you. It’s from Grammarway 4. Amazing book. It briefly summarizes the CONCEPT of each modal verb.

My biggest issue is that none of that corresponds to the Japanese modality. You just can’t find pairs that would be like must = [Japanese phrase #1]; should = [Japanese phrase #2].

I'm Polish, and learning English modal verbs was a pain in the ass! (It still is sometimes) Why? Because rather than using one modal verb, let’s say should, to express certain concepts, we use multiple phrases (in Polish). There is a 1:1 translation tho (for should), but depending on the CONTEXT, the SPEAKER, the NUANCE, we can resort to something completely different, a phrase that is 5-words long but conveys the same meaning as should. Why do such a thing? Maybe, I didn’t want to sound super harsh, like a preacher; maybe, I wanted to signal something without coming across as bossy. Lots of reasons.

I’m studying Japanese in English, and that creates lots of problems sometimes. Polish is similar to Japanese in way more aspects than English. (For example, both belong to high/middle context cultures, which are apparent in language). Unfortunately, there aren’t enough Polish resources to study Japanese. Modality is one of those problems.

What helped me a lot with learning about modality was:

reading the situation; analyzing the context;

modal verbs = concepts;

a modal verb in English = too many phrases in Japanese;

the choice of a phrase in Japanese is dictated by the speaker's current attitude to a situation.

Fancy quote #1

In Japanese linguistics, ‘modality’ is typically defined as the category of linguistic expressions that serve to express the speaker's current attitude to a proposition (Nakau: 1979)

Fancy quote #2

Modality has to do with necessity and possibility. (Kratzer 1981:39)

Fancy quote #3

The interpretation of natural language sentences is investigated against the backdrop of a set of possible worlds representing any conceivable state of affairs, one of them the actual world.(Kaufmann & Tamura: 2017)

[there are two worlds the current one, and the one that is expressed through modal verbs]

Four types of modality

epistemic modality (i.e., expressions that relate to displacement according to what is known or believed, conjectures, guesses)

epistemic: relating to knowledge or the study of knowledge (Macmillan dictionary)

prioritizing modality (i.e., expressions that characterize what is permitted, required, or desired)

dynamic modality (relating to what courses of events are compatible with a particular body of facts/ circumstances and/or a subject’s abilities, describing abilities).

denotic modality (i.e., modal expressions relating to permissions, requirements, and wishes; modal expressions that relate to rules, laws, or regulations of some sort) (Kaufmann & Tamura: 2017）

Expressions of epistemic modality

～だろう, ～はずだ, ～に違いない, and ～かもしれない are conventionally associated with the domain of knowledge and belief.

だろう・でしょう・はずだ express the outcome of an inferential process (Hara 2006). (conclusions; speculations; assumptions)

に違いない (lit. ‘there is no mistake in’, Narrog 2009:89) suggests that what comes before it is entailed. As in: Spending more than you earn, entails financial problems; Being rich entails the risk of being robbed.

You must be rich = お金持ちに違いない (what is implied and could be before this phrase is: seeing your huge house, expensive car, and other luxuries ← these entail richness. You must be rich.)

かもしれない (lit. ‘can’t know whether’) suggests that whatever comes before it is compatible with what is known. Simply put, it means that the information marked by かもしれない can coexist with what we know. We’re preparing a presentation, and we need more ideas. We’re brainstorming some, and I throw in something marked by かもしれない. I did no harm, and my idea can coexist with other ideas (that kind of feeling).

There’s definitely more phrases. Check out my cool Deidara post for that. I haven’t included all of them tho.

Prioritizing modality

I like to think about it as a scale (priority scale). 1 = not important, whatever; 10 = you’ll end up in the pits of hell if you do or do not do something. Some things are super important and some are not. Japanese uses conditional(-like) constructions to express that something is permissible or required in view of the relevant rules or goals.

Among the expressions that relate to rules, regulations, or laws, goals, and wishes, we can distinguish: (I'd place these expressions between 5 and 10. You need to consider who is the speaker as well. If the emperor tells you that something is てもいい well, THE EMPEROR said that, so it’s 10 and don’t you dare to argue with that.)

～てもいい（It is good even if you [verb.])

～ではいけない (If/when [verb/phrase], it can’t go.)

～なければならない・いけない (‘If I [verb/phrase], it doesn’t become.)

(These are 1- 5. BUT! If Madara used one of these, I’d consider it 10 no matter what, lol)

～ほうがいい; the weaker notion that something is recommendable based on practical considerations (without being outrightly necessary) (lit. ‘the direction is good’).

～べきだ; the formal noun べきだ is semantically similar but tends to involve a notion of moral or social appropriateness, which can be absent from ほうがいい.

～たらいい; giving advice

Extra: forms expressing wishes such as ～たい; ～てほしい; ～つもりです are also included in the prioritizing modality. Definitely weaker than the abovementioned ones.

Finally, imperatives (verbal ending ～え/～よ/～ろ) and ～なさい, (used with children and for instructions) as well as ～てください (for polite requests; and ”let’s [verb]” forms, also express notions of prioritizing modality.

Check out my cool Sakura post for more!

There’s also a dynamic modality! But I’ll leave it for another day! I’ve already composed posts related to prioritizing modality and epistemic modality. I’m yet to look for some examples of dynamic modality. It’s better that way.

Note: I haven’t included any translations here (should; must, might; etc). I want you to think of these phrases in different categories. Ok, so I’m making an assumption. How sure I am about it? Who is my speaker? Are there any evidence for my assumptions? Instead of looking for 1:1 translation, analyze the context!

References:

https://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/jQ3MTA2Z/kaufmann-tamura-japanese-modality.pdf

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