Modality in Contemporary English

"The book offers a stimulating read, with the papers in sections two and three in particular providing a great deal of thought-provoking material."Martin J. Endley in: Studies in Language 7/2007 "This volume is a valuable and representative collection of current approaches to modality in contemporary English. It rewards the reader with fundamental theoretical knowlegde of modal concepts, but also offers profound insight into a wide range of practical applications."Ilse Wischer in: Anglia 3/2006 "The volume is worthy of inclusion in any collection of writings on the topic of modality, particularly for those whose interests are concerned with (emerging) modal verbs."Alison Cort in: English Language and Linguistics 2/2004 "The volume is very helpful to faculty and students in linguistics and language teaching, and to anyone who is eager to know why and how speakers use modality to convey their attitude to the truth of proposition. Especially, many of the findings and claims deserve the attention of English teachers."Xinzhang Yang in: Word, Volume 57, Number 1 (April, 2006)

Roberta Facchinetti is Associate Professor at the University of Verona, Italy. Manfred Krug is Associate Professor at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Frank R. Palmer is Professor Emeritus at the University of Reading, UK.

Preface Roberta Facchinetti, Manfred Krug, Frank Palmer Modality in English: theoretical, descriptive and typological issues Frank Palmer The semantics and pragmatics of core modal verbs Irrealis, past time reference and modality Paul Larreya Modal auxiliary constructions, TAM and interrogatives Richard Matthews A pragmatic analysis of the epistemic would construction in English Gregory Ward, Betty J. Birner, Jeffrey P. Kaplan Towards a contextual micro-analysis of the non-equivalence of might and could Stphane Gresset The status of emerging modal items On two distinct uses of go as a conjoined marker of evaluative modality Philippe Bourdin Had better and might as well: on the margins of modality? Keith Mitchell What you and I want: A functional approach to verb complementation of modal want to Heidi Verplaetse Between epistemic modality and degree: the case of really Carita Paradis Stylistic variation and change Modality on the move: the English modal auxiliaries 1961-1992 Geoffrey Leech