Modal Words and Phrases

Lesson 10. TYPOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FUNCTIONAL WORDS

Contents

1. Modal Words and Phrases. 1

2. Typological Characteristics of Prepositions. 2

3. Typology of the Conjunctions. 3

4. Typological Characteristics of Particles. 4

5. Typological Characteristics of Interjections/Emotives. 5

Modal Words and Phrases

The lexical units belonging to this part of speech are characterised in both languages by their meaning of "modality". They are used to express the speaker's judgement concerning the action/event or object in the utterance/ sentence. These words/phrases in English and Ukrainian are as follows: certainly, indeed, maybe, perhaps, possibly, probably, of course, no doubt - певне, напевне, звичайно, може, можливо, безумовно, безсумнівно and others.

Modals are traditionally classified as follows:

· Modal words/phrases expressing various shades of certainty: cer tainly, of course, surely, no doubt, assuredly, indeed, undoubtedly, really (певне, напевне, звичайно, безсумнівно, безперечно, безумовно, зрозуміло, правда).

· Modal words expressing various degrees of probability: maybe, perhaps, possibly, probably (може, можливо, мабуть, ймовірно, видно, здається):

· Modal words expressing various shades of desirability (fortunate ly, unfortunately), which have a restricted number of semantic equiva lents in Ukrainian (на щастя, на жаль, шкода):

· Modal words expressing doubt, uncertainty and coincidingin form with the modal words denoting probability (maybe, perhaps, proba bly — може, можливо, мабуть):

The subjective and objective attitude of the speaker towards an event/ action may often be expressed by several other parenthetic words and phrases which may point a) to the authorship of the idea/assertion expressed in the sentence, eg.: they say, as reported, in my view, to my mind, 1 think - кажуть, як повідомляють, на мою думку, як говориться, etc.; b) to words and phrases expressing an estimation of the expressed idea in the sentence (shortly speaking, generally speaking, in a word — коротко кажучи, відверто кажучи, одне слово, etc.); c) to words pointing to the order or succession of ideas expressed in the sentence (firstly, secondly, on the contrary - по-перше, по-друге, навпаки, etc.).

One more common feature of modals in the contrasted languages is their position in the sentence. Most of them may occupy any position according to the emphasis they are given by the author/speaker. Cf. Perhaps he will come. He will, perhaps, come. He will come, perhaps.(Можливо, він прийде; він, можливо, прийде; він прийде, можливо). Modals may also be used in both contrasted languages as elliptical answers to some utterances.