Дипломная работа: Modal verbs

If we wish to make a command or request more expressive, we use the emphatic form. It’s also an analytical form built up with the help of the plain stem of the auxiliary verb to do which is placed before the notional verb, including to be (e.g. Do come over here. Do listen to him. Do be quiet , etc.).

A command or request is generally addressed to the second person singular or plural. There is usually no need to mention the subject of the action before the verb in the Imperative mood. But occasionally the verb may be preceded by you in familiar style (e.g. You don’t worry .).

A command or request may be addressed to the first person plural. It is also formed with the help of the plain stem of the verb, to let followed by the pronoun us (the contracted form is let’s ) and the infinitive of the notional verb. This form is actually an invitation to a joint action (e.g. Let’s have a cup of tea. Let’s do it together, etc.).

Actions represented as unreal are in present-day English express by a variety of forms.

Among them there is a mood form – the conditional Mood.

The fact that there are a number of forms engaged in expressing unreal actions could be explained historically.

In the older periods English used to be a synthetic language and had special forms that served to express unreal actions – the so-called Subjunctive mood. It was built up synthetically by means of inflections. As a result of loss of inflections, the difference between the forms of the Indicative Mood and the Subjunctive Mood has in most cases disappeared. The place of the old Subjunctive Mood was in a number of cases taken up by analytical forms and modal phrases, i.e. combinations of modal verbs with the infinitive. It is this historical process that accounts for the great variety of different forms expressing unreality in modern English.

As some of the forms expressing problematic or unreal actions are modal phrases, it is necessary before describing the different forms of unreality to treat modal verbs first.

The speaker’s attitude towards the action if the sentence may be expressed in different ways:

1) By one of the mood forms that serve to show whether the action is represented as a real fact of as problematic, or unreal, this form of expression is found in every sentence because it is indispensable to predication.

2) By modal verbs which represent an action as necessary or unnecessary, possible or impossible, certain of doubtful and the like. But modal verbs need not be used in every sentence and are, therefore, to be regarded as an additional means of expressing the speaker’s attitude towards the action in the sentence.

3) By attitudinal adverbs such as certainly, perhaps, probably, luckily, unfortunately , etc. They express different degrees of certainty on the part of the speaker of the desirability of the action from his point of view.

Modal Verbs

We find the following modal verbs in English: can, may, must, ought, shall, should, will, need and dare . Besides, to have and to be in some of their uses are also classed among modal verbs. A modal verb in combination with the infinitive forms a modal compound predicate .

Modal verbs are defective verbs since they lack many forms characteristic of regular verbs: they have no –s in the third person singular in the present tense and no verbal, so they have no analytical forms; some of them lack the form of the past tense.

Modal verbs have the following peculiarities:

1) they are followed by the infinitive without the particle to (with the exception of ought, to have and to be );

2) their interrogative and negative forms are built up without the auxiliary do.

Most of the verbs have more than one meaning. Each of their meanings is characterized by a specific usage.

1) Some of the meanings may be found in all kinds of sentences; others occur only in affirmative of interrogative or negative sentences;

2) Different meanings may be associated with different forms of the infinitive – simple and perfect (both in the active and passive forms), continuous and perfect continuous;

3) If the modal verbs have more than one form (can – could, may – might, will – would, also the verbs to have and to be ), their different meanings are not necessarily found in all those forms.

The use of modal verbs is in most cases independent of the structure of the sentence: the use of this of that modal verb is determined by the attitude of the speaker towards the facts contained in the sentence. In this case we may speak of the free or independent use of modal verbs.

E. g. He admires you. He thinks you’re a little beauty. Perhaps I oughtn’t to have told you that.

He may be in the hall now, waiting for me.

But sometimes the use of certain modal verbs depends on the structure of the sentence, mainly on the type of the subordinate clause, and occasionally also on the lexical character of the predicate verb in the principal clause. This may be called the structurally dependent use of modal verbs .

E. g. It is obviously necessary that an investigation should be made .

Christine feared she might not be met at all.

When the use of modal verbs is structurally dependent, their meaning is sometimes weakened; in fact, it may be quite vague. This may be accounted for by the fact that these verbs become rather part of the structure than bearers of individual meaning.