Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Prelim pages i
2. Table of contents vii
3. Introduction 1
4. I. Agent-Oriented and Epistemic Modality
5. Agent-Oriented vs. Epistemic Modality 17
6. The Expression of Root and Epistemic Possibility in English 55
7. Contextuel Conditions for the Interpretation of poder and deber in Spanish 67
8. The Obligation Modality in Western Nilotic Languages 107
9. The Gestural Expression of Modality in ASL 135
10. II. The Interactional Basis of Modality
11. The Development of Epistemic Sentence-ending Modal Forms and Functions in Korean Children 165
12. The Interactional Basis of the Mandarin Modal néng ‘can’ 205
13. The Discourse and Interactive Functions of Obligation Expressions 239
14. Apprehensional Epistemics 293
15. Moods and MetaMessages 329
16. III. Irrealis Modality and Subjunctive
17. The Realis-Irrealis Distinction in Caddo, the Northern Iroquoian Languages, and English 349
18. On the Relativity of Irreality 367
19. The Grammaticalization of Irrealis in Tik Pisin 389
20. The Evaluative Function of the Spanish Subjunctive 429
21. IV. Modality and Other Categories of Grammar
22. Negation and the Modals of Possibility and Necessity 453
23. A Functional Theory of Complementizers 473
24. The Semantic Development of Past Tense Modals in English 503
25. Imperfective and Irrealis 519
26. Subject index 553
27. Language index 565
28. Author index 569