Нармухаметова Н.М., Қали А.Б.

L.N.Gumilev Eurasian National University

Modality in English language

Human thinking appears as a result of the world awareness and it is closely related with language – the basic means of its expression. The category of modality is the category of language and presents in itself the judgment concerning the reality or the statement related to the ties and phenomena of the reality. In general, modality can be characterized as the speaker’s attitude to the content of his statement and the connection of the content of the statement to the reality.

Category of modality and means of its expression in English language

The category of modality is one of the most intricate linguistic categories, which has diverse forms of its expression in the language. It has also a lot of various definitions and explanations. In the Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary modality is delineate as a functional-semantic category which indicate different types of relations between the utterance and reality as well as different types of subjective evaluation of the information included in the utterance.

Among the scholars who investigate modality we can mention Sh. Ballie – he was the first to define the category of modality in West-European linguistics. And in Russian linguistics the outstanding role in researching the category of modality belongs to academician V.V. Vinogradov. He wrote a lot of books connected with this notion and means of its expression. A lot of works are based on his accepting of modality. Among the other scholars who also tried to characterize the modality phenomenon are V.Z. Panfilov, G.A. Zolotova, L.S.Yermolaeva, G.V. Kolshanskiy and others. Diverse linguistic scholars have created various modality categorizations, for example N. Petrov, F.R.Palmer, G.J. Lyons, A.B.Bondarenko. Category of modality is one of the most complicated and contradictory interpreted in grammatical theory. Despite the presence of fairly long tradition of research modality and a huge amount of literature devoted to it, it is still in a sense blind spot of modern linguistics.

In Russian linguistics modality was also a subject of curiosity for many scholars. For example, academician V.V Vinogradov, who was one of the first who gave very broad interpretation of the category of modality. His works, dedicated to the dilemma of modality, are very important for modern linguists. V. V. Vinogradov first of all refers modality to “the fundamental structural characteristic of any sentence” and characterizes it as “the speaker’s evaluation of the relation of utterance content to the reality”. His interpretation of modality is widely used in English studies, possibly because, as I.R. Galperin mentions, “… modern English grammars avoid giving the definition of this category, and when they deal with it, they limit themselves to the indication of the forms, in which the modality is realized”.

Category of modality is differentiated into two types: objective and subjective. Objective modality is mandatory feature of any statement, one of the categories that form a predicative unit - offer. This type of modality expresses the ratio of reported to reality in terms of reality (implementation or feasibility). Objective modality is organically linked to the category of time and differentiated on the basis of temporary certainty - uncertainty. The value of time and reality - unreality merged, the complex of these values is called objective-modal values.

Modality refers to the category of subjective-objective categories, for a system of linguistic means of expressive evaluative relations and relations of objective reality in terms of their nature, extent cognizability or desirability of speaking and thus objectifies ways of expressing this estimate any speaking subject in each speech act.

Modality is an integral feature of the constructive statements that serve as a form of expression of communicative intentions of the speaker in the communication process in different types of speech acts:

a) representative; (report of a certain relationship between the subject and his reality feature).

b) representative-hypothetical; (expresses the degree of knowledge of speaking about the links between the subject and its sign).

c) legislative; (performatively create communication between the subject and the sign)

Modality in advertising

Phonetic means play a meaningful role in creating an emotional component of advertising. The presence of modality in an expression is one of the procedure to convey speaker's attitude to what is being said and provoke emotional reaction to the message. Phonetic means of modality representation mention subjective and logical phrase accent and intonation. It should also be noted that advertising texts often use onomatopoeia, interjections, wordplay at the phonetic level and so on.

E.g. : “Ya, but how do you know it hurts?” “That's why we insure women”; “Stained in a dash, gone in a flash”, “A powerful acne cleanser could not possible smell delicious. Scratch that thought. Sniff it”.

The vast majority of linguists (FR Palmer, W. Frouli, F. de Haan, J. Hladki, I.V. Korunets, I.V. Sokolov, D.V. Veselovska etc.) declare that words with modal meaning belong to lexical means of expressing modality. These words include adverbs, particles, verbs and nouns with modal meanings.

E.g.: “Affective is too a word!”, “Probably the best dog training school”, “Apple. Think different”, “Human bodies are made of 70% water, the other 30% should be responsibility”

Modal verbs symbolize the lexical grammatical means of expressing modality. Unlike other verbs, modal verbs do not signify an action or state, they signify the relationship of the speaker to the action. In English modal verbs explicit possibility, probability or improbability, obligation, necessity, desirability, doubt, i.e. everything that has to do with the modality. In advertising texts modal verbs are used to emphasize certain characteristics of products or services, and encourage consumers to an action.

E.g.: “A small faulty screw once crashed an airliner taking 219 lives. Your body is machine 10X more complex. Smoking can damage any single part of it”; “You can read the news. Or read Newsweek”, “Now the colours of life can last a lifetime. Valspar Paints.

Grammatical means of modality are depicted by mood. After analysis of about 800 advertising slogans, it was found that most of them enclose a verb in an imperative form.

E.g.: “Take control of your finances. Continental savings Bank”, “Make $ 300 the easy way”, “Love it. Hate it. Just do not forget it. Marmite”, “Take a break from the usual. KitKat”, “Buy new private apartments”, “Keep your feet on the ground. Petlas Tires”.

This is mainly due to the fact that the main task of advertising text is to reassure potential buyers to purchase the product or use the service.

The substantial role in the organization of any text plays a text category of modality. It cooperates the expression of the author's position and certain manner forms the reader's perception.

Bibliography

1. Belyaeva M.A. "Grammar of the English language.”

2. Бондарко 1990а — Бондарко А. В. К анализу категориальных ситуаций в сфере модальности: императивные ситуации // ТФГ. Темпоральность. Модальность. Л.: Наука, 1990. С. 80—89.

3. “Грамматика английского языка: Морфология”. Кобрина, Корнеева, Осовская и др. С-П., 1999.