Modality: What should you understand?
Modality is about judgement or attitude. It expresses a knowledge of, or claim about, truth,
likelihood, factuality, desirability, obligation, duty, and permission.
Modality expresses a sense of authority in speech and writing, and this is one reason,
perhaps the main reason, why you should understand it. Understand, too, that modality is
always present; sometimes it is highlighted, and at other times it is less obviously expressed.
Modality is often communicated through the use of modal auxiliary verbs (words, like should
and may that often precede main verbs in English) and through certain types of adjectives
and adverbs (for example, certainly and probably). Look at the following sentences:
(i) It is raining.
(ii) It is certainly raining.
(iii) It will rain later.
(iv) It may rain tomorrow.
In (i), the modality is high. That is, the utterance suggests that without doubt it is raining.
There is absolute confidence in the judgement. Notice, however, that there is nothing to
mark the modality, such as a modal verb. We can therefore say that (i) expresses high
unmarked modality.
The second example (ii) also expresses high modality. The commitment to truth is reinforced
through the adverb, certainly. So, here, the modality is marked. We can say that this is an
example of high marked modality.
In (iii) the modality is, again, marked. The modality is marked by the presence of will – a
modal auxiliary verb. Since, once more, there is a strong confidence in the judgement, we
can again say that the modality expressed is high. This is, again, an example of high marked
modality.
The last example (iv) is somewhat different. The inclusion of the modal verb, may, means
that modality is marked. However, since the expectation of rain is much less certain, it is
appropriate to say that the modality is low or, at any rate, lower than in the three preceding
examples. In other words, this is an example of low marked modality.
Now that you understand what modality is, why should you care? Quite simply, many
confidently expressed ideas and ideologies are frequently expressed through the use of high
marked modality. If Gillette suggests that their razor blades are the best a man can get, you
may want to disagree, but you should at least recognize how modality establishes the claim.
Equally, you will almost certainly disagree with the utterance, the Holocaust may not have
happened. However, in challenging this claim, you should recognize how modality works –
here, low marked modality – in an endeavour to establish doubt (where none exists).
Understanding modality, in short, is part of becoming a critical reader and an active citizen.
© David McIntyre, InThinking
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