AN APPENDIX OF FURTHER INFORMATION
RELEVANT TO L92.html 

© 2005 by Orchid Land Publications

20050921, 20051009

Modal logic distinguishes epistemic from deontic modals. This kind of modal verb is voltional-obligative; e.g. must, ought (to), should, and the modal variant of need discussed on L92.

Many modalities are formed on the auxiliary verbs be and its variants get and have. (Have is the so-called "flip" of be; many languages lacking have say "X is TO Y.") Get is the causative form of have and, in the sense of "become," the inceptive form of be. English has complementary (i.e. used in different ways) passive modalities formed on be and get. And there are get and have causative modal- ities (cf. causative make in I'll make/get/have them do that). Notice have to, a non-modal equivalent of must. There are minor complications as to when help (which is not a modal but sometimes acts like one), make, and a few other verbs omit or require to before the complementary infinitive. The general principle is to omit to when the complimentary infinitive follows a short object of the main verb but to use to when the separation (in time, something relative to the speech of speaking) of the infinitive from the main verb is consider- able; e.g. Help (rarely Make) them do it VS. Help all of those people we were working with to share in the lunch costs. Ought usually (but not always) takes to.

ENGLISH VERB MODALITIES

A more general term is modality, most of which are "markered" with an auxiliary verb like do in "I do approve," or with be, get, or have. English has a plenitude of posterior modalities (see L/TOC).

We can leave off categories of TENSE and MODE and subsume there alone with DIATHESIS (or VOICE, including reflexives). That is syntax. As for morphology, we retain the functional categories of TRANSITIVITY (INTRANSITIVE, TRANSITIVE (with causative), and REFLEXIVE), FINITENESS (FINITE verbs, and VERBALS (or VERBATIVES—a category that includes infintives, participles, gerunds. Note that English infinitives are purposive, whereas gerunds (and partici- ples) are not purposive. The English infinitive can be used as a noun (cf. I want to go), adverb (ready to go), or adjective (place to visit)—all purposive. The infinitive in most languages is more like our gerund, purpose being expressed by making the "infinitive" the object of a preposition like for. (If we preferred function to form, we could change the name of infinitive to gerund, but that would pose the substantial problem that gerunds can be pluralized, whereas our present infinitive cannot. 
Returning to syntax, there are nine posterior forms in English—
even more in hypothesis clauses (beginning with if, etc.); see the f tablein the footnote.* The anterior modalitiy is formed on have. Emphatic modalities are formed on do. A consuetudinary past is formed on useta (used to), while a characterizing past is formed with would. Will and would have five uses, three of which are not like posterior will and posterior or contingent would.

_____________________________

*English posterior modalities fall into three groups of threes—respectively, unmarked, marked, and over-marked (doubly reversing). This is the order of ascending predictability and therefore (since the future is naturally unpredictable and irrealis) of decreasing naturalness and increasing markedness (see Bailey, Essays on time based linguistic analysis [Oxford University Press, 1996], pp. 239-241) within the marked category of posteriority. The force of each of the following is shown in square brackets: 
1. unmarked in this marked category): (a) be gonna [neutral]; (b) will [settled notion]; (c) be V-ing [planned or arranged, as in They’re arriving tomorrow]
2. marked, causing a reversal of passivizing auxiliaries): (a) exochronous [routine or scheduled, as in “It arrives tomorrow”]; (b, c) be gonna ,V-ing, will be V-ing [assumed, as in “They’ll be arriving before dark”]
3. overmarked, causing a double reversal back to the unmarked use): (a) be to [expectative, as in They are to arrive tomorrow; no longer used as an infinitive]; (b) be about to [imminent] ; (c) shall [emphatic, firmly resolved]. (Shall has a special interrogative use in the first-person singular or plural: Shall I/we . . . ? is used for a polite suggestion or invitation.

Posteriors are not necessarily futuritive, since there exist past-posteriors that refer to a past event or state that may or may not lie in the future at the time of speaking; e.g. They were [gonna] do it yesterday) exist for all forms except shall. Note that ordinary was/were gonna changes to would in indirect quotations, which are marked. Modalities 2b and 2c can be used for verbs that disallow modality 1c; thus, while we do not use the cognitive verb know in the unmarked present modality of They are now knowing the answer, we nevertheless freely say They’ll be knowing the answer this afternoon in this marked posterior, which reverses the uses of passivizing be and get that be gonna and will exhibit. Though know is a stative verb, and these usually lack an imperative (copulas are exceptional in this respect), we nonetheless use it in the marked imperative environment of Know it by this afternoon. In three marked environments—negative, interrogative [though not in rhetorical or tag ques- tions], and comparative), we find uses (e.g. of dare and need as modals and of could as “was/were able to”) that are not permitted elsewhere (though could can mean “used to be able to” in positive non-interrogative environments).

Posteriors in hypothesis clauses (copied from the TOC page)
Dubitative (non-expectative) non-past conditionals are normally made as follows: If they did that tomorrow or If they should do that tomorrow. 
More concessive is: If they were to do that tomorrow. Agree-
ing with a doubtful contingency is: If in that case they would do it tomorrow.
Compare this expectative posterior: If they (wi)ll do it tomor- row, and this more concessive version of the foregoing: If they're gonna do it tomorrow.
________________________________________________________________________

Hits on this web page from 19981122
till 20050917: 426,797