and denotic modality. The former reflects various judgments of factuality and expresses the possibility, probability or impossibility of a particular proposition. The latter communicates judgments of moral and legal obligation, responsibility and permission. Examples of denotic are shown in the following sentences: 1: You should water the flowers in the back garden. (Obligation)
Translation 1: Тобі слід полити квіти в саду за будинком.
Example 2: You can water the flowers in the back garden. (Permission)
Translation 2: Ти можеш полити квіти в саду за будинком.
Example 3: You could water the flowers in the back garden. (Permission)
Translation 3: Ти міг полити квіти в саду за будинком.
Denotic modals, like epistemic modals, signal a speaker s judgments but while with epistemic modals, the judgment is about the way the real world is, with denotic modality, it is about how people should act or behave in the world. That is to say, the use of denotic is tied in with all sorts of social knowledge: the speaker s belief systems about morality and legality, and his or her estimations of power and authority . But it is possible to view both types of meaning as a single scale, with possibility (for instance, can ) at one end and necessity (for instance, must ) at the other, some semanticists argue that modality, both epistemic and denotic, allows speakers to compare the real world hypothetical situations and express different strengths of prediction of their match with the real world. Therefore in saying: 4: It might be snowing in New York. 4: У Нью - Юркові мав іти сніг.
The speaker is setting up a hypothetical situation (snow in New York) and predicting a reasonable match withreality. And in saying: 5: It must be snowing in New York. 5: Сніг має бути йшов у Нью - Юркові. p align="justify"> The speaker is proposing a very strong match between his or her prediction and reality. Denotic modality is approached in the same way. If the speaker says: 6: You should leave immediately. 6: Вам слід негайно виїхати. p align="justify"> He or she is proposing a match between an ideal moral or legal situation and the real world of behavior. And when the speaker says: 7: You must leave immediately. 7: Ти повинен негайно виїхати. p align="justify"> He or she is proposing a more strong match between the ideal situation and the real situation. Such an approach lays some emphasis on the sentence-level relation between modality and conditional, which is exemplified as follows: 8: I would go to American if you agree. 8: Я певно поїхав би до Америки, якщо Ви погодитеся. p align="justify"> Example 9: I w...
