Grammar: Groups & phrases: Verb group: Adjusting interactions: modality

Overview

What do we mean by adjusting our interactions with others?

We adjust our interactions with others when, for example, instead of saying yes or no, It is! or It isn't!, we position ourselves somewhere in between, with a maybe or a sometimes.

We adjust our interactions with others through an area of the grammar which we call 'modality'. We can express modality when we make Statements, when we ask Questions, when we make Commands and when we make Offers. Here are some examples for each of the four basic speech functions:

It might rain tomorrow. There is a possibility of rain tomorrow. [Statement]
Will it rain tomorrow? Is there a possibility of rain tomorrow? [Question]
You must go straight to bed! I insist that you go to bed now! [Command]
I will help you. Can I help you? [Offer]

Note that when we interact with others, we exchange either information (in the form of propositions) or goods-&-services (in the form of proposals):

We can elaborate this as follows, to show how the main modal meanings are distributed:

Note that the terms Statement, Question, Command and Offer are written with a capital to remind us that they are functional terms.

For more information on speech functions, see Grammar: Clause: Using clauses to interact: Overview