Epistemic modality expressed through modal verbs in Albanian

Abstract

The article aims at investigating epistemic meanings expressed through modal verbs in Albanian on the grounds of the most recent semantic theories of modality. It adopts Huddleston and Pullum’s approach, namely the tripartite scheme of epistemic, deontic and dynamic modality, epistemic having the features of the speakers’ attitude to the factuality of past or present time situations. The strength of the speaker’s commitment according to Huddleston and Pullum (2002) is the basis for the distinction between the modal concepts of necessity and possibility. In Albanian, these two categories were expressed by the modal verbal ‘mund’ for possibility and ‘duhet’ for necessity. Unfortunately, Albanian standard grammars still pay little or no attention to the concept of modality in general. The research conducted in this article is one of the first attemptions to classify more specificallystructural units of epistemic modality , putting emphasis on main epistemic modal verbs. The frequency of usage and the type of epistemic modality associated to the modal verbs duhet, mund and do have been investigated, too. Moreover, other structural types expressing epistemic modality have been identified and marked as well.