What is judgment modality?

Definition
	Judgment modality is an epistemic modality that connotes the speaker's
	strength of inference, or degree of confidence
	in the reality of the proposition expressed by his or her utterance.

Examples (English)
	Here are some examples of words that express different kinds of judgment modality:
	may signals speculative inference must signals deductive strength of inference

Kinds
	Here are some kinds of judgment modality:
	What is assumptive mood? What is declarative mood? What is deductive mood? What is dubitative mood? What is hypothetical mood? What is interrogative mood? What is speculative mood?

Generic
	Judgment modality is a kind of
	What is epistemic modality?

Source
	Palmer 1986 53, 57–58, 64

Context for this page:

Concept module: judgment modality
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): J
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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