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Lv 5
? asked in Society & CultureLanguages · 8 years ago

Need help understand grammatical mood?

English has modal verbs: each with a different type of mood, but I notice there can be a difference between them, though they are in the same category:

The modal verb pair Can/could is in the category of likelihood/possibility.

But "can" can also denote permissibility like may/might, which confuses me.

Anyhow if modal verb "Can" can be an irrealis potential dynamic and modal verb "could" can be potential, irrealis, permissible then what category can the below modal verbs be in?

Must (necessity?)

May (permission?)

Might (permission?)

Will (conditional?)

Would (conditional?)

Shall (obligation?)

Should (obligation?)

Please help, I am creating affixes for grammatical mood in a language I'm constructing.

Update:

I know indicative is part of the realis category, i'm talking abour irrealis

I thought you'd infer what I meant when I said "each with a different type of mood"

anyhow they do have different moods; the word "can" is used to denote ones ability to do something, hence it is potential-dynamic.

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  • Inselstricken
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    first of all you need to know what grammatical mood is: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative and Interrogative

    the modal auxiliaries do not 'each have a different type of mood ' - you make them sound like adolescent boys.

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