Affirmation as a type of modality: evidence from Serbian and English

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present modes of grammatical representation of affirmation in Serbian and English. I will explore the hypothesis that affirmation is a type of modality and its expression involves syntactic and morphological markers. The formal expression of strong types of affirmation modality is characte­rized by the preference for long, full and stressed variants of modal auxiliaries Alternatively, affirmative verb forms may be intensified by additional suprasegmental elements, such as intonation, or even para­linguistic tools, gestures and non-verbal ways of reinforcing a statement. This seems to confirm the general function-form isomorphism requiring the more complex mental events to be represented by more complex structures. I will argue that this requirement may initiate the process of auxiliation, perceived as a search to find a more adequate means for expressing affirmation modality.