Modality: Cross-linguistic and Chinese language specific features

The concept of modality has traditionally been associated with the speaker’s attitude towards the proposition; however, following this attitudinal formulation, other more technical definitions have emerged, such as modality as a semantic subdivision of the TAM domain (tense-aspect-modality), which expresses a qualification of the state of affairs (Nuyts 2006: 3). Importantly, while tense and aspect are related to temporal orientation and internal evolvement, modality expresses an assessment of the actualization of a given eventuality; it is therefore paradigmatically related to the notions of possibility and necessity (van der Auwera & Plungian 1998) and typically denotes the state of affairs as non-actualized (wèi shíxiàn 未实现, Lü 2002 [1942]: 247). Since the turn of the century, several studies have focused on modality in Modern Standard Chinese (MSC); however, the volumes that provide a comprehensive account of modality in MSC are limited to Renzhi Li (2004), a typological comparison between English and Chinese, and Peng Lizhen (2007), a Chinese language-specific investigation. In terms of L2 acquisition, the available studies, which are rather few in number, suggest that specific difficulties may arise in the acquisition of yào 要, kěyǐ 可以, néng 能 and huì 会 (J.-I. Li and Hsieh 2016; H. Wang 2016; Xu 2022, among others), that is, modal markers that share several areas of semantic overlap, especially in the domain of possibility. The aim of this paper is to provide a solid basis for disambiguating the modal value of highly polysemous markers (such as the four items above) and to shed light on the specific semantic and pragmatic functions associated with the high-frequency modals. To this end, we will draw on fine-grained modal inventories for non-epistemic and epistemic modalities, also outlining a general overview of the modal compatibility of each item. Furthermore, the specific contribution of this paper is to also integrate into the general description of MSC modals the properties related to their temporal and aspectual orientation. Sections 5.1 and 5.2 provide an overview of the main modal divisions, while the second part of the paper presents the phenomena that typically trigger a specific reading of polysemous modals. Section 5.3 describes the semantic restrictions in modal reading caused by co-occurrences with aspectual markers. Section 5.4 focuses on the interaction with negation and modal suppletion. Section 5.5 offers an account of future and habitual readings of huì and of the (counter)factual value in past contexts of necessity modals.