Chart of Modal Inflection

With each movement and directional vector (or sense) of each modal, we can start to map out the areas of modal expression. The chart (illustrated above) shows how each aspect is directed;a skill we certainly need to emulate, if we are to give the correct language signals.
As the chart shows , the high area is reserved for probability, the degree of which ranges from positive certainty through possibility to uncertainty at the back of the head. The forward area (ahead of the eye) carries the different notions of future modality, rising from the low downward driven decisive intention or acceptance (will) and determination (shall) through obligation(must), permission (may) and advice – or deferred obligation (should) to prediction (will) and desire (will, must, should). The past forms are set back or directed behind us, with past probability looped high in speculation but ending low - so as to combine with the auxiliary have and the past participle. The "conditional" forms of modals - despite having a somewhat thrown back start position- can, in fact, either advance(or move forward in directional terms) creating a conditional response to a hypothesis; however, when these modal auxiliaries are used to denote possibility – the "conditional" forms rise slightly to reflect conditional possibility. Having said that, when used to show a real past event from a point further back in time - in other words, the idea of the “future in the past” - this specific dynamic collocation tends to push forward more horizontally , showing us that something would later come to pass, historically speaking.

Comments

How the Present Perfect Tense works

Timeline - How the Present Perfect Tense works Experiences The essence of the present perfect tense pulls the verbal expression down, inside us. This movement reﬂects our experience and even belief and true knowledge, which even in mediaeval times was placed in the heart. The sense we are aiming for is very similar in all of the following three examples: • I have visited the Louvre. • I believe in aliens. • I know it’s true. No Details The movement physically collapses our lungs. For this reason we do not go into detail, because in simple structures, we can not add extensive information. To add detail of past experiences, we typically use the simple and progressive past tense or use an adverb. • There has been a plane crash • A Transatlantic ﬂight out of Paris crashed at 7.45 pm, twenty minutes after take off. Nobody was killed …etc. Recent Time In a similar movement - a slight variation on the theme - the expression is pulled back and released until the

Verb Tense Inflections

A verb tense, in the strictest definition of the term, is the time frame in which the action is placed; thus we have the traditional idea of past, present and future tenses and within these three basic time frames, we can also differentiate certain other aspects such as the subjunctive or progressive tenses, plus other ideas such as the imperfect past, the conditional tense, and imperative. The tenses of the verbs, in reality, rely entirely on the directions we employ over them. Whereas conjugation is the movement in the pronunciation which indicates the relative position of the subject of the verb - personal vectors - the tense of the verb is a different relative positioning in our conception of time, thought and attitude. In English, it may at first seem difficult to perceive the difference in verb tenses due to the absence of easily identifiable verb endings; the tags that identify both the tense and person; thus discerning the different senses (or directions) is also, at first s

Directed Pronunciation - A New English Grammar

Search This Blog