Merging of Temporality and Modality:Evidence From English Future Tense
The past,present,and future tenses in English all convey modal meanings.As the temporali-ty decreases progressively across these three tenses,modality increases correspondingly.The weakest temporality and strongest modality in the future tense have led to ongoing scholarly de-bate over the existence of a future tense in English.This article critiques the epistemological,methodological,and argumentative flaws in denying the existence of the future tense in English and argues that a future tense does indeed exist.It examines three internal and external factors for the future tense's ability to express modal meanings:semantic foundation,connotational charac-teristics,and future tense markers' grammaticalization level which means future tense markers have a modality roots in its grammaticalization process,and further elaborates on the merging of temporality and modality inherent in the four primary meanings expressed by the future tense.
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