Modal adverbs, particles and discourse markers across languages. Recent attempts at delimiting the categories in Anglophone and Polish linguistics

Agata Rozumko

Uniwersytet w Białymstoku

Resumen

The aim of this article is to outline some of the recent tendencies in Anglophone and Polish research on epistemic modality. The author observes that while traditionally research focused on modal verbs, most recent publications are concerned with epistemic adverbs, adjectives and modal particles. Attempts at establishing classification criteria for these categories have been made in both Anglophone and Polish linguistics, though international publications discussing means of expressing epistemic modality tend to focus on Germanic and Romance languages. Polish and, more generally, Slavonic languages are almost entirely absent from such cross-linguistic studies (cf. e.g. Discourse Markers and Modal Particles. Categorization and Description edited by L. Degand, B. Cornillie, P. Pietrandrea, 2013). The author stresses the importance M. Danielewiczowa’s contribution to the description of epistemic adverbs in Polish linguistics.

Palabras clave:

epistemic modality, adverbs, particles, cross-linguistic studies, tendencies