Functions of modal components in german fiction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17308/lic.2020.1/2731Keywords:
epistemic modality, evidentiality, unreal modality, author’s figure, textual metaphor, fiction textAbstract
The object of the current article is modal components in German, its subject is their functions in German fiction. The aim of the article is to describe functions of modal structures in the fiction texts and their influence on the common mood of the text. Text fragments from German fiction are used as the source of data for the study. The main methods used in the research are descriptive method and textual analysis. It was shown that modal structures group with evaluative words building a modal-evaluative frame of the utterance which creates emotional-evaluative background of the whole text and brings the reader from the real world into the world of illusion. The components of unreal modality can be used in the text to provide an effective description of some details, e.g. to describe the characters of the novel, their deep emotions or psychological atmosphere. If the whole text is an implicit comparison (textual metaphor), the indicative sentences encode unreal modality. On the contrary, the sentences in the Subjunctive mood allow bringing closer imaginary events to the reality. It is shown that the epistemic and evidential structures as well as sentences in the Subjunctive mood create the image of the author and the characters. In combination with evaluation elements they contribute to the description of the inner world of the author as a creator of an artistic work, they reflect the writer’s values and show their attitude to the characters.
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