ABSTRACT
Modals and imperatives are the grammatical resources that are used to express directives, permission, obligation, and permission. Modals also serve to mitigate stances, perspectives, and viewpoints in discourse. Both modals and imperatives are associated with the notion of the speech act—that is, the communicative expression of orders, offers, suggestions, commands, requests, suggestions, invitations, and so on. Modals can be divided into three basic functional categories: epistemic modality (expressing degrees of certainty/uncertainty), deontic modality (expressing degrees of permission and obligation), and dynamic modality (expressing possibility or ability, typically through certain uses of the modals can and could). Genres of discourse appeal to modals to accomplish a number of communicative functions.
