ABSTRACT
This section outlines why the modal auxiliaries are a particularly useful grammatical class from which, and with which, to explore the relation between our use of language and the construction of the self. This involves describing the form-function relation of the modals as a way of discovering the child’s discursive interests as he or she emplots himself or herself in an autobiographical storyline. Why autobiography? Because as Harré (1983) puts it “the autobiographical belief system of a person constitutes the central core of the psychologically researchable features of personal identity” (p. 42). And because “autobiography is a re-enactment in language of the development of the self” (Eakin, 1974, p. 213). So why use the modal auxiliaries to study this relation?
