Grammatical Categories of Tense and Aspect as Expressions of Modality

Abstract

The study of the grammatical categories of tense and aspect has shown that modal meaning is frequently involved in the semantics of these categories. Taking the findings of contemporary studies into consideration, it cannot be said that the traditional explanation of the grammatical categories of tense and aspect holds true. When analysing tense and aspect, modal meaning should be included as one of the starting points. This paper primarily examines the ways in which modality is expressed through the grammatical categories of tense and aspect. The first part of the paper deals with analysing the connection between modality and the future, present, past, and present perfect tense. The second part of the paper is focused on analysing the examples that show in which way modality is connected to the grammatical category of aspect. Traditional notions of tense and aspect are challenged and it is shown how modal meaning contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of these categories.