Lexico-grammatical Means

Lexico-grammatical means are represented with modal verbs or their
equivalents and quasi words. Modal verb are also called 'modals', 'modal auxiliary', 'modal auxiliary verb' is a types of verb that are used to indicate modality, they do not indicate an action or state, but they show the attitude of the speaker to the action. In English, modal verbs express: likelihood, ability, permission and obligation.

As it was mentioned above modal verbs are: can (ability, permission, possibility, request), could (ability, permission, possibility, request, suggestion), may(permission, probability, request), might(possibility, probability, suggestion) must (deduction, necessity, obligation, prohibition), shall (decision, future, offer, question, suggestion) should(advice, necessity, predicition, recommendation), will(decision, future, intention, offer, prediction, promise, suggestion), would(conditional, habit, invitation, permission, preference, request, question, suggestion). In Germanic languages, modal verbs have special features and characteristics.

‘Can’ is one of those modals, which is widely used widely in English. It is used to express ability, opportunity, permission, possibility or impossibility. We often use ‘can’ in a question to ask somebody to do something. This is not a real question because we do not really want to know if the person is able to do something, we want them to do it! The use of ‘can’ in this way is informal (mainly between friends and family): ‘can’ is invariable it has only one form.

e.g. Can you fetch a piece of chalk.

Can you bring me a cup of coffee.

‘Could’ is used to express possibility, suggestions or requests:

e.g. Could you help me to cross the street.

It is applied in conditional sentences:

e.g. If I could, would help you by all means.

We use ‘could’ to talk about what was possible in the past, what we were able to do.

‘Could’ is invariable it has only one form.

e.g. When I had a violin I could play whenever I wanted.

‘May’ is commonly used to express possibility, though this usage is becoming rare.

e.g. It may be sunny tomorrow.

It can also be used to give or request permission.

e.g. You may take off your coat and take your seat.

May I have a cup of coffee.

‘May’ is also applied in scientific prose to refer the things that typically happen in certain situations:

e.g. Those pills may produce terrible headache. (orinakner kareli a shatacnel.)

‘Might’ is often applied to express possibility:

e.g. it might be a little windy tomorrow morning.

Unreal situation:

e. g. If I were more careful I might not appear in that awful situation.

It is also often used in conditional sentences. English speakers can also use ‘might’ to make suggestions or requests, although this is less common in American English. (poxpxel)

‘Must’ is a modal auxiliary verb it is followed by main verb it is used to express obligation, certainty. It can also be used to express necessity or strong recommendation, although native speakers prefer the more flexible form ‘have to’. ‘Must not’ can be used to prohibit actions, but this sounds very severe; speakers prefer to use softer modal verbs such as ‘should not’ or ‘ought not’ to dissuade rather than prohibit.(poxel)
‘Must’ is often used to say that something is essential or necessary:

e.g. You must leave this place.

‘Must’ can be used when talking about present and future, but not for the past tense. In this case we use ‘have’ (got to), which also expresses certainty and objective obligation, but it is not a modal verb:

e.g. The students have to write term papers.

You must sleep now.

You must wake up early tomorrow.

‘Shall’ is used to indicate future action. It is most commonly used in sentences with ‘I’ or ‘we’, and is found in suggestions, for instance ‘Shall we go? ’

‘Shall’ is also frequently used in promises or voluntary actions. In formal English, the use of ‘shall’ to describe future events often expresses inevitability or predestination. ‘Shall’ is much more commonly heard in British English than in American English, Americans prefer to use other forms, although they sometimes use ‘shall’ in suggestions or formalized language.

‘Should’ is an auxiliary verb - a modal auxiliary verb. ‘Should’ is invariable, it has only one form.
It is most commonly used to make recommendations or give advice. It can also be used to express obligation, probability, expectation, conditional mood and replace the subjunctive mood:

e.g. You should tell me the truth.

I think he should have written his graduation paper.

If I were you, I should be more punctual.

I insist that you walk your dog. and I insist that you should walk your dog.

You should shave.

What should I say, I couldn't lie.

You should see what I have found there.

‘Will’ is used with promises:

e.g. I promise I will come to your party.

Voluntary actions that are going to take place in the future:

e.g. I will do the chores tomorrow.

The future time reference use of 'will' is grammatically distinct from modal use of will, because grammatical 'will' refers to the future directly. ’Will’ can also be used to make predictions about the future:

e.g. I am sure children will love you.

In conditional forms:

e.g. If I go out I will be back late.

‘ Would’ (form of the modal verb will) is used to express conditional forms:

e.g. If I had a chance, I would certainly use it.

It also serves when we talk about the past actions and future in the past:

e.g. He said he would help me to cope with the problem.

I was trying to help you but you would not let me.

I knew he would never do it.

Furthermore, ‘would’ can indicate repetition in the past. It also expresses desire:

e.g. I would like to have a cup of coffee.

Polite requests:

e.g. Would buy me a drink?

Questions, opinion, hope, regret, wish. Would is invariable, it has only one form whereas shall and should are treated as two different verbs, will and would are the forms of one and the same verb.
(ete diplomi mej el chimanas inch gres kgres modalneri masin liq@ orinaknerov u irancmanramasnutyunnnerov.)

Quasi-Modal verbs: Besides the modal verbs, there is another category of modals that expresses modality. it is the category of quasi-modals and semi-modals. Quasi modals and semi-modals express subjective attitudes and opinions of the speaker.

The theories on the nature between the modals and quasi-modals differ. It is agreed that there is a close semantic association between quasi-modals and modals, though the difference between them is obvious. According to Lakoff (1972: 240) it is the presence or absence that marks the difference between modal and quasi-modal:

e.g. must - have to, may - be allowed to, will - be to, should - be supposed to.

This theory is confirmed by Larkin, Palmer.
The term quasi-modal covers the categories of marginal modals, modal idioms, and semi auxiliaries.
In the range of quasi-modals there are the ones which have an auxiliary element in the first position had better, be unable to, be about to, would rather, have got to, may/might as well, have to, be going to, be likely to, be obliged to, be meant to, be supposed to, etc.

Quasi-modal verbs are very difficult to define one can meet a wide variety of uses among the native speakers. Among the main definitions are: quasi-modals are a subcategory of modal verbs, they resemble modals, however they differ in form (modals are single words, quasi-modals are verb+ preposition/adverb.

Because the quasi-verbs of English comprise semi-modals and verb of other categories, it's proper to study the some of them, namely:

had better

ought to

would rather

used to

semi-modals:

need

dare
Quasi-modal verbs are defective and neutral, they lack of non-finite forms and the features of present simple, third person, singular.

e.g. I ought to lay the table.

She ought to look after the children.

I had better not to utter a word.

You had better be much careful.

I used to sit up every day.

He used to sit up every day.

Dare I speak?

Dare he speak?

You need not worry, it's useless.

She need not worry, it's useless.

Quasi-modals lack tensed (past, present) and non-tensed (infinitive, present participle, past participle) forms:

e.g. to sleep –slept – slept, sleeps – sleeping but 'ought to' remains 'ought to’ in all forms, there are no constructions as ought to – to ought to* – ought to*, oughts to* – oughted to* – oughting to* – oughten to*: they do not reflect grammatical number.

e.g. I need to take my pills.

He needs to take his pills.

I should take the pills.

He should take his pills. (but not shoulds*)

However, quasi-modal verbs do slightly differ grammatically from full modal verbs. ‘Dare’ and ‘need’ morphologically resemble full modal verbs within negated verb phrases but not positive verb phrases.

e.g. She dare not answer.

She dares to answer.

They need not waste much.

They need to waste much.

Quasi-modal verbs 'dare' and 'need' have many features typical to modal verbs in subject-verb inversion of the verb phrase in interrogative sentences. 'Ought to' bears likeliness to full modal verbs in subject-verb inversion:

e.g. Ought he talk to her like that?

and not-inverted phrase: he ought to talk to her like that.

To sum up, quasi-modals 'ought to’ and ‘used to’ bear likeliness to catenative verbs(appear to, happen to, seem to) in grammatical form. Just like modal verbs, quasi-verbs carry out one grammatical function – modal (the function of modality), they always appear in the initial position of the verb-phrase and have the function of the predicate.

Except modal and quasi-modal verbs, there are other verbs that express modal meaning. Among those verbs are the ones that express possibility, likelihood: appear, feel, know, reckon, suppose, believe, gather, look, seem, tend, expect, guess, promise, sound, think.

e.g. I reckon you couldn't answer the question.

You promised you wouldn't leave the town.

obligation: allow, let, permit, force, make, require, demand, involve, mean, prohibit, want, forbid, oblige.

‘Let’, ‘allow’ and ‘permit’ have the same content i. e. the content of permitting something to somebody, but ‘permit’ is much more formal than ‘allow’ and ‘allow’ is more formal than let. Of these three verbs only ‘allow’ and ‘permit’ are used in passive constructions. ‘Let’ is used when talking about permission, it is followed by an object and without 'to'.

e.g. I let you go out and not. I let you to* go.

‘let+ us’ has imperative meaning and 'let's' is the short form, it is used to offer or suggest something.

e.g. Let's go back to the last summer.

'make' can be used in many ways: make + object - to tell what is created, produced.

e.g. my mother made an omelette for me.

There are many expressions with 'make':

e.g. make a claim, make a mess, make a speech, make a mistake, make a note, make a statement, make a date, make a wish, make phone call, make a difference, make an appointment, make a fuss, make an effort, make a list, make a sound.

e.g. He has made an appointment for me at the office.

‘Make’ has the meaning of force.

e.g. She made me confess the truth.
wrong: She made me to* confess. But, in the passive voice, to is applied.

e.g. The student were made to write papers.

‘Mean’ is used to explain or to ask what the speaker refers to. When forming questions with 'mean' we use 'do' auxiliary verb.

e.g. What does the word 'criterion' mean?
‘Mean’ is not used in continuous form when talking about expressing ideas:

e.g. what does that word mean? but not- what does that word meaning? *
To express intentions we use mean +infinitive:

e.g. I am sorry I didn't mean to bother you.

She meant to warn you before leaving the town
The expression 'keep meaning' is used to express long-run goals:

e.g. I have to go his office. I keep meaning to make an appointment.
'Mean' is used to express the significance and importance of something.

e.g. His actions mean a lot to me.
The construction mean + noun is used when talking about one thing resulting another.

e.g. great expectations mean great disappointment.
‘Mean + -ing’ is used when talking about obligation or necessity

e.g. I must be there at 9 o’clock means I have to get up at 7 o’clock.
‘Meant + passive’ construction also expresses obligation.

e.g. What are you doing? Having fun? You are meant to be reading now.
Expression 'mean by' is used when someone asks what the speaker thinks or wants to say when uttering a specific phrase:

e.g. I have nothing to talk about, I mean I don't have anything to talk to you.
‘Mean+s’ is a noun, which means a method, a way of doing something.

The expression 'I mean' is common in spoken English, it is used when someone wants to clarify or correct expressed thought. Besides, the application of 'I mean' gives the speaker an opportunity to think over what he/she is going to say, stylistically it expresses hesitation and reduces the negativity of a statement.

The use of 'you know what I mean' in speaking, is applied to get assured if the listener actually knows what is being said and is he/she is of the same opinion.

It should be mentioned also that 'mean' is not used to express opinions:

e.g. I think pupils shouldn't start the course of English until 10.

I mean pupils shouldn’t start the course of English until 10.* – is wrong

‘Ought to’ is a semi-modal verb because it is in some ways like a modal verb and in some ways like a main verb. Unlike modal verbs, it is followed by ‘to’, but like modal verbs, it does not change form for person:

e.g. I ought to tell my mom where I am.

Ought to comes first in the verb phrase

I ought to be more attentive.

We ought to do more exercise.
The negative form is constructed with ‘not’, 'ought not to', there is no use of ‘don't’, ‘doesn't’, ‘didn't’ with ‘ought to’ (interrogative and negative forms of ought to are not very popular).

e.g. I ought not to have demanded so much from him.

'Ought to have+ ed' construction is used when talking about things which are desired. If examined carefully, 'ought to' in the following sentences can be replaced with should, and obviously should is more common in speech, but ought to is much more formal.

e.g. I ought to have turned my back on you ages ago.

I ought to have told you what felt long ago.

I ought to have carried on my study.
Probability and likelihood can also be expressed with 'ought to'.

e.g. My vacation ought to last 2 weeks.

This restaurant ought to serve tasty beef steak.

‘Want’ is used when expressing wish, desire, need and giving advice.

e.g. What do you want me to do? (wish)

The car wants repairing-need.

You want to accept that proposal, before it's too late.

‘Want’ is not used with 'that' clause:

e.g. I want you to be ready for the next lesson. but not: I want that you be ready for the next lesson.*

In the statements with 'if' we don't have to use infinitive after want, but in negative clauses we do use infinitive.

e.g. You can tell your story if you want.

You don't have to tell your story, if you don't want to.
'Want' used in continuous form expresses politeness/indirectness/need or emphasizes some process.

e.g. I was wanting to talk to you.

My room wants cleaning.

He was wanting to live in London for many years.
'Want +-ing' expression is much like the construction 'have something done'.