情态意义和情态助动词意义

本文的目的有二：一要使情态意义回归到传统的定义上来，即表示说话者对命题的真实性的判断，而不是与情态助动词的意义互为定义；二是提出一个“成分渐进模式”来描写情态助动词的意义。

The intention of this paper is two-fold. On the one hand, it attempts to rationalize the most mundane,yet almost forgotten, definition of modality as referring to the speaker's confidence in the truth of the proposition,rather than tautologically to the meanings of modal auxiliaries. On the other, it proposes a Componential Gradience Model to facilitate the analysis of the meanings of modal auxiliaries.