FUNCTIONAL-SEMANTIC CHARACTERIZATION OF MODALITY IN THE LITERARY TEXT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47526/3107-3085.49Keywords:
literary text, modality, description, narration, reasoning, mode.Abstract
The article examines the functional-semantic profile of modality in literary texts across three textual modes: description, narration, and reasoning. Modality is treated as a mechanism for expressing authorial stance, guiding reader perception, and articulating the value orientation of the content. The aim is to show how modal meaning is organized at the level of the whole text. To this end, the study clarifies the linguistic resources typical of each mode and traces the interplay of epistemic meaning (certainty versus doubt), deontic meaning (obligation and necessity), and axiological meaning (evaluation and norm). It also specifies the contribution of authorial voice, narrator position, and focalization to the formation of modal nuances.
The empirical base consists of selected fragments from the prose of M. Auezov, A. Nurpeisov, A. Kekilbaev, and M. Magauin. In these excerpts, the analysis describes modal words and mood forms, evaluative vocabulary, parenthetical and detached constructions, free indirect discourse, and punctuation techniques, and relates them to the author’s communicative intention.
Methodologically, the study combines functional-semantic analysis with narratological and pragmatic approaches. The former treats modality not as an isolated form but as a system of interacting devices that organize epistemic, deontic, and axiological meanings. The latter clarifies from whose viewpoint and with what intention events are presented, and how narrative voice, focalization, and audience-oriented strategies operate.
The findings show that in description the modal tint covertly steers perception, in narration the event logic turns a required action into a natural outcome, and in reasoning argumentation makes the normative conclusion explicitly grounded. The study’s significance lies in presenting modality as a coherent textual field where orientation, event structure, and the stabilization of conclusions are formed in sequence. The practical value is an applicable model and a list of concrete linguistic indicators for classroom analysis, stylistics, and writing practice.
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