情態

情態(modality)是一個語法學術語，是用來體現說話者對其所言的主觀態度的句法語義範疇。

功能

本來，句子是表達說話者的所知、看法或要求的，而情態則是為了表達說話者主觀上認為自己的所知、看法的真實性（可能），或實現自己要求的強制性（必要）或意願性（意願）如何，提供了若干種不同的選擇。比如：

（1）火車開走了。

（2）火車一定開走了。

（3）火車可能開走了。

（4）我認為火車開走了。

這四個句子所表達的意義涉及同樣的一個事件。但說話者對於句中描述的時間和真實世界的關系所持有的態度卻有不同。句（1）採用的是客觀陳述的凡是，說話者對事件的真實性確定無誤；而其餘三句都增加了說話者的主觀態度的表達，其中句（3）對事實真實性的確信程度最低。

參見：模態邏輯

語法形式

情態範疇主要由情態動詞或「我認為/我相信/我肯定/我確定」等小句來體現。

參見：情態動詞

參考文獻

• Asher, R. E. (ed.), The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (pp. 2535–2540). Oxford: Pergamon Press.
• Blakemore, D. (1994). Evidence and modality. In R. E. Asher (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics (pp. 1183–1186). Oxford: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-035943-4.
• Bybee, Joan; Perkins, Revere, & Pagliuca, William (1994). The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Calbert, J. P. (1975). Toward the semantics of modality. In J. P. Calbert & H. Vater (Eds.), Aspekte der Modalität. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
• Callaham, Scott N. (2010). Modality and the Biblical Hebrew Infinitive Absolute. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 71. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Chung, Sandra; & Timberlake, Alan (1985). Tense, aspect and mood. In T. Shopen (Ed.), Language typology and syntactic description: Grammatical categories and the lexicon (Vol. 3, pp. 202-258). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Elliott, Jennifer R. (2000). Realis and irrealis: Forms and concepts of the grammaticalisation of reality. In: Linguistic Typology (Vol. 4, pp. 55-90).
• Kaufmann, S.; Condoravdi, C. & Harizanov, V. (2006)Formal approaches to modality. In: Frawley, W. (Ed.). The Expression of Modality. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter
• Kratzer, A. (1981). The notional category of modality. In H.-J. Eikmeyer & H. Rieser (Eds.), Words, worlds, and contexts: New approaches in word semantics. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
• Kratzer, A. (1991). Modality. In: von Stechow, A. & Wunderlich, D. (Eds.) Semantics: An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
• Mithun, M. (1995). On the Relativity of Irreality. In: Bybee, J. & Fleischman, S. (Eds.) Modality in Grammar and Discourse John Benjamins
• Palmer, F. R. (1979). Modality and the English modals. London: Longman.
• Palmer, F. R. (1994). Mood and modality. Cambridge Univ. Press. Second edition 2001.
• Portner, P. (2009) Modality. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Saeed, John I. (2003). Sentence semantics 1: Situations: Modality and evidentiality. In J. I Saeed, Semantics (2nd. ed) (Sec. 5.3, pp. 135–143). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-22692-3, ISBN 0-631-22693-1.
• Sweetser, E. E. (1982). Root and epistemic modality: Causality in two worlds. Berkeley Linguistic Papers, 8, 484-507.