Modality (semantics)

Modality is the expression in language of how real, possible or necessary something said is.

Languages commonly express modality using modal auxiliaries such as "could", "should", or "must"; modal adverbs such as "possibly" or "necessarily"; and modal adjectives such as "conceivable" or "probable". Modal components have also been identified in the meanings of other natural language expressions, including counterfactuals, propositional attitudes, evidentials, habituals, and generics.

Modality has been studied from a variety of perspectives in linguistics. Typological linguists have traced variation in the ways different languages mark modality, with a particular focus on its interaction with tense–aspect–mood marking. Theoretical linguists have sought to analyze both the propositional content and discourse effects of modal expressions using formal tools derived from modal logic.

Within philosophy, linguistic modality is often studied alongside broader metaphysical notions of necessity and possibility.