MODALITY IN TEXTS OF GERMAN АNECDOTES

Abstract

Texts of German anecdotes, as a language genre, together with grammatical forms and syntactic structures organize human speech. They are the object of this study, and its subject is the category of modality and linguistic means of its expression. The relevance of the work is determined by the general tendency and interest in the study of minitexts, which undoubtedly include anecdotes. The purpose of the study is a comprehensive description of the linguistic means of the category of modality in the texts of German anecdotes. The following tasks are subordinated to this goal: description of the genre in modern linguistic research; definition of the concept of anecdote; research and description of the constituents of internal and external modality. Anecdote, as a genre, is always associated with the national picture of the world; it demonstrates the connection of thinking, language, culture, in addition, it reflects a certain picture of the world. The most important characteristics of this genre are humorous communication, folklore, dichotomy, the presence of a key component. Modality is described as a semantic-pragmatic category, as it characterizes the speaker’s attitude to the basis of expression. The range of modal means of empirical material includes the forms of internal and external modality, which are mainly expressed by morphological means. Internal modality is stated by the indicative, the conjunctive (it is represented mainly by preterit temporal forms) and an imperative that acts as a marker of motivational modality. External modality manifests the author’s attitude to the real situation. Most often it is declared by complex predicates, where the first component is a modal verb, modal words, as well as different parts of speech. Anecdotes, as a supra-phrase unity, often demonstrate a symbiosis of two types, where external and internal modality interact with each other. The description and detailed analysis of the language means of the modality category on the material of German anecdotes is a scientific novelty of our study. It should be noted that in our research we considered the category of modality and means of its expression only on the example of German anecdotes.