Modality in Modern Hebrew

A Preliminary Attempt To Account for Epistemic and Deontic Interpretations

Abstract

Several aspects of the modality system in Modern Hebrew are examined. In general, Hebrew modal expressions are found to be unambiguous as to epistemic and deontic interpretations. The behavior of modal expressions with respect to a number of syntactic categories and constructions is also examined. It is proposed that future investigation focus on the complex morphological structure of the lexical forms expressing notions of Hebrew modality.