Epistemic modal manner & Deontic modal manner

[Deepurple]

Quoting from Riverkid's response to the use of may/might: "This can be used in either an epistemic modal manner or a deontic modal manner so either is possible. 'may' used in the latter fashion, as a deontic denoting an admonishment is a much less likely collocation than 'could' or 'might', hence we have a greater tendency to view it as "a possibility that he died"."
May I know the meanings of "epistemic modal manner" and "deontic modal manner" in plain English? Thanks.

 

[CHOMAT]

That is not a nasty thing, just a questions of terms:

Modality is a matter of relations:
between the speaker and the proposition ( the utterance).
Between the speaker and aco-speaker ( intersubjective relation)

There are 4 modal manners :
assertive
epistemic
appreciative
deontic

As far as epistemic modal manner is concerned, the speaker tries to evaluate the validity of a proposition :Is it likely to happen? Did it happen? ( perhaps, possibly, certainly...)
may, might, could, can , must... express this epistemic modus. We stand in the field of true and false.
He may die
he may have died
he must have lost his keys...

Deontic modal manner- to say it plainly , with some distorsion but the gist of it remains- is a matter of relations between a speaker and a co-speaker or with herself/ himself.
The deontic values are order, permission, wish, suggestion, will....

you shall stay with us
You must not step ahead
you should have told her.

that might help you ( epistemic value!)

 

[riverkid]

Good stuff, Chomat!!

 

[Deepurple]

That is not a nasty thing, just a questions of terms:

Modality is a matter of relations:
between the speaker and the proposition ( the utterance).
Between the speaker and aco-speaker ( intersubjective relation)

There are 4 modal manners :
assertive
epistemic
appreciative
deontic

As far as epistemic modal manner is concerned, the speaker tries to evaluate the validity of a proposition :Is it likely to happen? Did it happen? ( perhaps, possibly, certainly...)
may, might, could, can , must... express this epistemic modus. We stand in the field of true and false.
He may die
he may have died
he must have lost his keys...

Deontic modal manner- to say it plainly , with some distorsion but the gist of it remains- is a matter of relations between a speaker and a co-speaker or with herself/ himself.
The deontic values are order, permission, wish, suggestion, will....

you shall stay with us
You must not step ahead
you should have told her.

that might help you ( epistemic value!)

As riverkid said it was really great stuff. By the way, could you provide some examples on assertive and appreciative manners as well? Heaps of thanks.

 

[CHOMAT]

Pleasure ! If it could help ..

Here come some examples : The appreciative modal manner is found in sentences structured as such:
I'm glad that
It's ridiculous that he should ....
think that
It's normal that
it is advisable that
Any clause that expresses a judgement , an appreciation upon an event , a fact.


The assertive modal manner :
The speaker simply regards( or believes) the proposition as true or false. No comment upon the propositional content . Besides he can ask for someone else's opinion on the validity of a proposition = questions.

Peter came yesterday.
Did John come yesterday ?
Do you like chocolate ? ----> I don't