The forms and functions of modal verbs

       You are not to tell anybody about it [4, p.123].

4. Something that is destined to happen or is unavoidable.

e.g. I didn’t know at the time that she was to be my wife.

      If we are to be neighbours for life we should be on friendly terms.

       It was not to be [4, p.123].

5. Impossibility.

In negative sentences or in sentences containing words with negative meaning the verb to be to implies impossibility. In this case the passive form of the non-perfect infinitive is used, unless it is a question beginning with the interrogative adverbs how, where [2, p.78].

e.g. They are not to be trusted.

       Nothing was to be done under the circumstances [6, p.78].

This meaning is similar to the meaning of can and may.

In summary, the modal verb to have to expresses obligation or necessity arising out of circumstances, past necessity or obligation, absence of necessity, a future obligation and to be to expresses an obligation arising out of an arrangement or plan, a strict order or an instruction, strict prohibition, something that is destined to happen or is unavoidable, impossibility. Have got to has the same basic meaning as have to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter II

Analysis of modal verbs in the book “The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe

Having analysed the theoretical questions concerning the forms and functions of modal verbs we move to the practical part of our course paper. The examples of the sentences from the book “The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe contain different types of modal verbs.

 1. The modal verbs can and may:

I can give no consent to it [10, p.4].

—“Moely,” said I, “our patron’s guns are on board the boat; can you not get a little powder and shot? [10, p.13]

“Xury; we can slip our cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot follow us far.” [10, p.14]

The generous treatment the captain gave me I can never enough remember[10,20].

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sank into the water [10, p.26].

All that I can say I understood was this: “Seeing all these things have not brought thee to repentance, now thou shalt die;” at which words, I thought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand to kill me [10, p.53].

If so, nothing can happen in the great circuit of His works, either without His knowledge or appointment [10, p.55].

“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” so I began to say, “Can God Himself deliver me from this place?” [10, p.56]

I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed [10, p.66].

We enjoy just as much as we can use, and no more [10, p.77].

I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and, indeed, who could be otherwise? [10, p.3]

I had in five or six days got as complete a victory over conscience as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it could desire [10, p.5].

When I could look about, I could see nothing but distress round us; two ships that rode near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden[10, p.6].

So, all agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could [10, p.7].

But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist [10, p.8].

This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go [10, p.9].

The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently that I could not distrust him, and swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world with me [10, p.14].

I took the best aim I could with the first piece to have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee and broke the bone [10, p.16].

However, Xury could not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it   with him, and it was a monstrous great one [10, p.17].

Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but a little [10, p.7]

This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend the captain [10, p.10].

“It may be we may kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he keeps the gunner’s stores in the ship.” [10, p.13]

“Well, Xury,” said I, “then I won’t; but it may be that we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us as those lions.” [10, p.14]

“For,” says he, “I have saved your life on no other terms than I would be glad to be saved myself: and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same condition [10, p.19].

So that, if it come safe, you may order the rest the same way, and, if it miscarry, you may have the other half to have recourse to for your supply [10, p.21].

I believe it is impossible to express, to the life, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are, when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave [10, p.27].

I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood that very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart and overwhelm him [10, p.27].

Every man may be, in time, master of every mechanic art [10, p.40].

This was the first prayer, if I may call it so, that I had made for many years [10, p.55].

I had a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island, and to see what other productions I might find, which I yet knew nothing of [10, p.58].

There were divers other plants, which I had no notion of or understanding about, that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which I could not find out [10, p.59].

I contented myself with these discoveries for this time, and came back, musing with myself what course I might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should discover, but could bring it to no conclusion [10, p.59].

In short, I had made so little observation while I was in the Brazils, that I knew little of the plants in the field; at least, very little that might serve to any purpose now in my distress [10, p.59].

I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my habitation; which, by the way, was the first night, as I might say, I had lain from home [10, p.59].

I was now by the seaside, where it was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage, and, by the same ill fate that brought me hither might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place [10, p.60].

But by this experiment I was made master of my business, and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow, and that I might expect two seed-times and two harvests every year [10, p.62].

I was agreeably surprised to see it, and said to myself, that certainly they might be made to burn whole, if they would burn broken [10, p.71.]

I gave humble and hearty thanks that God had been pleased to discover to me that it was possible I might be more happy in this solitary condition than I should have been in the liberty of society, and in all the pleasures of the world. [10, p.67].

It might be truly said, that now I worked for my brea. [10, p.70].

2. Modal verb must

If I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it [10, p.3].

Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but a little [10, p.7].

I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me she was sinking [10, p.8].

My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor, to get something for our subsistence on board; for I told him we must not presume to eat of our patron’s bread [10, p.12].

“This will not do; our master will not be thus served; we must stand farther off.” [10, p.13]

“I must throw you into the sea too.” [10, p.13]

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must be that country which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco’s dominions and the negroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts [10, p.16].

I put the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship or must perish [10, p.17].

“Master, master, a ship with a sail!” and the foolish boy was frighted out of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master’s ships sent to pursue us, but I knew we were far enough out of their reach [10, p.19].

I must go and leave the happy view I had of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing admitted [10, p.22].

And as I knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily break her all in pieces, I resolved to set all other things apart till I had got everything out of the ship that I could get [10, p.32].

I must go back to some other things which took up some of my thoughts [10, p.36].

I must now give some little account of myself, and of my thoughts about   living, which, it may well be supposed, were not a few [10, p.37].

And I must not forget that we had in the ship a dog and two cats, of whose eminent history I may have occasion to say something in its place [10, p.38].

But I must observe, too, that at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they lay in no order, so they took up all my place [10, p.40].

And here I must needs observe, that as reason is the substance and origin of the mathematics [10, p.40].

I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it must be done by the earthquake [10, p.50].

I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise than that I knew it must be part of America, and, as I concluded by all my observations, must be near the Spanish dominions [10, p.64].

If I killed more flesh than I could eat, the dog must eat it, or vermin; if I sowed more corn than I could eat, it must be spoiled [10, p.76].

I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to myself, in the most lively colours, how I must have acted if I had got nothing out of the ship [10, p.77].

3. The modal verbs should and ought to

He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind [10, p.3].

I should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might be none to assist in my recovery [10, p.3].

I took my mother at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant than ordinary, and told her that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and my father had better give me his consent than force me to go without it [10, p.4].

I should certainly run away from my master before my time was out, and go to sea [10, p.4].

I should never have it to say that my mother was willing when my father was not [10, p.4].

And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion, who had enticed me away, comes to me; “Well, Bob,” says he, clapping me upon the shoulder, “how do you do after it?” [10, p.5]

We had not, however, rid here so long but we should have tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh, and after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard [10, p.6].

When the master himself came by me, as I said just now, and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully freighted [10, p.6].

“What had I done,” says he, “that such an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? [10, p.9]

As for me, having some money in my pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as on the road, had many struggles with myself what course of life I should take, and whether I should go home or to sea [10, p.9].

I should be set at liberty [10, p.11].

I got some fish I should bring it home to his house; all which I prepared to do [10, p.12].

We could not go on shore but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind [10, p.14].

But my hope was, that if I stood along this coast till I came to that part where the English traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade, that would relieve and take us in [10, p.15].

He ordered the seamen that none should touch anything that I had: then he took everything into his own possession, and gave me back an exact inventory of them, that I might have them, even to my three earthen jars [10, p.20].

And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly that the sea went so high that the boat could not live, and that we should be inevitably drowned [10, p.26].

All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time was to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which grew near me, and where I resolved to sit all night, and consider the next day what death I should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life [10, p.28].

I should be devoured by wild beasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death for want of food [10, p.42].

This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes, and I began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should happen upon my account [10, p.47].

“Young man,” says he, “you ought never to go to sea any more; you ought to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man.” [10, p.8]

I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases [10, p.9].

Had I used half as much prudence to have looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I ought to have done and not to have done [10, p.24].

I thought I ought to get everything out of her that I could [10, p.33].

I must confess my religious thankfulness to God’s providence began to abate, too, upon the discovering that all this was nothing but what was common; though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a providence as if it had been miraculous [10, p.47].

All these things, I say, which I ought to have considered well; and did come into my thoughts afterwards, yet gave me no apprehensions at first, and my head ran mightily upon the thought of getting over to the short [10, p.74].

After this, it cost me a month to shape it and dub it to a proportion, and to something like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as it ought to do [10, p.75].

I ought to consider I had been fed even by a miracle, even as great as that of feeding Elijah by ravens, nay, by a long series of miracles [10, p.78].

As for the first, which was so vastly big, for I made it without considering beforehand, as I ought to have done, how I should be able to launch it [10, p.81].

As to the crimes they were guilty of towards one another, I had nothing to do with them; they were national, and I ought to leave them to the justice of God [10, p.102].

It shall afterwards appear that had we gone that way, which we should have gone, and even to our imagination ought to have gone, we should have been ruined and lost [10, p.103].

After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thought that, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding, and from the relish of a cannibal’s stomach, I ought to let him taste other flesh [10, p.123].

We ought to expect that the consequence, whether death or life, would be sure to be a deliverance [10, p.152].

 

4. The modal verb shall

“We will both go and if the wild mans come, we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us.”  [10, p.15]

“Xury,” says I, “you shall on shore and kill him.”  [10, p.16]

“Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”[10, p.93]

“Well, now, Friday, shall we go to your nation?” [10, p.132]

“I go there, Friday?” says I; “what shall I do there?”[10, p.132]

“No, no, Friday,” say I, “you shall go without me; leave me here to live by myself, as I did before.” [10, p.133]

Every man that comes ashore is our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us [10, p.152].

“You, Smith, you know my voice; if you lay down your arms immediately and submit, you shall have your lives, all but Will Atkins.” [10, p.156]

I assured her I would never forget her former kindness to me; nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to help her, as shall be observed in its proper place [10, p.162].

I shall give you a true account of what I have received in all, and how I have disposed of it [10, p.163].

“However, my old friend,” says he, “you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son returns you shall be fully satisfied.” [10, p.164]

As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so I shall trouble you now with none of my land journals; but some adventures that happened to us in this tedious and difficult journey I must not omit [10, p.168].

5. The modal verb need

But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we were we found the water fresh when the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up [10, p.15].

I need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect to save their lives [10, p.24].

After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no sort of earthenware for my use [10, p.72].

It need not be wondered at if all these things took me up most part of the third year of my abode here [10, p.73].

I need not repeat the arguments which occurred to me against this, they being the same mentioned before; but though I had other reasons to offer now—viz. that those men were enemies to my life, and would devour me if they could [10, p.117].

So we can see different forms and functions of modal verbs in the book “The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe. In the most cases such modal verbs as can(could), that mostly expresses physical and mental ability like in the sentence:

The generous treatment the captain gave me I can never enough remember. [10,20]

and possibility occurs:

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sank into the water [10, p.26]

We found out a lot of examples of may(might) with the meanings of permission and possibility:

“It may be we may kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he keeps the gunner’s stores in the ship.” [10, p.13]

 The modal verb must is also frequently used and expresses obligation and necessity:

If I killed more flesh than I could eat, the dog must eat it, or vermin; if I sowed more corn than I could eat, it must be spoiled. [10, p.76]

 Such modal verbs as should and ought often occur in the book. They have the meaning of moral obligation and moral duty and advisability:

I should never have it to say that my mother was willing when my father was not [10, p.4]

I ought to consider I had been fed even by a miracle, even as great as that of feeding Elijah by ravens, nay, by a long series of miracles [10, p.78].

 

Also, we have many sentences with shall with the meaning of promise, compulsion, strict order:

“No, no, Friday,” say I, “you shall go without me; leave me here to live by myself, as I did before.” [10, p.133]

 The author doesn’t often use modal verb need. We can find only few such sentences in “Robinson Crusoe”. There is no sentence in the book where are used verbs: dare, to have to, to be to, to have got to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSIONS

In our course paper we have investigated the forms and functions of modal verbs. We have achieved the aim of our research paper and all the tasks were fulfilled.

1. We have determined the definition of the modal verbs and pointed out general notions about them. The most common definition of the modal verbs is: