Many elements contribute to the relative difficulty in acquiring specific aspects of English as a foreign language (Goldschneider & DeKeyser, 2001). MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS (e.g. could, might), are examples of a structure that is difficult for many learners. Not only are they particularly complex semantically, but especially in the Malaysian context reported on in this paper, there is no direct equivalent in the students’ L1. In other words, they are a good example of a structure for which successful acquisition depends very much on the quality of the input and instruction students receive. This paper reports on analysis of a 230, 000 word corpus of Malaysian English textbooks, in which it was found that the relative frequency of the MODALs did not match that found in native speaker corpora such as the BNC. We compared the textbook corpus with a learner corpus of Malaysian form 4 learners and found no direct relationship between frequency of presentation of target forms in the textbooks and their use by students in their writing. We also found a very large percentage of errors in students’ writing. We suggest a number of possible reasons for these findings and discuss the implications for materials developers and teachers.

The current study was carried out to investigate the acquisition of English MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS by adult Persian EFL learners. In order to fulfill the intended objective, 34 intermediate and 33 advanced participants studying English at language institutes were chosen. The selected L2 learners were assessed both on their production (translation task) and perception (forced choice elicitation task) of the intended MODAL VERBS. The data analysis revealed that they suffered inability in the production of simple and perfective forms of dynamic MODAL AUXILIARY would. Meanwhile, the distinction among deontic MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS should, must, and have to constituted another area of difficulty even at higher levels of proficiency. The obtained results reveal that the structural problems caused by L1 transfer exist even at higher levels of learning. These findings reject the principles of full transfer/full access theory.

MODALity is a syntactic-semantic category indicating the speaker's point of view towards what she/ he says. A language can mark the content of a sentence in accordance with the degree of the speaker's commitment to the truth of it or the kind of request he has for the action to be accomplished.MODAL VERBS, used in some languages including Persian, are one way of indicating MODALity. The Persian MODAL VERBS are: bayestan, sodan and tavanestan, which are used to indicate the three main MODALities, epistemic, deontic and dynamic, along with the two degrees of MODALity, obligation and possibility. The research shows that in Persian the only verb which is used. To indicate obligation in all the three types of MODALity is Bayesian. Possibility in all the three types is indicated by tavanestan and sodan.

MODALity is of fundamental importance in studying the structure of all languages worldwide. Providing a comprehensive definition of this notion is difficult. In general, MODALity expresses the speaker's point of view towards the statement in the sentence. In terms of semantics, the MODALity is considered in two general categories: epistemic and root MODALities. Epistemic MODALity expresses the speaker's assessment of the probability or predictability of the action. This type of MODALity involves the possibility or necessity of the proposition based on the judgment, evidence, or knowledge of the speaker. Root MODALity is used to express concepts such as coercion, permission, and ability and is divided into two subsets: deontic and dynamic. In deontic MODALity, external circumstances and power often oblige the third person or addressee to act or do an activity. In dynamic MODALity, the inner force or the existing conditions provide the necessity or possibility for the action to be performed. This kind of MODALity expresses the ability and capability of the actor.

In every language, several MODAL VERBS express time, aspect, and mode. MODAL initial VERBS show the initial aspect. The initial mode is a concept that indicates the beginning of an action. In the surviving texts of the Persian language of the Dari period, There are many MODAL VERBS. This study tries to examine only the initial MODAL VERBS among the types of MODAL VERBS. The question of this research is that in the literary texts of ancient Persian language, in addition to certain VERBS that have been introduced so far, what other VERBS show the initial mold? In this research, four VERBS "Falling" (افتادن), "Standing" ((ایستادن/ اندرایستادن, and "Rising" (برخاستن), based on the model of "Dimensions of Auxiliation" Suggested by Davari and Naghzgue Kohan (1396) have been investigated. Evidence from this research shows these four VERBS might be considered auxiliaries.

The inchoative aspect is made with the help of AUXILIARY VERBS, which, in addition to showing the beginning of the action, also indicates its necessity. The inchoative AUXILIARY VERBS such as the VERBS “to start, to begin, to stand, to take, etc.”, which are the inchoative aspect of the sentence, are not used in the Persian language today but played a prominent role in the past periods of the Persian language. In the scope of inchoative AUXILIARY VERBS, we are faced with a group of VERBS that reach the main verb in the sentence with the help of creating continuous images from the secondary verb origin to create an inchoative aspect, and with this movement scheme, they show the process of the beginning of an action or verb. In the present research, an attempt has been made to extract and introduce the AUXILIARY VERBS that indicate the inchoative aspect in the Persian language. Therefore, this research, using a descriptive-analytical method, has investigated the inchoative AUXILIARY VERBS in the historical period of the 4th to the 12th century of the Persian language among Persian prose books. The obtained results showed that the VERBS “to take, to pick up, to rise, and to open” are considered to be among the VERBS that create the inchoative aspect. In the meantime, the VERBS “to rise” and “to pick up” still retain their original role as an inchoative AUXILIARY verb, but the rest of the VERBS have undergone deauxiliation and lost their use. In addition, other VERBS in today’s colloquial Persian have been added to this range, such as “to pull” and “to take” which go through their auxiliation process in the construction of the inchoative aspect.

The main purpose of this paper is the investigation of Persian MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS in the framework of force-dynamic model of Talmy and idealized cognitive model of Langacker. Force-dynamic model which stands, originally, for the analysis of action and reaction of physical objects in the real world, has been used by Talmy for characterizing the deontic notion of MODAL auxiliaries and then, extended by Sweetser for conceptualizing the epistemic reading of MODALs. The investigation of deontic and epistemic notions of MODAL auxiliaries on the basis of this model, revealed that the actualization of the event is not guaranteed but it is actualized in the nonfactual world. The second model, i.e., the metaphoric idealized cognitive model, known as epistemic model, is proposed by Langacker under the influence of Lakoff's theory of idealized cognitive models. The investigation of MODAL auxiliaries in the framework of this model showed that MODAL auxiliaries are not under epistemic control and fall in the realm of irreality and with respect to the rate of momentum construed to the specified event, the MODALs locate in a near of far distance from immediate reality. By comparing the results of the two models, it is revealed that not being under epistemic control equals not being guaranteed and on the other hand, actualizing the situation in nonfactual world means falling in the scope of irreality; so, the two models cooperate in conceptualizing the Persian MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS.

The present paper is an attempt to study the semantic side of MODAL VERBS in Siahkali variety of Gilaki. This research has been conducted via descriptive-analytical method in Palmer (1997) and Nauze (2008) frameworks. Based upon this research, the MODAL verb “va” features all three epistemic, deontic, and dynamic modes in terms of semantics while “vast” and “vasti” and the present tense of MODAL verb “tonəstan” are used to express deontic and dynamic modes. The MODAL verb “šay” is used to express the epistemic and dynamic aspect while “šast”, the past tense “tonəstan” and both the present and past forms of the verb “xastən” and “rəse: n” are used to express the dynamic aspect in Gilaki. The MODAL verb “bo: n” expresses the epistemic and deontic MODALity while “bəbu” indicates the deontic MODALity. “va” and its past tenses show the degree of necessity and other MODAL VERBS infer the degree of possibility. The semantic mapping of MODAL VERBS is shown on the conceptual context of MODALity. So, the same universal saying that the MODALity elements are different only on one of the axes is also true in Gilaki. 1. Introduction MODALity generally expresses the speaker's view of the proposition contained in the sentence. Semantically, MODALity is divided into two types in a general category, which are the epistemic and root modes. The epistemic mode involves the speaker's assessment of the probability or predictability of the action. It also includes the necessity or possibility of a proposition based on the judgment, evidence, or knowledge of the speaker. Switzer (1982) argues that concepts that imply necessity, probability, or possibility are considered epistemic. The root mode is used to express concepts such as coercion, permission, and ability, and consists of two deontic and dynamic subgroups. In deontic MODALity, external circumstances and power often require the actor or third person to perform an action or allow him/her to do something. In dynamic MODALity, the internal force or current conditions provide the necessity or possibility for the action to take place. 2. Theoretical Framework Palmer (1997) introduced three types of epistemic, deontic, and dynamic MODALities, and two main degrees or levels of MODALity as possibility and necessity, the epistemic MODALity is the simplest of all in his view. This type of MODALity is a judgment that is made about the realization of a situation or event. He considers this MODALity as discourse-oriented and believes that it includes both the speaker and the audience. Palmer states that by using this MODALity, the speaker is actually allowing, forcing, promising, and threatening. The dynamic MODALity is related to the ability and desire of the subject and has two subsets of neutral and subject-oriented. Neutral usage indicates the possibility of an event. Another type of dynamic possibility indicates the ability of the subject to perform the action. Dynamic possibility can also be used to express an implicit meaning to make suggestion for istance. In this paper, the semantic mapping of MODAL VERBS of Gilaki is presented upon Nauze framework (2008). Nauze shows the conceptual space of MODALity, which includes all the MODAL elements in world languages, in one form, with vertical and horizontal axes. The vertical axis indicates the dimension of possibility or necessity of the MODAL verb, and based on the horizontal axes, it is determined whether the verb has semantic diversity in terms of meaning or not. 3. Methodolgy This research is a qualitative research and has been carried out via descriptive-analytical methods. The semantic part of this research is based on Palmer (1997) and its semantic mapping is based on the Nauze (2008) framework. The Gilaki data of this research, consisted of 42 sentences, has been collected from the everyday speech of the speakers. In addition, some syntactic behaviors of MODAL VERBS and related topics such as grammatical tense, complement of MODAL VERBS, position of MODAL VERBS in a sentence, negation and their use as lexical VERBS have been studied. 4. Results & Discussion In Gilaki, to express the form of coercion or obligation, the prepositional verb va "should" is used for the present and future grammatical tenses, and vast and vasti "must" for the past grammatical tense. The MODAL verb va features all three epistemic, deontic, and dynamic modes. The complement of this verb in personal constructions is a temporal verb that appears in the sentence in the form of present or past participles and is conjugated in terms of person and number in accordance with the subject of the sentence. The unmarked position “va” and its past two forms precede its complement. The MODAL verb of šay "can, become" refers to the present and future grammatical tenses and šast "become" to the past grammatical tense. “šay” is used to express the epistemic and dynamic modes and “šast” is used to express the dynamic mode in Gilaki. Since “šay” and “šast” in Gilaki are used only in impersonal constructions and the subject or actor is not present in these sentences, the complement of these two MODAL VERBS is used only as an infinitive after them. The MODAL verb bo: n "become" refers to the present grammatical tense and bəbu "became" refers to the past grammatical tense. “bo: n” is used to express the epistemic and deontic modes and “bəbu” is used to express the deontic mode. The complement of these two MODAL VERBS is the temporal verb (present or past participles) which is used according to the subject of the sentence. The unmarked position of these two VERBS is at the beginning of the sentence. The three MODAL VERBS tonəstən "to be able", xastən "to want" and rəse: n "to arrive" in Gilaki have common syntactic features. The present tense of the MODAL verb tonəstan "to be able" has a reading of the deontic and dynamic modes, and its past tense has a dynamic mode. Both the present and past tenses of the MODAL VERBS xastən "want" and rəse: n "to arrive" have dynamic modes. The complement of these VERBS is conjugated in the form of a tense verb, which is always present participle, in accordance with the subject of the sentence. Examining the semantic mapping of Gilaki's MODAL VERBS showed that among the Gilaki's MODAL VERBS, va "should", along with its two past forms, indicates the necessity aspect on the vertical axis and has a variety of meanings on the horizontal axis, while, other Gilaki's MODAL VERBS are placed on the vertical axis of possibility aspect and indicate polysemy or semantic differences. 5. Conclusions & Suggestions The MODAL verb “va” has all three epistemic, deontic and dynamic modes, and “vast” and “vasti” are used to express the deontic and dynamic modes. The MODAL verb “šay” is used to express the epistemic and dynamic modes and “šast” is used to express the dynamic mode in Gilaki. The verb “bo: n” is used to express the epistemic and deontic modes and “bəbu” is used to express the deontic mode. The present tense of the MODAL verb “tonəstan” has deontic and dynamic modes and its past tense has a dynamic mode. Both the present and past tenses of the MODAL VERBS “xastən” and “rəse: n” have dynamic mode. Also, except for “va” and its past forms, which indicate the degree of necessity, the other MODAL VERBS of Siahkali indicate the degree of possibility. Studying the semantic mapping of Gilaki's MODAL VERBS showed that what has been generally said about the fact that the MODAL elements are different on one of the axes of the conceptual space and not on both axes is also true about this dialect. “va” and its past forms on the vertical axis show the necessity and have various meanings only on the horizontal axis. Other VERBS are placed on the vertical axis of possibility and have polysemy or semantic differences on this axis.

In researches carried out on Persian grammar, the category of "exponence" has not been so much a matter of concern, as are the categories of "tense" and "aspect". The grammatical capacities used for dealing with these three categories, are named "MODALs", which, by definition are formed through the process of MODALization of lexical VERBS. MODALization is among the general processes of grammaticalization whose grammatical capacities actualize as functional words, clitics, and inflectional affixes. Of all these, functional words and clitics take the position of MODALs. This article studies the MODALs which designate the concept of exponence. The examined categories are among the complete, incomplete, approximate and initial exponences. The examples presented indicate two significant points: first, MODAL VERBS might have various grammatical functions; second, two or more MODAL VERBS might have the same grammatical function.

This article examines the Zoroastian Middle Persian MODAL VERBS in terms of typology. The type of research is qualitative and its method is descriptive-analytical. The framework in this study is adapted from Nauze. The Middle Persian MODAL VERBS are: abā, yē, d, š, ā, yē, d, tuwā, n, sazē, d and kā, mistan. The data is collected through the Zoroastian Middle Persian texts. After collecting data, the type of MODAL VERBS in the data was determined and then the semantic mapping of each verb was specified on the conceptual space. The results showed that Nauze framework is not suitable for covering the meaning of Zoroastian Middle Persian MODAL VERBS. So, the probability axis was added on the vertical axis of the conceptual space. Also, this research showed that the Middle Persian data contradicts the typology that Nauze had presented.