Communicative-pragmatic functions of modal words (on the basis of the modern English language)

The article is devoted to the communicative-pragmatic functions of the modal words marking the modality of categorical certainty in the modern English language. The semantic feature of modal words is to express the subjective attitude of communicants to certainty of the exchanged information. In spite of the fact that the main pragmatic function of modal words is to persuade the interlocutor that the information, he is receiving, is certain, during this research some specific pragmatic functions, which help modal words to achieve necessary perlocutionary effect, were revealed. The analysed functions were considered from the position of influence on the speaker and on the listener. The communicative-pragmatic functions of the modal words of categorical certainty, directed to the speaker, include the function of demonstration of the speaker's confidence in certainty of the provided information, the function of showing of the speaker's attitude to a situation, the function of changing the initial opinion to more certain one. Among the communicative-pragmatic functions of the modal words, focused on the listener, the following functions can be differentiated: the function of influence on the emotional and mental state of the recipient, the function of persuasion, the function of accentuation of the rheme, the function of ironizing and some others. The functions stated above were illustrated with the help of the examples from the modern English prose.