Since the publication of F. R. Palmers first edition of Mood and Modality in1986 when the topic of modality was fairly unfamiliar there has beenconsiderable int... » 

Since the publication of F. R. Palmers first edition of Mood and Modality in1986 when the topic of modality was fairly unfamiliar there has beenconsiderable interest in the subject as well as in grammatical typology ingeneral. Modality is concerned with mood subjunctive etc. and with modalmarkers such as English modal verbs can may must etc. and is treated as asingle grammatical category found in most of the languages of the world. In hisinvestigation of this category Palmer draws on a wealth of examples from awide variety of languages. He discusses in detail familiar features in a numberof mainly European languages and also looks at less familiar featuresincluding evidential systems and the contrast of realisirrealis both to befound in unrelated languages. «