Reviewed by Heiko Narrog, Tohoku University

The study of modality has been booming in the last five or ten years, to the extent that it has become difficult to keep track of all of the book publications on the topic, let alone research papers. The expression of modality, with its handbook-like concept, comes just at the right time, as it provides some orientation in this field, and a guide to the relevant research literature.

Four articles give overviews of central areas in the study of modality: Ferdinand de Haan on ‘Typological approaches to modality’ (27–69), Stefan Kaufmann, Cleo Condoravdi, and Valentina Harizanov on ‘Formal approaches to modality’ (71–106), Elizabeth Traugott on ‘Historical aspects of modality’ (107–39), and Soonja Choi on the ‘Acquisition of modality’ (141–71). The articles by de Haan and Traugott offer thorough overviews of the literature, with Traugott’s providing a full ten pages of references. The four overview articles are framed by an introduction by Jan Nuyts (1–26), which outlines key concepts and issues in the field, and two case studies on individual languages—‘Modal expression in Valley Zapotec’ by Pamela Munro (173–205) and ‘Modality in American Sign Language’ by Sherman Wilcox and Barbara Shaffer (207–37). These are both remarkable languages with respect to modality. Valley Zapotec has no core set of modal morphemes and does not conflate the formal expression of deontic and epistemic modality.

Overall, the volume shows evidence of good communication between the editor and the authors. The individual contributions frequently refer and correspond to each other, resulting in thematic coherence. Although the editor claims that he wants to see his publication as a ‘tutorial on how notions of possibility, probability, necessity, belief, and confidence are expressed and learned in human language and how to analyze and explain such notions’ (v), it amounts to nothing less than a small handbook. There is only one conspicuous gap in the coverage, namely, the lack of an article on the syntactic treatment of modality. The article by Kaufmann and colleagues focuses on semantic analysis only.

The book is rounded out by a detailed topical outline and a general index.

This is the first title in a new series. If the following volumes can match the standard set by Frawley’s publication, this should become a successful enterprise.