EPISTEMIC MODALITY AS A MEANS OF MODELING A PEDAGOGICAL TEXT

The article discusses the problems of the category of epistemic modality and provides a brief overview of different semantic approaches to it given by Russian and foreign linguists. Epistemic modality refers to the way speakers communicate their doubts, certainties, and guesses, i.e. deals with a speaker's evaluation/judgment of, degree of, confidence in, or belief of the knowledge upon which a proposition is based. The relevance of the work is due to the fact that the essential properties and functional features of the units expressing epistemic relations are analyzed on the material of scientific articles presented in the American online journal “English Teaching Forum” (2016-2018), a quarterly journal supporting the teaching of English around the world through the publication of innovative, practical ideas with most of the authors being classroom teachers. Pedagogical discourse constitutes a specific type of text where authors give recommendations, share their experiences with readers expressing a subjective point of view. The means of epistemic modality – modal verbs, modal words (adverbials etc.) and phrases help them to convey their attitude toward the factualness of a proposition. The article also provides examples of the use of appropriate means under consideration and reveals their functional significance. Different types of combinations of epistemic modal expressions are considered in pedagogical contexts. Finally, conclusions are drawn about epistemic modal verbs as most popular markers signaling the degree of self-confidence/uncertainty, reliability/unreliability of a writer's attitude. It is most likely that a fuller picture of the properties of epistemic modals can help to broaden and deepen teachers' understanding of this linguistic area.