“This book offers an alternative to the dominant mainstream approach to modality in Japan and ironically does so by applying an approach that is mainstream elsewhere. Readers familiar with the discussion in Japan will be delighted by the many original ideas and insights. A very welcome contribution to the field.”
—Heiko Narrog in Language

In English, the concept of modality has been the subject of studies crucial to the understanding and functioning of the language. Modality governs, for example, the choice of whether to use "may," "shall," or "must" as an auxiliary of the main verb in sentences. The study of these modal auxiliaries reveals the speaker's intention when making statements. Although modality for decades has been studied in Japanese as a field of Japanese linguistics, its study has been historically unfocused, and few articles or books have been written on it in English.

Modality and the Japanese Language is innovative as an English-language text that examines a wide range of grammatical categories in terms of both modal and propositional content--namely, modal auxiliaries, aspectual categories, and conditionals--and reveals a new approach to Japanese modality that relies more centrally on concepts developed in the study of English modality. Yuki Johnson finds many practical and theoretical similarities between English and Japanese modal auxiliaries and argues that modality can be thought of as an expression of the degree of a speaker's conviction concerning a proposition's truth or realization in the form of possible/non-actual words. Such a definition provides practical and applicable perspective to the study of Japanese modality: propositions, for example, become objects of that study in the form of conditional sentences and aspectual categories.

This book will benefit scholars in Japanese linguistics and those engaged in research on the general theory of modals. It will also be helpful to language educators generally, graduate students, and students of advanced-level Japanese.