In a different article on this site entitled \u201dModal verbs\u201d, I described the core meanings of Danish modal verbs, when not used for exerting intentional force or for politeness. That is, the meanings of modal verbs in statements that have truth value in describing the world around us. In that article I mentioned, that those core meanings do not apply in the same way, when modal verbs are used to apply intentional force. This is what the present article will explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In order to instruct someone, in a polite way, to do something, Danish uses vil<\/em> or kan<\/em>. Let us briefly list the core meanings of these two modal verbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vil<\/strong> Desire, plan or prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeg vil hjem<\/em> \u2019I want to go home\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vi vil bygge en garage <\/em>\u2019We\u2019re going to build a garage\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flyet vil lande om 30 minutter<\/em> \u2019The airplane is going to land in 30 minutes\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kan Ability, possibility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Min s\u00f8ster kan spille klave<\/em>r \u2019My sister can play the piano\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vi kan sove l\u00e6nge om s\u00f8ndagen<\/em> \u2019We can sleep in on Sundays\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n But none of these restrictions in meaning apply when the utterance is meant as an instruction as in (1) below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (1) a. Kan<\/strong> du ikke lige \u00e5bne vinduet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2019Could you please open the window?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n b. Vil<\/strong> du ikke lige \u00e5bne vinduet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2019Would you please open the window?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two examples in (1) mean the same both in that they are meant to get the same reaction and in that there is no meaningful way in which you might say that the meaning of one is different that the other, even though they use different modal verbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A similar pair of examples is shown in (2) with m\u00e5<\/em> \u2019may\u2019 and kan<\/em>. M\u00e5<\/em> has the core meaning of permission or obligation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (2) a. M\u00e5<\/strong> jeg bede om regningen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2019May I please have the check?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n b. Kan<\/strong> jeg bede om regningen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2019Can I please have the check?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like the examples in (1), these are expected to elicit the exact same response from the listener, and there is no meaningful difference between their contents, and yet they use different modal verbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the reasons why the choice of modal verb is flexible in these types of questions, is that they are not real questions. They are what we call \u201dspeech acts\u201d designed to express intention and make others perform a specific task. They are often highly dependent upon the context in which they are said. For this same reason, the negation ikke<\/em> \u2019not\u2019 can be added at will for extra politeness but without the negating meaning. Turning an order into a question, makes it more polite already (3b). If you add a modal verb, it becomes even more polite (3c) and adding the negation ikke<\/em> (3d) and modal particles like lige<\/em> (3e) can turn up the levels of politeness even further, as in the examples in (3). Note that all of the examples could have used kan<\/em> instaed of vil<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (3) a. Kom herover! Come over here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n b. Kommer du herover? Are you coming over here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n c. Vil du komme herover? Would you come over here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n d. Vil du ikke komme herover? Wouldn\u2019t you come over here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n e. Vil du ikke lige komme herover? Wouldn\u2019t you come over here (real quick)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n f. Vil du ikke godt lige komme herover? Wouldn\u2019t you please come over here (real quick)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note also, that English behaves in a similar way to Danish in that it too can use different modal verbs to convey the same meaning in these types of situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While ikke<\/em> can be combined with any modal verb without exception, certain central adverbs can limit the above mentioned flexibility. These are gerne<\/em> and godt<\/em>. As shown in (4) godt<\/em> can be used with vil, kan<\/em> and m\u00e5<\/em>, while gerne<\/em> is limited to vil<\/em> and m\u00e5<\/em>, while skal<\/em> is not able to be combined with either of them. It is difficult to translate godt \/ gerne<\/em> except for to say, that they are the opposite of the negation ikke<\/em> so they underscore e.g. the willingness of vil<\/em> or the permission of m\u00e5<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (4) \u2003 a. \u2003 Vil du godt komme herover? \u2003\u2003 Would you come over here? But the examples in (5) are not possible: In a different article on this site entitled \u201dModal verbs\u201d, I described the core meanings of Danish modal verbs, when not used for exerting intentional force or for politeness. That is, the meanings of modal verbs in statements that have truth value in describing the world around us. In that article I mentioned, that those core meanings do not apply in the same way, when modal verbs are used to apply intentional force. This is what the present article will explain. In order to instruct someone, in a polite way, to do something, Danish uses vil or kan. Let us briefly list the core meanings of these two modal verbs. Vil Desire, plan or prediction Jeg vil hjem \u2019I want to go home\u2019 Vi vil bygge en garage \u2019We\u2019re going to build a garage\u2019 Flyet vil lande om 30 minutter \u2019The airplane is going to land in 30 minutes\u2019. Kan Ability, possibility Min s\u00f8ster kan spille klaver \u2019My sister can play the piano\u2019… L\u00e6s mere Modal verbs for politeness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":148,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-175","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansk.ninja\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansk.ninja\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansk.ninja\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansk.ninja\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansk.ninja\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dansk.ninja\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":590,"href":"https:\/\/dansk.ninja\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/175\/revisions\/590"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansk.ninja\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansk.ninja\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2003 \u2003 b. \u2003 Kan du godt komme herover? \u2003\u2003 Could you come over here?
\u2003 \u2003 c. \u2003 M\u00e5 jeg godt sidde her? \u2003\u2003 \u2003\u2003\u2003 May I sit here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2003 \u2003 d. \u2003 *Kan du gerne komme herover? \u2003\u2003 Can you come over here?
\u2003 \u2003 e. \u2003 *Kan jeg gerne f\u00e5 en kop kaffe? \u2003\u2003 May I have a cup of coffee?
\u2003 \u2003 f. \u2003 *Skal jeg godt k\u00f8re dig til stationen? \u2003\u2003 Should I drive you to the station?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"