Lexical exponents of hypothetical modality in Polish and Lithuanian

Lexical exponents of hypothetical modality in Polish and Lithuanian The article focuses on the lexical exponents of hypothetical modality in Polish and Lithuanian. The purpose for comparing and contrasting the lexical exponents of hypothetical modality is not only to identify all the lexemes in both languages but also find the answer to the following question: whether the morphological exponents of hypothetical modality (so-called modus relativus) familiar to the Lithuanian language have/had an influence on limiting the number of the lexical exponents and the frequency of using these exponents in the Lithuanian language (in comparison with Polish). To analyse both the languages there is used the method of theoretical contrastive studies, which the most important features are: (1) orienting the studies from the content grounds to the formal grounds, (2) using a semantic interlanguage as tertium comparationis. First of all, the content of hypothetical modality and its definition and paraphrase is given here. Next, the gradational character of this category is discussed. There are distinguished six groups of lexemes expressing the corresponding degrees of hypothetical modality — from a shadow of uncertainty (minimal degree of probability) to an almost complete certainty (maximum degree of probability). The experimental Polish-Lithuanian corpus is widely applied in the studies.