On the increase of speaker-orientation from modality to mood of 'fear'-predicates in English

The aim of this paper is to address the increase of speaker-orientation from modality to mood in 'fear'-predicates of English. 'Fear' -predicates concerned here are I am afraid- (I'm afraid~) and I fear~, judging from the degree of grammaticalization and the token frequency of corpus data regarding the modal verbs in the subordinate clause. The first person subject 'I' in the construction of I am afraid~ (I'm afraid~) and I fear~ signals the speaker-orientation. Modality in this paper is defined in terms of factuality to the proposition, following Narrog (2012, ch. 2). Mood is delineated as a grammatical term for modality. Based on Narrog's (2010: 394) model, mood forms the upward stage of the grammaticalization of modality. 'Fear'-predicates in the main clause combined with modal verbs in the subordinate clause constitute composite mood along the line of increased speaker-orientation such as imperative, admonitive, commissive, etc. It is argued that the path from modality to mood is metaphorically mapped across the domains. (Chung-Ang University)