The methods of expressing obligation in English, Hungarian, and Polish statutory instruments

摘要

The authors analyze the structure of imperative clauses in English, Hungarian, and Polish statutory instruments, including the EU ones. The emphasis is put on the exponents of modal meanings used in the above-mentioned three languages. The clauses are analysed from a semantic and syntactic perspective. Grammatical and lexical exponents of deontic modality in English, Hungarian, and Polish are compared. The semantic components constituting modally marked utterances are described.