Aspectuality and Modality in English and Arabic Short Stories :A Contrastive Study

Abstract

In this paper two linguistic aspects, namely aspectuality and modality are investigated in English and Arabic modern short stories to reveal whether epistemic /deontic and perfective / imperfective have outstanding occurrences in these stories. However, the auxiliaries are not the only way of expressing modality. The paper explores other types of modality rather than auxiliaries such as lexical   modal verbs and modal adjuncts to construe their contribution to the shade of the two stories under study. The results from the data analysis indicates that epistemic modality is the fruitful category comparing to deontic/dynamic in English and Arabic short stories that  explains no desirability of actualization of a situation from the part of  the characters of the stories. On the other hand, aspect of ‘perfective’ constitutes a high frequency in the two short stories in order to move the readers through the story from one event to the other.