This text offers original theoretical accounts and a wealth of descriptive information concerning modality in contemporary English. At the same time, it provides fresh impetus to more general linguistic issues such as grammaticalization, colloquialization, or the interplay between sociolinguistic and syntactic constraints. The articles fall into four sections: the semantics and pragmatics of core modal verbs; the status of emerging modal items; sylistic variation and change; and sociolinguistic variation and syntactic models. The book should be of value to students and teachers of English and linguistics at undergraduate and graduate level.