Modality can be expressed through a variety of different linguistic means within and across languages, of which one manifestation is through noncanonical case marking of the subject. In Ancient Greek several predicates show a systematic alternation between constructions with nominative and oblique subjects, which coincides with a difference in meaning, yielding a modal meaning in the latter case. We show how this modal meaning cannot be derived from the meaning of the individual parts of the construction, neither from the lexical material nor from the relevant grammatical elements. Instead, the data call for a constructional analysis of a modal subconstruction of the oblique subject construction, for which the modality must be attributed to the construction itself. We argue that this can be viewed through the lens of subjectification in the sense of Traugott (2003), here demonstrating that the semantic relation holding between the subject referent and the oblique case marking selected by the verb has been extended to the empathic relation holding between the speaker and his/her attitude towards the proposition uttered (Barðdal 2004). This, we believe, is how the concept of modality came to be associated with oblique case marking of subjects.

中文翻译：

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古希腊情态动词的情态从何而来？

情态可以通过语言内部和语言之间的各种不同语言手段来表达，其中一种表现形式是通过主题的非规范案例标记。在古希腊语中，几个谓词显示了主格和斜主语结构之间的系统交替，这与意义的差异相吻合，在后一种情况下产生情态意义。我们展示了这种情态意义如何不能从结构的各个部分的意义中导出，既不能从词汇材料中也不能从相关的语法元素中导出。相反，数据要求对倾斜主体结构的模态子结构进行结构分析，为此模态必须归因于结构本身。我们认为这可以通过 Traugott (2003) 意义上的主体化镜头来看待，这里证明主语所指和动词选择的斜格标记之间的语义关系已经扩展到之间的移情关系。说话者及其对所提出命题的态度（Barðdal 2004）。我们相信，这就是模态的概念如何与主题的斜格标记相关联。