Grammar Semantic constituents related to verbs

Agent-oriented modalities

Verbal auxiliaries, affixes, adverbs, and particles that indicate agent-oriented modalities.

ability, mental: English: 'Melissa can speak Dutch'.

can
ability, physical: English: 'Hortense can swim the English Channel'.

can
attempt: the agent attempts to complete the action specified by the predicate. Note: this has a sense of incompleteness, and I have seen authors call this "Incomplete" and gloss the examples with 'try'.

try to attempt to
desire: the agent of the verb desires or wants to complete the action of the verb.

want to would like to
obligation, strong: it is absolutely incumbent upon the agent to complete the action of the main verb: 'I have to mail this letter today'.

have to must
obligation, weak: it is recommended that the agent complete the action of the main verb: 'Harry ought to get a haircut before meeting Sue's mother'.

ought to should
permission: the agent is allowed to complete the action of the main verb: 'The students may check books out for two weeks'.

may
root possibility: it is possible for the agent to carry out the action of the main verb; i.e. s/he is able and external conditions allow it: 'You can get that kind of paper at Ulbrich's'.

can
intention: the agent intends to carry out the action of the main verb: 'Sam's gonna take Sanskrit next semester'.

gonna going to intend to
andative: agent moves away from the deictic center in order to do something, literally 'be going to do something'. Of course such forms are often related to the verb 'to go' and also may have uses of intention and future.

go to
venitive: the agent moves toward the deictic center in order to do something, literally 'be coming to do something'. This may be related to the verb 'to come' and may have future uses as well.

come to