Status of the verb ‘mögen’ and its grammatical form ‘möchte’ in German

Abstract

The aim of the research is to identify the semantic changes in the modal verb ‘mögen’ and its subjunctive form ‘möchte’ in German. The paper clarifies the status of the modal verb ‘mögen’ in diachrony and synchrony, explains the participation of ‘mögen’ and its form ‘möchte’ in the process of grammaticalization. The modal verb ‘mögen’ is considered from the perspective of its frequency in oral and written speech at various stages of the development of the German language and the identification of its modal meanings. The acquired modal meanings make it possible to speak about the expression of the category of modality by the verb ‘mögen’, namely the expression of volitive and epistemic modality. As linguistic analysis shows, the verb ‘mögen’ in its volitive meaning, used in the form of the subjunctive mood ‘möchte’, has a close meaning with the verb ‘wollen’ in the German language. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the substantiation of the linguistic status of the modal verb ‘mögen’ and its form ‘möchte’ in German as grammatical precedent units. As a result, it has been proved that the verb form ‘möchte’ should not be considered as a notional verb different from ‘mögen’.