Children’s use of modality in problem solving

From a pragmatic viewpoint, language has evolved because of its functions in making meaning out of a given environment (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). The primary tense expresses what is present at the time of speaking, for example ‘it is’ or ‘it isn’t’; whereas modality expresses certainty or possibility, for example ‘it has to be’ or ‘it can be.’ Although the study of pragmatics in mathematics language has been carried out (e.g. Rowland, 2000), children’s use of modality has not been studied, even though much mathematical language relies on the use of modality both deontic (the necessity or possibility of acts) and epistemic (the speaker’s beliefs).