Epistemic modality refers to possibility related to available evidence. van der Auwera and Ammann (2008) provide English examples such as <i>John <b>may</b> have arrived</i> and <i>John <b>must</b> have arrived</i>. <br><br> In these sentences, whether or not John has arrived is established based on available evidence.

A ‘yes’ value to this property indicates that the language expresses this sort of modality with a verb. <br><br> English is an example of such a language despite the fact that some (though not all) English modal verbs have particular properties such as lack of overt subject-verb agreement.
<br><br>

<b>Reference</b><br>
van der Auwera, Johan & Ammann, Andreas. 2008. Epistemic Possibility.
In Haspelmath et al. (2008), chapter 75.
Available online at <a href=â€http://wals.info/feature/75â€>http://wals.info/feature/75</a href>.	
