OBJECTIVE MODALITY OF THE PROPOSITION IN THE ASPECT OF DIFFERENTIATING STATEMENTS OF FACT AND OPINION IN FORENSIC LINGUISTIC EXAMINATION

The article deals with one of the most complicated problems in forensic linguistic examination - the distinction between factual statements and opinions. The publication highlighted a new criterion for determining the form of statements with negative information. At the stage of analysis of the semantic level of the statement the objective modality of the proposition is established. Determination of modality is required in conditional statements, in statements about the internal state of the other person, as well as in statements with modal predicates of possibility, which in linguistic semantics refer to contexts of removed affirmation. The possibility of the selection of implicatures or presuppositions indicates the presence of information in the statement in the form of a statement of fact.