| Summary: | This research attempts to investigate the meanings of modal auxiliary verbs in the
movie The Perks of being a Wallflower. In particular, it aims to identify and classify the
modal auxiliary verbs according to their meanings. The data used in this research were
dialogues containing modal auxiliary verbs. The modal auxiliary verbs are analyzed
semantically and pragmatically. Based on the data analysis, 171 modal auxiliary verbs
were found in the movie. The most commonly used modal auxiliary verb in the movie is
the modal auxiliary will (28.7%), followed by can (24.0%), would (21.6%), could
(14.0%), should (7.0%), might (2.9%), and must (1.8%). From the 171 modal auxiliary
verbs, 43 (25.1%) are used to express epistemic meanings, 23 (13.4%) are used to express
deontic meanings, and 105 (61.3%) are used to express dynamic meanings. It was found
in this research that the modal auxiliary verbs are most frequently used to express
dynamic meanings.
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