Peculiarities of the Development of the Modal System in German

The article is devoted to the development of the modal system in German. The comparative analysis of the changes in the semantics of the moods and of the preterite-present verbs expressing modality is based on Gothic, Old and Middle High German texts. On the basis of this analysis was shown as in the process of decategorization – transition of the functions of expression of the internal modality from moods to the being in process of formation modal verbs – the meanings expressed in morphological category on the grammatical level pass to lexical-grammatical means, that allow to express the internal modality more differentially.