Nika O. Modus meanings in the Old literary Ukrainian language in the second half of the XVI century - the first half of the XVII century

The focus of research is the modus in the Old literary Ukrainian language in the second half of the XVI century - the first half of the XVII century. The author establishes the status of the modus as a metacategory, defines its main categories - evidential, persuasive, epistemic and characterizes the corresponding modus meanings: evidential, persuasive and epistemic. For the first time in historical linguistics the modus is presented as a discursive category reflecting in the text the result of the cognitive process of the speaker through his or her attitude towards the source of information and the way it is received, the trustworthiness level of the information, the speaker's to the epistemic notions.