This study aims to delineate the developmental trajectory of modal semantics in Mandarin-speaking young children, to map the relationship between modality and its formal expressions, and to reveal the cognitive mechanisms of subjectification in acquisition. Drawing on the Chinese Children_s Multimodal Speech Corpus, it analyses longitudinal data from three children aged 1_4 to investigate the acquisition of modal verbs, modal adverbs, and modal particles with respect to onset age, frequency distribution, and semantic functions. A mixed-methods approach is employed, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses, comparison, statistical examination, and exemplification, as well as static distribution and dynamic investigation. The findings indicate that children_s acquisition of modality is comprehensive, with the order of development progressing _from outside to inside_: modal particles > modal verbs > modal adverbs. The direction of semantic growth is also clear: from root modality t.....

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