Speculative mood

Epistemic grammatical mood

Speculative mood (abbreviated SPEC) is an epistemic grammatical mood found in some languages, which indicates that the utterance is based on speculation of the speaker, and not necessarily known to be the case.^[1] For example, "The butler could have been the killer."

References

^ Loos, Eugene E.; Anderson, Susan; Day, Dwight H. Jr.; Jordan, Paul C.; Wingate, J. Douglas (eds.). "What is speculative mood?". Glossary of linguistic terms. SIL International. Retrieved 2009-12-28.

Linguistic modalities and grammatical moods

Realis
(what is)

Indicative/declarative
Aggressive
Energetic
Evidential (Sensory)
Generic/gnomic
Mirative

Irrealis

Deontic (what should be)	Benedictive Commissive (promises, threats) Directive (commands, requests, requirements) Debitive Deliberative Dynamic Hortative (+ subtypes) Imperative Injunctive Jussive Necessitative Permissive Precative Prohibitive Propositive Volitive (hopes, wishes, fears) Desiderative Imprecative Optative
Epistemic (what may be)	(inferences, possibilities, questions, etc.) Alethic Assumptive Deductive Dubitative Hypothetical Inferential/renarrative/oblique Interrogative Potential Speculative Subjunctive
Dependent circumstances (what would be)	Conditional Eventive