What's a better word for modals?

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

The usual linguistic use of "modal" means a word like {ka'e}, or in the 
Germanic languages, a class of verbs, defective in English, with that 
semantic function, in which the original past tense is used as the present. 
The word in the CLL means a preposition derived from a brivla (all except 
{tai} are derived from gismu, and {do'e}, which belongs to the same selma'o, 
is a vague preposition not derived from any brivla). What's a better term for 
them?

phma