English Modal Verbs

The online processing of modal verbs: Parallel activation of competing mental models

by Teenie Matlock

Verbos modais na escrita de universitários de língua inglesa: Uma perspectiva de corpus

by Vander Viana

The PDF file contains an uncorrected proof of the chapter:
Viana, V. (2009). Verbos modais na escrita de universitários de língua inglesa: Uma perspectiva de corpus. In S. Zyngier, V. Viana & J. Jandre (Eds.), Linguagem, criatividade e ensino: Abordagens empíricas e interdisciplinares (pp. 49-77). Rio de Janeiro: Publit.

Although modals have been central to language analysis, very few studies have focused on the written production of... more Although modals have been central to language analysis, very few studies have focused on the written production of Brazilian advanced EFL students by means of corpus analysis. The present study contrasts the use of modal verbs in the writing of Brazilian EFL undergraduates and that of American and British university students whose first language is English. As far as the data is concerned, two corpora are probed with the help of a computer tool. The research corpus consists of a sample of the Brazilian Portuguese Sub-corpus of the International Corpus of Learner English (Br-ICLE), while the reference corpus corresponds to a section of the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS). Following a statistical approach to data treatment, the study focuses on the frequency of central modal verbs (BIBER et al., 1999), namely, ‘can’, ‘could’, ‘may’, ‘might’, ‘must’, ‘shall’, ‘should’, ‘will’ and ‘would’. The results indicate that Brazilian EFL undergraduates use significantly fewer modal verbs than their American and British counterparts. It is then argued that this reduced frequency of modals in Brazilian writing may make it sound more direct and assertive when compared to that of speakers of English as a first language. From a general perspective, the present study may contribute to a reassessment of English teaching in the Brazilian setting.

Corpus de aprendiz & verbos modais: Avaliando a escrita de pesquisadores brasileiros em inglês

by Vander Viana

The PDF file contains an uncorrected proof of the chapter:
Viana, V. (2007). Corpus de aprendiz & verbos modais: Avaliando a escrita de pesquisadores brasileiros em inglês. In S. Zyngier, V. Viana & J. Jandre (Eds.), Textos e leituras: Estudos empíricos de língua e literatura (pp. 65-88). Rio de Janeiro: Publit.

Corpus-based studies allow researchers to investigate language in use and not models of language. Following the... more Corpus-based studies allow researchers to investigate language in use and not models of language. Following the principles of Corpus Linguistics, this study aims at analyzing the modal verbs which are used by Brazilian researchers from the fields of Linguistics and Literature when writing scientific articles in English. To this end, a research corpus was compiled from 49 articles, totaling 208,614 tokens and 12,791 types. This study covers the usage of nine modal verbs – ‘can’, ‘could’, ‘may’, ‘might’, ‘shall’, ‘should’, ‘will’, ‘would’ and ‘must’. The profile traced in this research is compared to the one by Biber et al. (1999) in their description of academic prose in the English language. The results indicate how close the writing of the two groups of subjects is, thus possibly indicating subjects’ proficiency in English.

Modality and the English Modal Verb System

by Heather Marie Kosur

Unpublished draft

To analyze the modality of the English modal verb system requires an understanding of the modality of the English... more To analyze the modality of the English modal verb system requires an understanding of the modality of the English language. All verb phrases in which a modal verb occupies the initial position express the irrealis modality of the subjunctive mood. The initial modal verb also expresses one of four modalities: epistemic, deontic, dynamic, and evidential. Verb phrases that contain a multiple modal express both epistemic modality (the initial modal verb) and deontic modality (the second and subsequent modal verb[s]). Although some linguists and logicians argue for an alternative description of modality, the analysis offered by Palmer best accounts for the modality expressed by modal verbs and the Modern English verb system in general.

Multiple Modals in Modern English: Use, History, and Structure of Periphrastic Modal Verbs

by Heather Marie Kosur

unpublished draft

Modal verbs are auxiliary verbs that express modality—the expression of possibility, necessity, permissibility, and... more Modal verbs are auxiliary verbs that express modality—the expression of possibility, necessity, permissibility, and contingency—in English. Multiple modals (double modals, triple modals) are periphrastic verb constructions characterized by the use of two or more modal verbs within a single verb phrase as in might could and used to could. Native speakers of many varieties of English including South Midland and Southern American Englishes, Northern British Englishes, Scottish Englishes, Irish Englishes, and Caribbean Englishes regularly use at least one multiple modal occasionally, particularly in facesaving contexts. First appearing in the English language approximately eight hundred years ago, multiple modals in Modern English most likely developed from Old English and subsequently Middle English modal constructions. Immigrants from Scotland and Northern England, in particular, influenced the spread of multiple modals to North America and the Caribbean during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although traditional linguistic analyses including the phrase-structure rule approach and the subcategorization approach allow for multiple modals provided that one modal is a full verb with a base form, multiple modals are not phrases generated by a syntactic rule but rather periphrastic verb forms similar to phrasal verbs, noun compounds, and other periphrastic idioms. The argument for multiple modals as single lexical items is supported by the syntactic and semantic restrictions on multiple modal constructions including the limited number of naturally occurring combinations.