Modal expressions, adjectives, adverbs and nouns as means for expressing root modality in English and their translation equivalents in Serbian

This chapter deals with the frequency development of the subjunctive and its competitors as well as with their distribution across text categories in main clauses in the periods Old English (OE), Middle English (ME), and Early Modern English (EModE). The results of the analysis of these parameters are interpreted as a change from a preferred weak type of root modality in OE to a strong type in ME, which is reversed in EModE. A more or less continuous frequency decrease of subjunctives from OE until late ME contrasts with a frequency rise of modal contructions and imperatives. Yet the frequency rise of imperatives is reversed in ME. The subjunctive is the preferred realisation of the verbal syntagms in text category STA (legislative texts) in all periods. The other text categories with big shares of relevant verbal syntagms have changing preferences of their realisations.

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Sporadic aspect as a pragmatic enrichment of dynamic root modality

Building a bridge between linguistic communities of the Old and the New World ◽

10.1163/9789401208345_004 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 25-43

Keyword(s):

Pragmatic Enrichment ◽

Root Modality

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‘You’ve got to sort of eh hoy the Geordie out’: modals of obligation and necessity in fifty years of Tyneside English

English Language and Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s1360674315000131 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 355-381 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

CAROL FEHRINGER ◽

KAREN CORRIGAN

Keyword(s):

North American ◽

American English ◽

External Constraints ◽

Recent Addition ◽

Root Modality

This article examines the use of the semi-modalshave to, have got toandneed toin theDiachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English(DECTE), a corpus of spoken Northeastern English dating from the late 1960s to the present day. It will be shown that the semi-modals have, in many contexts, replaced the historically oldermustas markers of obligation and necessity in this variety. Moreover, the two most frequent variants in the corpus,have toandhave got to, will be examined in the light of current theories of grammaticalisation. Internal and external constraints, which have been shown in the literature on root modality to have played an important role in the distribution of variants in other regional varieties of British and North American English, will be tested in DECTE. The article will also examine the rise ofneed toin this northeastern variety, as the most recent addition to the group of variants marking obligation and necessity.

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Verbal and Non-Verbal Markers of Root Modality in EU Maritime Affairs and Fisheries vs. Agriculture and Rural Development Reports and Studies: An Overview

Kalbotyra ◽

10.15388/klbt.2015.8942 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 67 (67) ◽

pp. 45

Author(s):

Silvia Molina-Plaza

Keyword(s):

Rural Development ◽

Policy Implementation ◽

European Commission ◽

Political Discourse ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Rhetorical Strategies ◽

Control Information ◽

Shared Norms ◽

The Web ◽

Root Modality

This paper examines different options used by writers in reports and studies to control information from two departments of the European Commission: EU Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and Agriculture and Rural Development, using the web as corpus. These two Directorates or Commissions have the power of initiative, are responsible for policy formulation and policy implementation. Two comparable sub-corpora of reports and studies have been selected from the two Directorates. Fifteen markers related to key areas of root modal expression are presented: modal-evaluative adjectives like essential, necessary, suitable and appropriate (Van linden 2012); the semi- modals (e.g. have to, be able to, be supposed to, need to) (Leech et al. 2009); the emerging modal want to (Verplaetse 2010) and expressions with comparative adverbs (e.g. had better, would rather) (van der Auwera et al. 2013). The study of these markers reveals that shared norms and action in these two EU areas are constantly collectively established. Root modals are one of the rhetorical strategies of legitimization and persuasion used in EU’s political discourse by the different parties involved.

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Animation of grammar – Interplay of cognitive linguistics and multimedia learning: The example of German modal auxiliaries

Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association ◽

10.1515/gcla-2016-0010 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 135-152 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Katsiaryna El-Bouz

Keyword(s):

Empirical Study ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Cognitive Linguistics ◽

Multimedia Learning ◽

Point Of View ◽

Cognitive Linguistic ◽

Modal Auxiliaries ◽

Linguistic Approach ◽

Educational Aspect ◽

Root Modality

Abstract This article explores German modal auxiliaries as a means of expressing root modality from a cognitive linguistic point of view. Special attention is paid to the educational aspect in the context of teaching German as a foreign language. The article presents an innovative didactic concept for German modal auxiliaries based on the cognitive linguistic approach and implemented through animations. The effectiveness of this concept was tested in an empirical study, the findings of which also presented and discussed in the article.

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Two types of peripheral adjunct WHATs

Concentric. Studies in Linguistics - Concentric ◽

10.1075/consl.00023.yan ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 47 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Barry C.-Y. Yang

Keyword(s):

Epistemic Modality ◽

Left Periphery ◽

Uniform Approach ◽

Root Modality

Abstract This study investigates two types of adjunct WHATs merged at peripheral positions in Chinese. The L-WHAT is merged within VP and denotes a why-interpretation with an aggressive, prohibitive force. The H-WHAT is merged at the left periphery of a sentence and is exclusively used in expressing a speaker’s refutatory force without interrogativity. The two WHATs are encoded with different modalities: the L-WHAT with root modality while the H-WHAT with epistemic modality. It is proposed that the interpretations of the two types of WHATs are compositionally derived from the modality and speaker force. This study not only explores the origins of different interpretations of adjunct WHATs, but also advances a uniform approach in mapping the speaker force onto syntax.

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The Diachrony of Modality and Mood

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199591435.013.18 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Debra Ziegeler

Keyword(s):

Recent Work ◽

Modal Verbs ◽

The Past ◽

Syntactic Development ◽

Diachronic Development ◽

Germanic Languages ◽

Root Modality

This chapter surveys recent work on the diachrony of modality, mood, and subjectivity. It first considers the research over the past thirty years into the development of modal forms and meanings—which is largely dominated by the study of English, and more broadly the Germanic languages, in the context of grammaticalization theory. It focuses on the nature of the source constructions for modal forms, on the emergence of epistemic functions from deontic or root modality, and on the role of syntactic development for the emergence of modal meanings. The chapter then discusses work on the diachronic development of mood, focusing on indicative/subjunctive inflection and (ir)realis coding in languages with little written history. It finally looks into diachronic studies and the role of subjectivity and subjectification in meaning changes in the class of modal verbs in languages.

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