The present contribution examines the use of modal verbs in specialised tourism discourse, with a focus on the Verona Corpus. Modal verbs play a crucial role in expressing modality and conveying ...information about necessity, possibility, and permission (Maci 2020; Palmer 1990). Through a comprehensive analysis of the Verona Corpus, a corpus of websites promoting the city of Verona (Italy) as a destination, this study categorises modal verbs into epistemic, deontic, and dynamic modalities (see Palmer 1990) and investigates their relative frequencies. Non-parametric statistical tests (Kruskal-Wallis) are employed to determine the significance of differences in modal verb usage, followed by a qualitative analysis. The results show statistically significant differences among the three categories of modality used in the texts: epistemic, deontic, and dynamic, whereas there are no differences between the verb groups (e.g., can, could, may, might, etc.) within the same type of modality. In addition, the use of pronouns shows an attempt at establishing an empathic relationship with the tourists but risks coming across as too artificial and persuasive.
This paper addresses the relation between the Chinese modal verb
on one hand and tense and aspect on the other by providing illustrations of syntactial relations in Chinese sentences. It provides a ...detailed analysis of the different readings of
in combination with various aspect particles and different time levels. It explains when the modal has a deontic, epistemic or ambiguous interpretation.
This study investigates the use of modal verbs in Chinese–English government press conference (GPC) interpretation. Modal verbs mark the speaker’s opinion of or attitude toward the event described in ...a sentence. Interpreters also use modal verbs to indicate the stances of the source language speakers. The use of modal verbs has been examined in such contexts as research papers, textbooks, and second language learners’ output; however, studies that compare differences in modal verbs between source and target languages in the context of interpreting are sparse. The investigation being reported is based on a comparable corpus—an original Chinese GPC and its English-translated version—and a parallel corpus—a translated English GPC and the original English version from the US. The results of the comparable corpus analysis indicate that the frequency of modal verbs in translated English is significantly higher than in original Chinese, in which only 40% of the modal verbs in translated English are consistent with their Chinese counterparts, while others are employed through amplification and value variation. The results of the parallel corpus analysis suggest that the increase of modal verbs in the target texts may help to achieve certain types of pragmatic functions in English.
“这本书的出版”中“出版”的身份与范畴 Xiong, Zhongru; Wang, Leihong
Shi jie han yu jiao xue,
01/2023
3
Journal Article
Chuban（publish/publication） was previously regarded as a word in "zhe-ben-shu de chuban"（publication of the book）. But as a verb, it fails to explain the endocentricity of the construction, while as ...a noun it can't account for the verbal behavior of chuban. If chuban is a verb, the head feature convention enables it to project a VP. Since the attribute is a constituent adjoined to an NP, chuban in the construction is required to be an NP. According to the definition of attribute, the VP projected by chuban must arguably be converted into an NP. When N and V are conjoined by a conjunction, each of them should project a phrase and one of them must be converted into the same category with the other. As a VP, chuban can be expanded by an adverb or a modal verb; as an NP, chuban can be a Bloomfieldian head in "zhe-ben-shu de chuban", and "tushu he chuban"（books and publication） observes the coordination constraint.
This paper provides a corpus-based analysis of so-called “hedged performatives,” which, although frequently referred to in the literature, have never been the subject of an in-depth functional study. ...Using data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English, the focus is on I must/have to say, I must/have to admit, and I must/have to confess, as the hedged performatives which are among the most frequent and score highest in terms of collocational strength. The qualitative analysis identifies two main functions, viz., downtoner and emphasizer. They are shown to derive from the interplay of three co(n)textual parameters: (i) “semantic valency” of the host clause (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral semantic content), (ii) “thematic orientation” of the host clause (i.e., toward the speaker, the addressee, or a third person/the situation), and (iii) conversational “alignment” of the speaker with the interlocutor (i.e., agreement or disagreement). It is further shown that hedged performatives play an important role in rapport management, serving (mainly positive face) politeness strategies, which are captured in terms of face-preservation, face-damage, and face-boost.
Modality plays an important part in verbal communication, as it can reveal the speaker's views and perspectives. The modal verb, as an essential component of the modality system, has been a hot ...research topic and a challenge in academic circles in recent years. Analyzing the modal verbs in a text may indicate the context produced by the translator in the translation and the identity difference between the translator and the reader. In this study, three representative English translations of
are selected for comparative analysis with the original text. With the help of corpus techniques, the paper investigates the differences in the use of modal verbs by various translators, the distribution of quantitative changes and their influence on translations, as well as the historical and cultural backgrounds and identities of the translators that led to these differences. It is found that owing to the different professional identities of the translators and historical and cultural contexts in which they live, the choice of modal verbs and the shifts of modality values in the three translations are distinct, leading to different translation styles.
This study takes an interactional linguistics and conversation analysis-based approach to analyze the modal verb huì ‘will’ in the recurrent formular of commissive actions, wǒ huì X (de) ‘I will X.’ ...Data analyses show that this format has two variations differentiated by the prosodic stress on huì. The format with the unstressed huì is often observed in turn-initiating position where the speaker offers to perform a future action or informs the recipient of their arrangement of an established activity. The format with the stressed huì appears in both initiating and responding positions although it is less frequently observed. Stressed huì is often used to reassure the recipient of an existing commitment to performing a future action. This study highlights the significance of prosody in the study of modal verbs and the benefits of studying individual words in a linguistic formula situated in specific interactional contexts.
To people with impairments, communicating their capabilities to participate in social life is a central issue. In this paper, we examine these very capabilities in the context of the use of the ...German modal verb können. We show that in the present data – group conversations from ‘Future Workshops’ embedded in the research project ‘Gut leben in NRW’ – the modal verb functions as a communicative resource which participants use to mark and articulate their own capabilities on a linguistic as well as interactional level, to negotiate them and to position themselves along with it. On the methodological level, concepts from two different disciplines are linked: the social science capability approach of Sen (2010) and Nussbaum (1999) and conversation analysis according to Deppermann (2008 1999).
This article aims to examine the role of modal verbs in the language of the laws. The goal is to see whether we can say that modal verbs, like in English, are part of the terminology of the language ...of laws in Albanian, considering that so far, there is no research conducted in the Albanian language on this field. For this study, we established a corpus of legislative texts in both Albanian and English in a bid to analyze the ways modal verbs are translated, using applicable laws published in the official Gazette of the Republic of Kosovo. Besides, the Albanian language has a verb system that differs from that of English. In comparison, the Albanian language has only three modal verbs officially recognized and accepted by Albanian linguists and scholars: Alb. mund (Eng. can), Alb. duhet or lypset (Eng. must) and Alb. do (Eng. must), English has a wide pattern of expressing modal verbs. Consequently, as our research demonstrates, translators will find it difficult to translate them properly. Correct usage of modal verbs is one of the greatest challenges of the legislator as they play a vital role in the wording. Yet, the main purpose of this research paper is to determine if there are equivalents between English and Albanian modal verbs and investigate their occurrences in legislative texts giving an account of the differences in complexity in lexical and grammatical modality.
Abstract This article argues that the widespread view that the diachronic processes of grammaticalization and of subjectification go hand in hand, and that highly subjectivized meanings typically ...correlate with highly grammaticalized forms, should be revised. The point is made on the basis of the case of the diachrony of the Dutch modal verbs. Corpus data show that four of these verbs recently got involved in a process of collective re-autonomization, while the two other modals in the language do not. This correlates with differences in the semantic development of the verbs: the four re-autonomizing verbs do, but the two outliers do not show a regular process of (inter)subjectification. The paper unravels through which mechanisms the grammatical and the semantic developments may correlate, hence why highly subjectivized meanings do not necessarily like a grammatical status.
