Subordinating Modalities: A Quantitative Analysis of Syntactically Dependent Modal Verb Constructions - Softcover

Hohaus, Pascal

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3476056422 ISBN 13: 9783476056429

Publisher: J.B. Metzler, 2020

Synopsis

This study is concerned with the use of the English modals (may, might,can, could, shall, should, will, would and must) in adverbial, relative and complement clauses. It employs synchronic data from the British National Corpus and quantitative methods to investigate similarities and differences between the core modals, as well as modal-specific preferences in subordinate clauses. The main finding is that modal verbs in subordinate clauses may be conceived of as meso-constructions and that they qualify as micro-constructions once further syntagmatic features are considered. This allows for distinguishing modal verb phrases with different degrees of complexity, schematicity, productivity and subjectivity. Further applications give us insights into collocations, modal harmony, semantic preference, and the attraction of dynamic meaning to relative clauses.

            

About this title

About the Author

The Author 

Pascal Hohaus worked as a PhD student at University of Hanover (2014–2019). He is currently coordinating the online study programs Business and Media Informatics at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences (January 2020).   

          

From the Back Cover

This study is concerned with the use of the English modals (may, might, can, could, shall, should, will, would and must) in adverbial, relative and complement clauses. It employs synchronic data from the British National Corpus and quantitative methods to investigate similarities and differences between the core modals, as well as modal-specific preferences in subordinate clauses. The main finding is that modal verbs in subordinate clauses may be conceived of as meso-constructions and that they qualify as micro-constructions once further syntagmatic features are considered. This allows for distinguishing modal verb phrases with different degrees of complexity, schematicity, productivity and subjectivity. Further applications give us insights into collocations, modal harmony, semantic preference, and the attraction of dynamic meaning to relative clauses.

Contents

• Construction Grammar, Behavioural Profile Analysis
• Hierarchical Configural Frequency Analysis, Correspondence Analysis
• Monofactorial Analyses, Multifactorial Analyses
• Complexity, Schematicity, Productivity, Subjectivity
• Multicollinearity, Generalisability, Replicability

Target Groups

• Academics and students of English Linguistics
• Corpus linguists

The Author 

Pascal Hohaus worked as a PhD student at University of Hanover (2014–2019). He is currently coordinating the online study programs Business and Media Informatics at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences (January 2020).

Edition details

• Publisher: J.B. Metzler
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3476056422
• ISBN 13: 9783476056429
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 301