The aim of the present paper is to chart the distribution and semantic/pragmatic values of CAN and COULD in Present-day British English. To do so, I have analysed the British Component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB), covering 1,000,000 words distributed across a variety of textual categories. The quantitative figures of the two modals have been drawn from the whole corpus, while a 10% random sample has been selected for semantic analysis. The data confirm that in contemporary British English CAN and COULD exhibit a spectrum of quantitative distributions and semantic values. Special attention will be dedicated to the discrepancy between the two modals recorded in their epistemic and dynamic uses and to instances of 'dynamic implication', which are superficially similar to the occurrence of dynamic ability, but need a broader pragmatic framework to be interpreted accordingly.
CAN and COULD in Contemporary British English: a study of the ICE-GB corpus
FACCHINETTI, Roberta
2002-01-01
Abstract
The aim of the present paper is to chart the distribution and semantic/pragmatic values of CAN and COULD in Present-day British English. To do so, I have analysed the British Component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB), covering 1,000,000 words distributed across a variety of textual categories. The quantitative figures of the two modals have been drawn from the whole corpus, while a 10% random sample has been selected for semantic analysis. The data confirm that in contemporary British English CAN and COULD exhibit a spectrum of quantitative distributions and semantic values. Special attention will be dedicated to the discrepancy between the two modals recorded in their epistemic and dynamic uses and to instances of 'dynamic implication', which are superficially similar to the occurrence of dynamic ability, but need a broader pragmatic framework to be interpreted accordingly.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
