Modality in Contemporary English / / ed. by Roberta Facchinetti, Frank Palmer, Manfred Krug.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DGBA Backlist Complete English Language 2000-2014 PART1
• MitwirkendeR: Birner, Betty J.,; Bourdin, Philippe,; Coates, Jennifer,; Facchinetti, Roberta,; Gotti, Maurizio,; Gresset, Stéphane,; Kaplan, Jeffrey P.,; Larreya, Paul,; Leech, Geoffrey,; Matthews, Richard,; Mitchell, Keith,; Nagle, Stephen J.,; Palmer, Frank,; Paradis, Carita,; Smith, Nicholas,; Trousdale, Graeme,; Verplaetse, Heidi,; Ward, Gregory,
• HerausgeberIn: Facchinetti, Roberta,; Krug, Manfred,; Palmer, Frank,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter Mouton, , [2012]; ©2003
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL] , 44
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (396 p.) :; Ill. and tabs.

This book offers original theoretical accounts and a wealth of descriptive information concerning modality in present-day English. At the same time, it provides fresh impetus to more general linguistic issues such as grammaticalization, colloquialization, or the interplay between sociolinguistic and syntactic constraints. The articles fall into four sections: (a) the semantics and pragmatics of core modal verbs; (b) the status of emerging modal items; (c) stylistic variation and change; (d) sociolinguistic variation and syntactic models. The book is of considerable value to students and teachers of English and Linguistics at undergraduate and graduate level worldwide.

Table of Contents

i-iv -- Preface -- Contents -- Modality in English: Theoretical, descriptive and typological issues -- The semantics and pragmatics of core modal verbs -- Irrealis, past time reference and modality -- Modal auxiliary constructions, ΤΑΜ and interrogatives -- A pragmatic analysis of the epistemic would construction in English -- Towards a contextual micro-analysis of the non-equivalence of might and could -- The status of emerging modal items -- On two distinct uses of go as a conjoined marker of evaluative modality -- Had better and might as well·. On the margins of modality? -- What you and I want: A functional approach to verb complementation of modal WANT TO -- Between epistemic modality and degree: The case of really -- Stylistic variation and change -- Modality on the move: The English modal auxiliaries 1961-1992 -- Changes in the modals and semi-modals of strong obligation and epistemic necessity in recent British English -- Shall and will in contemporary English: A comparison with past uses -- Pragmatic and sociological constraints on the functions of may in contemporary British English -- Sociolinguistic variation and syntactic models -- The role of epistemic modality in women’s talk -- Double modals in the southern United States: Syntactic structure or syntactic structures? -- Modal verbs in Tyneside English: Evidence for (socio)linguistic theory -- Subject index