英语口语中的情态动词Must Should May and Might.docx
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英语口语中的情态动词Must Should May and Might.docx
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英语口语中的情态动词MustShouldMayandMight
SilvieRisingerová
MasarykovauniverzitavBrně
Filozofickáfakulta
Katedraanglistikyaamerikanistiky
30.6.2006
Magisterskádiplomováprácezoboruanglickálingvistika
TheuseofpronounsubjectsIandyouinconnectionwiththemodalverbsMust,Should,MayandMightinthespokenEnglishproducedbymenandwomen
IproclaimthatIhavewrittenthisthesisbymyselfandthattheresearchpresentedismyownwork.
IwouldliketothankPhDr.NadezdaKudrnacova,CSc.forhersupportandprofessionalguidance.
Contents:
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….5
Aimandscope………………………………………………………………………………….5
CorpusLinguistics……………………………………………………………………………..7
TheBritishNationalCorpus(theBNC)……………………………………………………….9
Method………………………………………………………………………………………..11
Analysisanddiscussion………………………………………………………………………22
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………....72
Sources………………………………………………………………………………………..76
References…………………………………………………………………………………….76
Introduction:
Sociologyisbecomingmoreandmoreimportantforourmulticulturalsociety.Wehavetolearnmoreabouteachotherandonlythencanweunderstandourdifferencesandbemoretolerant.Thisunderstandingcanfacilitatecommunicationinmyopinion.Myresearchisasociolinguisticone.Ihavebeeninterestedingenderlinguistics.Manybookshavebeenwrittenonthissubjectandmostofthemstatethattherearerelativelygreatdifferencesbetweenthelanguageofwomenandthelanguageofmen.Iwouldliketofindoutifthisistrueand,ifso,whatthesedifferencesareinthefieldofmodalverbs.Whenwereadthelistofthemostcommonwordsoccurringinthecorpora,weseethatmodalverbsandpronounsareatthetopofthelist.Theirfrequenciesareoneofthehighestonesinthecorpora.Ifwepresumethatthereisasignificantdifferencebetweenthefemaleandmalelanguages,thenitmustbevisibleinthewaywomenandmenconnectthepronounsIandyouinthesubjectpositionwiththemodalverbs.Theresearchiscarriedoutonlyonthespokenpartofthecorpusasthisisamorenaturalformoflanguagethanthewrittenlanguageanditisconnectedwiththecommondailylanguage.
Aimandscope:
Firstly,asthelengthofthispaperislimited,decisionhasbeentakentostudytheverbsmust,should,mayandmightindetailafterhavingbrieflylookedatallthemainmodalverbs.Thefirsttwoverbsformasemanticallyrelatedgroupandthethirdandfourthverbarealsosemanticallyrelatedones.ThereaderwillbepresentedatableofallthemostfrequentmodalverbsandtheiroccurrenceswithIandyou,howeverthefurtherinvestigationwhichiscarriedoutindetailislimitedtomust,should,mayandmight.ThealternativevariantsofthemodalverbsareleftoutwiththeexceptionofhavetoasthiswouldleadtoanextensivestudythatcannotbecarriedoutinaMasterthesisandthusithastobedealtwithelsewhere.
Ithastobenoteddownthatthepronounyouisaproblematicone.Itwasnotpossibletofindoutwhetherthepronounwasusedforthesecondpersonsingularorsecondpersonplural.Thiscouldbeprobablyfoundoutfromthecontextneverthelessmanyoftheexamplesareambiguous.Ihavedecidednottodifferentiatebetweenthesetwouses.
Secondly,thepaperdoesnotcontainresearchontheinterrogativeusesoftheverbsmust,should,mayandmight;onlydeclarativesentenceshavebeenstudied,includingthenegation.Thequestionshaveadifferentmeaningandthishastobedealtwithelsewhere.
Thirdly,theresearchiscarriedoutontwoagegroups.Theagerangeisfrom25to44yearsofage.Thereasonforthisisthatthisgroupofpeoplecanbeconsideredastheproductiveagegroup.Thesepeoplearemostprobablytheoneswhopassthelanguagetotheirchildren.Thusthereiscertaincontinuityandwecanexpectthechildrentoacquirethelinguistichabitsoftheirparents.Coates(1993:
125)describesEngle’sstudythathemadein1980ofthelanguageofparentswhentheyplaywiththeirchildrenandpointsoutthedifferencesbetweenmothers’languageandfathers’language.Fathersfavourdirectionssuchas“Whydon’tyoumakeachimney?
”,yetmotherstendtoconsultchild’swishessuchasin“Whatelseshallweputonthetruck?
”.Thereisadifferencewhenfatherstalktoadaughterortoason.Menareinclinedtousemoredirectiveswithsonsthanwithdaughters.Ingeneral,fathersintroducenewideaswhilemothersputemphasisoninteractionandhelptheirchildrenlearnhowtochoose.Thepeoplearedividedintotwogroups,onegrouprangesfrom25to34andtheotheronefrom35to44.Therewasnotanyspecialintentionindividingthesample.However,interestinglyenough,wecanobservedifferencesbetweenthesetwocategories.
Theaimofthisresearchistocollectmaterialforeachverbinalloftheneededcategories(age,gender)andtoinvestigatetheinstanceswherewecouldseesignificantdifferencesorsimilarities,thesewillbefurtherinvestigatedandtheoreticalconclusionsdrawn.“Oneofthepurposesofcorpus-basedresearchisthetestingoftheoreticalclaimsmadeinliterature”(deHaan,Ferdinand.2002:
91).Thepurposeofthisinvestigationistostudythetheoreticalbackgroundofmodalverbsandgenderlinguisticsandtofindoutiftheresultsoftheanalysissupportthetheoriesor,iftheydonot,toproposenewtheoriesbasedontheresultsdrawnfromtheactualspokendatafromtheBNC.
CorpusLinguistics:
ThecorpuslinguisticshasmanysupportersbuttherearealsomanylinguistswhoareagainsttheuseofthismethodforexampleChomsky(Aarts,Bas.1999:
5-13).Theproblemisthesameasbetweentheformalistandthefunctionalistapproachinlinguistics.Formalistsseetheimportanceinthestudyofcompetence/langueandfunctionalistsprefertostudythereallanguageproduction,thatistosaytheperformance/parole.Corpuslinguistsstudythelatter.
Chafe1992formulatestheresearchprocessthatthecorpuslinguistsshouldfollow.Thescientistproceedsfromobservationoflanguagedatathroughdescriptiontoexplanation.Hewarnsagainstthedangerofusingcorporaonlyforcollectionofdataandforgettingtoanalyseitandtodrawconclusionsoutofit.Nowadaysalsogrammariansusecorporaasabasisofmoderngrammarbooks.Grammarhasbecome,thankstoit,alive.Itisbasedonlanguagethatisusedindailyconversationandthereforeitisup-to-date.LongmanGrammarofSpokenandWrittenEnglish1999(Biber,Johansson,Conrad,Finegan)andAComprehensiveGrammaroftheEnglishLanguage1985(Quirk,Greenbaum,LeechSvartvik)arejusttwoexamplesofthiskindofgrammarbooks.
OneofthesupportersofthecorpuslinguisticsisHalliday(Cognitivelinguist).Heisparticularlygladforthecreationofspokenlanguagecorpora.“Preciselybecausetherearepatternswhichdon’toccurinwriting,weneedacorpusofspokenlanguagetorevealthem”(Halliday.M.A.K.2004:
11-38).Hallidayseestheimportanceofthesecorporainpossibilityofstudyinglanguageinprogress.Writtenlanguagecancreatesystemicpatternsbyanexceptionalentry.ThisiswhatHallidaycallstheHamletfactor.However,bystudyingthespokenlanguage,wecanfindsystemicpatternsformedunconsciouslybynativespeakers.Theproblemisthatthespokenlanguagestillhasalowvalueinculturebutbecauseofitsessentialnature(itssemiogenicormeaning-creatingpotentialasHallidaycallsit)itrevealslanguagepatternsunconsciously.Hallidaysays.“Iwouldputahighpriorityonquantitativeresearchintospokenlanguage,establishingthelarge-scalefrequencypatternsthatgivealanguageitscharacteristicprofile-its“characterology”,asthePraguelinguistsusedtocallit.”(ibid).ThisapproachisalsosupportedbyCoates(1993:
56)whofindsthismethodhelpfulinthegenderlinguistics.“Itisonlywiththeadventofquantitativesociolinguisticstudiesthatwehavereliabledataongenderdifferencesinlanguage”.Inearliertimesresearchmaterialcouldbe,evenunintentionally,manipulatedbecausetheresearcherexpectedcertainresultsbeforeevenbeginningtheanalysis.
TherearedifferenttypesofcorporadescribedinMeyer2002andalinguistmustfindthemostsuitableoneforhisparticularlinguisticinvestigation.BeforethecorporacouldbedigitalisedandreadasInternetpages,therehadbeenwrittencorpora.Thelastmajorpre-electroniccorpusofEnglishwastheSurveyofEnglishUsage.Nowwehaveaccesstoseveralelectroniccorpora.Someofthemareaccessiblewithoutanyrestrictionson-linenonethelessmanyarefullyaccessibleonlyafterpurchasingthemoronlyfromPCsatcertaininstitutions.Meyerdifferentiatescorporaaccordingtosize(rarefeaturesneedtobestudiedonalargecorpusandthefrequentonesonasmallercorpus),regionalvariety,diachronicvariety,texttypesincluded(spoken/written,news,fiction,legaltexts…),generalreferenceorspecificpurpose,degreeofannotation/mark-up,staticvs.dynamiccorpus(corpusinprogressorinfinalversion)andcorporacanbemonolingualormultilingualwhichishelpfulfortranslationorforimprovingteachingtechniquesofnon-nativespeakersofEnglish(Norwegian-Englishparallelcorpuswhichisbeingextendedtootherlanguages,Learners’corpusavailableinCzechaswell).
TheBritishNationalCorpus(TheBNC):
IhavechosentheBritishNationalCorpus(TheBNC)tosearchforthematerialtobestudied.Thiscorpuswascreatedbycooperationbetweendescriptivelinguists,computationallinguists,majorBritishuniversities,andthepublishingindustryanditisastaticcorpus.Thisiswhy,asCharlesMeyerputsit,“theBNCistheculminationofalltheknowle
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