The Semantics of the Modal Auxiliaries

By:

Jennifer Coates

Format:

Hardback

Series:

Routledge Library Editions: Linguistics

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Description

This book is a report of an investigation into the meanings of the modal auxiliaries in modern British English. The investigation took the form of a large-scale corpus-based project, looking at modal auxiliaries in both written and spoken language, and taking into account stylistic variation. The analysis of a corpus of a ‘real’ language brings the analyst face-to-face with a problem which has frequently been avoided or ignored in theoretical semantics: language is not an orderly phenomenon, and, as far as meaning is concerned, indeterminacy seems to be a feature of all languages. But it is one thing to recognise the existence of indeterminacy, and another to deal with it adequately. Semantic analysis conventionally consists in distinguishing one meaning from another, in recognising discrete categories, but the acknowledgement of indeterminacy explicitly denies the existence of such discrete categories. This book examines in detail this problem and its relationship to a study of modals.

Release date NZ

November 21st, 2013

Author

Jennifer Coates

Audiences

Professional & Vocational
Tertiary Education (US: College)

Pages

272

Series

Routledge Library Editions: Linguistics

Dimensions

156x234x16

ISBN-13

9780415723817

Product ID

21468022

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