Properties of English Modals - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 20
About This Presentation
Title:

Properties of English Modals

Description:

uncertainty (might, can may) Subjunctive mood (should, would, ... Yes, I'd rather (new information idiom) (CGEL,99) Lexical verb *I hated it and Pat hated too ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:313
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 21
Provided by: TEC82
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Properties of English Modals


1
Properties of English Modals
  • CAU zu Kiel - Englisches Seminar
  • HS. Aspects of the English Verb
  • Prof. Dr. Mathias Meyer
  • Veronica Arguello-Johnen
  • Marina Ivanova

2
Auxiliary Verbs
  • Modals
  • can
  • may
  • will
  • shall
  • must
  • ought
  • need
  • Dare
  • Semimodal
  • be
  • have to (Palmer,1988)
  • Non modals
  • be
  • have
  • do
  • use
  • Duals
  • need
  • dare
  • have
  • do
  • use

3
Characteristics of modals
  • They can express
  • uncertainty (might, can may)
  • Subjunctive mood (should, would, could)
  • politeness
  • They have lost the ability to express present and
    past
  • They can help to express future (will, shall)
  • They are the first to occur in a sequence of
    auxiliaries.
  • They do not co-occur.
  • Elly van Gelderen, 2002
  • The NICE properties are restricted to modals and
    auxiliaries.
  • Palmer, 1988

4
Modals properties
  • They have only primary forms
  • Id like to can swim. (CGEL,106)
  • Id like to be able to swim. (lexical verb)
    (CGEL,106)
  • The meeting had been to be chaired by the
    premier. (semi modal) (CGEL,114)
  • No agreement
  • He wills win. (CGEL,108)
  • She has been to Paris twice already. (non modal)
    (CGEL,113)
  • That seems reasonable. (lexical verb) (CGEL,94)

5
Modals properties
  • Bare infinitival complement
  • They must work. (CGEL,107)
  • They make us work. (NP before Verb) (CGEL,107)
  • I would rather she did it alone. (excepción
    would rather) (CGEL,108)
  • Remote Conditionals
  • If you come tomorrow you could help with the
    flowers. (CGEL,107)
  • if you come tomorrow you were able to help with
    the flowers. (CGEL, 107)
  • The first verb of the apodosis must be a modal
  • Were would be

6
Modals properties
  • Modal remote preterite
  • I wish you could move it. (CGEL,107)
  • I wish you were able to move it. (CGEL,107)
  • Could you move it? (CGEL,107)
  • Were you able to move it? ( express only past)
    (CEGL,107)
  • Could, might, would, should are appropriate for
    remote apodosis
  • ?If he had stayed in the army he ought (must) to
    have become a colonel. (CGEL,109)

7
Distinctive syntactic properties of modal and
auxiliary Verbs
  • He has not seen it. -He saw not it.
  • Negation
  • Has he seen it? -Saw he it?
  • Inversion
  • He has seen it and -he saw it
    I have too. and I saw too.
  • Code
  • They dont think hes seen -They dont think he
    but he HAS seen it saw it, but he SAW it
  • Emphasis
    (CGEL,93)

8
NICE Constructions
9
Properties shared by Modals and Auxiliaries
  • Primary Verb negation
  • That is reasonable.
  • That isnt reasonable.
  • That is not reasonable.
  • That will be reasonable.
  • That wont be reasonable.
  • That will not be reasonable.
  • That seems reasonable.
  • that seemsnt/ seems not reasonable.
  • That doesnt seem reasonable.
  • They went not to Paris but to Berlin.
    (CGEL, 94)

Auxiliary -be
Modal will
Lexical seem
10
Properties shared by Modals and Auxiliaries
  • Subject-auxiliary inversion
  • Interrogatives
  • Can she speak French? (CGEL,95)
  • Exclamatives
  • What a fool have I been! (CGEL,95)
  • Adverbial at the beginning (semi negatives)
  • Nowhere does he mention my book. (CGEL,95)
  • Conditional Inversion
  • Had he seen the incident hed have reported it to
    the police. (CGEL,96)
  • If he had seen the incident hed have reported it
    to the police. (CGEL,96)

11
Properties shared by Modals and Auxiliaries
  • Code (avoidance of repetition Palmer and
    Blandford)
  • The VP of a clause is reduced, with the
    remainder of its semantic content being
    recoverable from the context.
  • Do you think he will?
  • I dont know, he might.
  • I suppose he ought to, but perhaps he feels he
    cant.
  • Well, his brothers have. They perhaps think he
    neednt
  • Perhaps eventually he may. I think he should.
  • And I hope very much he will.
  • Key Join the army
  • Example by Firth

12
Properties shared by Modals and Auxiliaries
  • Elliptical Stranding
  • Modal
  • I can help him and Pat can too (old information)
  • Ill help you if I can (new information)
    (CGEL,99)
  • Non Modal Auxiliary
  • Im in debt and Pat is as well (old information)
  • Do you want to stay at home? Yes, Id rather
    (new information idiom) (CGEL,99)
  • Lexical verb
  • I hated it and Pat hated too
  • I hated it and Path did too (CGEL,100)

13
Properties shared by Modals and Auxiliaries
  • Emphatic polarity
  • Emphatic affirmation of a doubtful statement
  • You did promise, I heard you (CGEL,98)
  • Denial of the negative
  • Thats not true, I will be there. (CGEL, 98)
  • Emphatic negation
  • You are wrong, I didnt move it. (CGEL, 98)

14
Properties shared by Modals and Auxiliaries
  • Position in relation to an adverb
  • Frequency and modal adverbs tend to precede
    lexical verbs but to follow auxiliaries
  • He always looks miserable.
  • He is always miserable. (CGEL,102)

15
Properties shared by Modals and Auxiliaries
  • Negative forms
  • You arent put off by his manner (CGEL,94)
  • It wont help. (CGEL,108)
  • You oughtnt take any notice. (CGEL,109)
  • He neednt tell her. (CEGL,110)
  • You usednt to like it. (CGEL, 115)
  • they wantnt to come
  • They dont want to come

16
Properties shared by Modals and Auxiliaries
  • Reduced Forms
  • Ill go (will shall)
  • Id rather (would)
  • Ive been busy (have)
  • Im a student (am)
  • I may
  • I ought
  • I need
  • I dare
  • I can

17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
Bibliography
  • Huddleston und Pullum. The Cambridge grammar of
    English language. 2002
  • Van Gelderen, Elly. An Introduction to the
    Grammar of English. Philadelphia 2002
  • Palmer, F.R. The English Verb. 1988.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com