The English double modals: Internal or external change?

Nagle, Stephen J.

doi:10.1515/9783110885170.207

Cited by 9 publications

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“…Fennell (1993) agreeing with Kemenade (1989) adopts the view that this allowed for two types of modal constructions: one in which the modal verb (primarily deontic) behaved more like a full verb 'in that it could take a full range of complements and inflections', and one in which a restricted group of epistemic modals functioned as 'true auxiliary elements' (432). However, evidence for this as the origin of DMs seems sparse: Nagle (1995) An alternative approach suggests that DMs may have been borrowed from Scandinavian, as indeed 'probably because the modal verbs retain their status as full verbs, MM constructions are more common in Scandinavian than in English' (Fennell 1993: 433). This is backed up by the fact that 'the first attestations [of DM constructions of the shall + other modal type] are from late OE, making them contemporary with Viking contact' (Fennell 1993: 433).…”

Section: Diachronic Perspectives On the Origins Of Dmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Double Modals in Scots: A Speaker’s Choice Hypothesis

Morin

2021

Aspects of Tenses, Modality, and Evidentiality

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This paper provides a summary of the sparse literature on the synchrony and diachrony of double modals in dialects of British English, especially varieties of Borders Scots. Double modals are understudied syntactic constructions because they are rare, difficult to describe, and socially restricted. Using the results of recent fieldwork-based acceptability judgment tasks carried out in Hawick, Scotland, this paper examines whether the theoretical literature available on the structure of double modals in dialects of American English can be applied to British English and Scots. I then propose a Speaker's Choice hypothesis whereby double modals can be flexibly analysed as a true modal in first or second position and a recategorized idiosyncratic adverb in the remaining slot of the construction.

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Section: Diachronic Perspectives On the Origins Of Dmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Double Modals in Scots: A Speaker’s Choice Hypothesis

Morin

2021

Aspects of Tenses, Modality, and Evidentiality

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“…The grammatical-syntactic rules in the positions, types, and meanings of modals are not the same any more in both countries. Only a minority of researchers, such as Brown (1991), Miller and Brown (1982), Millar and Brown (1980) and Nagle (1989Nagle ( , 1994Nagle ( , 1995Nagle ( , 1997 (1) I know I might could and should enjoy myself.…”

Section: The Similarity Criterionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2018

CNP

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There is a considerable number of sign language linguists who accept as proven that essential parts of sequential-simultaneous constructions in sign languages (henceforth: SL) are "gestural" and therefore do not have language status, i.e. are "non-linguistic". This judgement applies to all elements of SL where spatial parameters are used to code indexical and iconic meanings or spatial relations. The respective argumentations contain many methodologically questionable steps and are particularly led by a strong bias towards a spoken language (henceforth: SpL) perspective. This bias includes an uncritical adoption of the results of research on gestures to SL ("uncritical" means that the inconsistencies in gesture research itself were not considered); despite the fact that gesture research was performed exclusively on SpL. Therefore, a discussion of the assumptions and analysis processes concerning SL is urgent. In order to overcome the SpL bias in SL linguistics we need a typological model which takes both SpL and SL as instances of "language" in different modalities. By abstracting from both types of language, a new extended model of "language" can be developed. I will perform my analysis from the perspective of a typological language model which comprises both SL and SpL in equal measure. A comprehensive typology assumes that every language shows those categories which its users select as the best suited for the chosen modality or modalities. It * Franz Dotter was Associate Professor for General Linguistics and founder of the Centre for Sign Language and Deaf Communication at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. He passed away in March 2018. We thank his family for the permission to publish his article posthumously.

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“…Untensed forms of modals are dealt with by Visser in his (1963Visser in his ( -1973Visser in his ( : § §1649-1651Visser in his ( , 1684Visser in his ( -1687Visser in his ( , 1722Visser in his ( -1723Visser in his ( , 1839Visser in his ( , 2042Visser in his ( , 2134, 1 with further Middle English examples in Ogura (1993 and discussion in Nagle (1993Nagle ( , 1995. Some examples: A double modal implies that the second modal is in the infinitive, which is also the case in the non-finite clause of (10) The modal in the infinitive is non-epistemic (only examples (6), (9) and (10) above show any possibility of an epistemic interpretation).…”

Section: Double Modalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combining English auxiliaries

Denison¹

2000

Studies in Language Companion Series

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The English double modals: Internal or external change?

Cited by 9 publications

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Double Modals in Scots: A Speaker’s Choice Hypothesis

Double Modals in Scots: A Speaker’s Choice Hypothesis

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Combining English auxiliaries

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