Modality and the V wh pattern
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Benet Vincent
Abstract
Pattern Grammar (Hunston & Francis 2000) has typically focused mainly on complementation patterns, but Hunston (2003, 2011) has speculated if Pattern Grammar should incorporate the study of modality by considering the interaction between modal meaning and particular patterns. This paper presents a quantitative study that finds an association between verbs followed by interrogative clauses (the V wh pattern) and modal verbs/the to-infinitive. This is followed by a qualitative investigation to classify according to meaning phrases focused on the sequence to V wh: four main groups (purpose, difficulty, deontic meaning, volition/intention) are found. The findings raise the prospect of both broadening the scope of Pattern Grammar and improving our understanding of modality from a phraseological perspective.
Abstract
Pattern Grammar (Hunston & Francis 2000) has typically focused mainly on complementation patterns, but Hunston (2003, 2011) has speculated if Pattern Grammar should incorporate the study of modality by considering the interaction between modal meaning and particular patterns. This paper presents a quantitative study that finds an association between verbs followed by interrogative clauses (the V wh pattern) and modal verbs/the to-infinitive. This is followed by a qualitative investigation to classify according to meaning phrases focused on the sequence to V wh: four main groups (purpose, difficulty, deontic meaning, volition/intention) are found. The findings raise the prospect of both broadening the scope of Pattern Grammar and improving our understanding of modality from a phraseological perspective.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Sequence and order
- Sequence and order 13
- Mom and Dad but Men and Women 35
- Sequences of size adjectives in text 47
-
Competing constructions
- The competition between the intensifiers dead and deadly 71
- Has go -V ousted go-and -V? 91
- The construction cannot help -ing and its rivals in Modern English 113
- From reduction to emancipation 133
- Complex prepositions and variation within the PNP construction 153
-
Emerging patterns
- A finer definition of neology in English 177
- A corpus-based study of gender assignment in recent English loanwords in Norwegian 209
- The return of the prefix? New verb-particle combinations in blogs 223
-
Correlating patterns and meaning
- Modality and the V wh pattern 247
- Assessing corpus search methods in onomasiological investigations 271
- Author index 293
- Subject index 297
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Sequence and order
- Sequence and order 13
- Mom and Dad but Men and Women 35
- Sequences of size adjectives in text 47
-
Competing constructions
- The competition between the intensifiers dead and deadly 71
- Has go -V ousted go-and -V? 91
- The construction cannot help -ing and its rivals in Modern English 113
- From reduction to emancipation 133
- Complex prepositions and variation within the PNP construction 153
-
Emerging patterns
- A finer definition of neology in English 177
- A corpus-based study of gender assignment in recent English loanwords in Norwegian 209
- The return of the prefix? New verb-particle combinations in blogs 223
-
Correlating patterns and meaning
- Modality and the V wh pattern 247
- Assessing corpus search methods in onomasiological investigations 271
- Author index 293
- Subject index 297
