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Chapter 4. Not just frequency, not just modality

Production and perception of English semi-modals
  • David Lorenz and David Tizón-Couto
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Re-Assessing Modalising Expressions
This chapter is in the book Re-Assessing Modalising Expressions

Abstract

We review reduction and contraction in modalizing expressions of the type V-to-Vinf from the perspective of production, perception and mental representation. A corpus study of spoken American English shows reduction/contraction as a continuous process which is subject to phonological and communicative constraints. Generally, reduction (articulatory ease) is restricted by a tendency to retain cues to morphological structure (explicitness). For perception, a word-recognition experiment shows that listeners use probabilities to cope with reduction; reduction also promotes ‘chunking’, i.e. accessing frequent sequences as single units. The combined evidence suggests that ‘chunking’, reduction and contraction are not a self-propelled process, even given high frequency or semantic bleaching. Rather, they are subject to intuitive negotiations in speaker-hearer interaction. Methodologically, we make a case for triangulating corpus and experimental data.

Abstract

We review reduction and contraction in modalizing expressions of the type V-to-Vinf from the perspective of production, perception and mental representation. A corpus study of spoken American English shows reduction/contraction as a continuous process which is subject to phonological and communicative constraints. Generally, reduction (articulatory ease) is restricted by a tendency to retain cues to morphological structure (explicitness). For perception, a word-recognition experiment shows that listeners use probabilities to cope with reduction; reduction also promotes ‘chunking’, i.e. accessing frequent sequences as single units. The combined evidence suggests that ‘chunking’, reduction and contraction are not a self-propelled process, even given high frequency or semantic bleaching. Rather, they are subject to intuitive negotiations in speaker-hearer interaction. Methodologically, we make a case for triangulating corpus and experimental data.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Modalising expressions and modality 1
  4. Section I. Moving to modal categories
  5. Chapter 2. Revisiting global and intra-categorial frequency shifts in the English modals 19
  6. Chapter 3. The scope of modal categories 47
  7. Chapter 4. Not just frequency, not just modality 79
  8. Chapter 5. How and why seem became an evidential 109
  9. Section II. Moving to modal co-text
  10. Chapter 6. Conditionals, modality, and Schrödinger’s cat 143
  11. Chapter 7. Modal marking in conditionals. Grammar, usage and discourse 173
  12. Chapter 8. Present-day English constructions with chance ( s ) in Talmy’s greater modal system and beyond 195
  13. Section III. Moving to modal context
  14. Chapter 9. A genre-based analysis of evaluative modality in multi-verb sequences in English 225
  15. Chapter 10. Epistemic modals in academic English 253
  16. Chapter 11. On the (con)textual properties of must , have to and shall 281
  17. Chapter 12. “The future elected government should fully represent the interests of Hongkong people” 311
  18. Subject Index 343
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.216.04lor

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Modalising expressions and modality 1
  4. Section I. Moving to modal categories
  5. Chapter 2. Revisiting global and intra-categorial frequency shifts in the English modals 19
  6. Chapter 3. The scope of modal categories 47
  7. Chapter 4. Not just frequency, not just modality 79
  8. Chapter 5. How and why seem became an evidential 109
  9. Section II. Moving to modal co-text
  10. Chapter 6. Conditionals, modality, and Schrödinger’s cat 143
  11. Chapter 7. Modal marking in conditionals. Grammar, usage and discourse 173
  12. Chapter 8. Present-day English constructions with chance ( s ) in Talmy’s greater modal system and beyond 195
  13. Section III. Moving to modal context
  14. Chapter 9. A genre-based analysis of evaluative modality in multi-verb sequences in English 225
  15. Chapter 10. Epistemic modals in academic English 253
  16. Chapter 11. On the (con)textual properties of must , have to and shall 281
  17. Chapter 12. “The future elected government should fully represent the interests of Hongkong people” 311
  18. Subject Index 343
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