Will and would in selected New Englishes
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Dagmar Deuber
Abstract
This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative investigation of the use of the modal verbs will and would in six New Englishes (Fiji, Indian, Singapore, Trinidadian, Jamaican and Bahamian English), with British English considered for comparison; will/would in their future use are also compared to other markers of futurity. The database consists of conversations from the respective components of the International Corpus of English or comparable data. The results show that the use of will versus would tends to be more variable in all New Englishes than in British English but that there are differences between the New Englishes in the type and degree of variation. Thus, both general and variety-specific tendencies seem to be at work in our data. Keywords: New Englishes; International Corpus of English; will/would; frequency; semantics
Abstract
This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative investigation of the use of the modal verbs will and would in six New Englishes (Fiji, Indian, Singapore, Trinidadian, Jamaican and Bahamian English), with British English considered for comparison; will/would in their future use are also compared to other markers of futurity. The database consists of conversations from the respective components of the International Corpus of English or comparable data. The results show that the use of will versus would tends to be more variable in all New Englishes than in British English but that there are differences between the New Englishes in the type and degree of variation. Thus, both general and variety-specific tendencies seem to be at work in our data. Keywords: New Englishes; International Corpus of English; will/would; frequency; semantics
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- International Corpus of English vii
- Introduction ix
- “Off with their heads” 1
- Modals and quasi-modals in New Englishes 35
- The diverging need ( to )’s of Asian Englishes 55
- Will and would in selected New Englishes 77
- Progressives in Maltese English 103
- Mapping unity and diversity in South Asian English lexicogrammar 137
- Particle verbs across first and second language varieties of English 167
- Particle verbs in African Englishes 197
- Relatives worldwide 215
- Change from to -infinitive to bare infinitive in specificational cleft sentences 243
- “And they were all like ‘What’s going on?’” 263
- Index 291
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- International Corpus of English vii
- Introduction ix
- “Off with their heads” 1
- Modals and quasi-modals in New Englishes 35
- The diverging need ( to )’s of Asian Englishes 55
- Will and would in selected New Englishes 77
- Progressives in Maltese English 103
- Mapping unity and diversity in South Asian English lexicogrammar 137
- Particle verbs across first and second language varieties of English 167
- Particle verbs in African Englishes 197
- Relatives worldwide 215
- Change from to -infinitive to bare infinitive in specificational cleft sentences 243
- “And they were all like ‘What’s going on?’” 263
- Index 291
