Towards a pragmatic analysis of modals "shall" and "will" in Chaucer's language
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Date
2010
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
This paper attempts to provide the first systematic analysis of the modals SHALL and WILL in
Chaucer’s language from pragmatic viewpoints. In addition to speech acts and alternation in
discourse, this study examined modality in detail, which has a close relationship to pragmatic
factors.
Whereas SHALL is distributed across all kind of modalities, WILL has a limited variety, with
a strong preference to dynamic modality. The inventory of speech acts suggests a strong connection
to relevant modality, although some cases are not related to any particular modality. WILL
again has a more limited variety than SHALL. Incorporating these results into analysis, the scope
of examination is extended to the alternation in discourse, i.e., discourse markers, successive
employments of the same modal, and alternative uses of both modals. The findings here which
other studies would ascribe simply to a matter of variation are in fact well-motivated and controlled
by various factors such as modality, speaker-based vs. hearer-based speech acts, and social
role.
It is suggested that further analysis of discourse and modals in other periods will shed more
light on the pragmatic development of the modal and temporal systems in English.
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This research is supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science, and a faculty grant from Hamamatsu University School of
Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan.
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Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 46.4 (2010), pp. 73-96
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0081-6272