'Oblique' Modals in English and German  

Oleh:

Matthews, Richard

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Language Sciences (Full Text) vol. 18 no. 1-2 (1996), page 363-379.
Topik: Modality; could; might; should; ought; konnte; durfte; sollte; muBte
Fulltext: 18_01-02_Matthews.pdf (978.16KB)

Isi artikel

Praeterito-praesentia verbs in Germanic languages are an interesting phenomenon diachronically. Synchronic comparison of the semantics and pragmatics of their current forms in German and English reveals a complex pattern of similarities and differences. While the base forms (from original preterites - can, may vs. kann, dar[, muff, etc.) have been subjected to a fair amount of study, the 'oblique' forms (the innovated preterites - could, might, should, etc. vs. konnte, d~rfie, sollte, muffte, etc.) have been less well aired. They are by no means simply 'backshifted' or 'distanced' forms. In this paper I shall discuss the uses of the English expressions and offer semantic specifications for them based on the account I gave in Matthews (1991) - with some revisions. I shall then adapt this framework in order to try and accommodate the German expressions. What becomes clear in both languages is that these oblique forms give a greater distribution of meaning-use correlations than related non-oblique forms (where they are still extant). In theoretical terms, this means that their semantic specifications cannot be mere projections of the semantic specifications of the related non-oblique

Opini Anda

Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini!

Kembali