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"Corpus-based studies Modals."
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Modals and quasi-modals in English
\"Modals and Quasi-modals in English reports the findings of a corpus-based study of the modals and a set of semantically-related 'quasi-modals' in English. The study is informed by recent developments in the study of modality, including grammaticalization and recent diachronic change. The selection of the parallel corpora used, representing British, American and Australian English, was designed to facilitate the exploration of both regional and stylistic variation.\"--Jacket.
Book
A Corpus-Based Study on Modal Verbs in the Chinese-English Translation of the Book of Contracts in Chinese Civil Code
The inherent discrepancies and evolving nature of legal knowledge across various legal systems, coupled with the variability of communicative contexts, have long posed significant challenges in both the practice and studies of legal translation. This study adopts a corpus-based approach and examines the uses of modal verbs in the English translation of Book Three: Contracts of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China. UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts 2016, which has been drafted, revised and applied in English, has been selected as the reference corpus. The analysis investigates typical modal verbs from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Major findings include the overuse of the modal verb shall when referring to the imposition of obligation and inconsistent translation of related terminologies, which causes confusion and inaccuracy. Therefore, particular attention should be paid to the uses of modal verbs as well as the standardization and consistency of terminology in the translation of legislative texts so as to enhance quality and communicative efficiency. This study, through extensive research and corpus-based analysis, aims to provide insights into legal translation to ensure not only linguistic accuracy but also functional clarity, aligning the target text closely with the intended legal meaning and minimizing potential ambiguities in cross-linguistic interpretations.
Journal Article
Japanese EFL undergraduate students’ use of the epistemic modal verbs may, might, and could in academic writing
Modifying and hedging one’s claims appropriately is an important characteristic of academic writing. This study focuses on the three main English modal verbs used to express “epistemic possibility” to avoid making strong statements, viz.,
,
, and
. The purpose of this corpus-based study is to explore modal verb usage by Japanese EFL undergraduate students and consider pedagogical implications of our findings. Our analysis suggests that the Japanese students’ use of these modal verbs, especially
, has a tendency to be informal and insufficiently academic. While the Japanese students use
very frequently, they do not use it sufficiently in the sense of “epistemic possibility”, and some of their use is inappropriate not just in academic English but in English more generally. The observed high frequency of
may be related to topics and may also be due to the influence of L1. We discuss different factors that may explain the findings, based mainly on the overview of factors impacting on EFL learners’ use of academic English offered by Gilquin and Paquot (2008). Too chatty: Learner academic writing and register variation. English Text Construction 1(1). 41–61), suggest several additions to this overview, and discuss implications for the instruction of these modal verbs in academic writing and in order to improve relevant teaching materials.
Journal Article
Modals and quasi-modals in English
Modals and Quasi-modals in English reports the findings of a corpus-based study of the modals and a set of semantically-related 'quasi-modals' in English. The study is the largest and most comprehensive to date in this area, and is informed by recent developments in the study of modality, including grammaticalization and recent diachronic change. The selection of the parallel corpora used, representing British, American and Australian English, was designed to facilitate the exploration of both regional and stylistic variation.
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