Corpus analysis of modal words with the meaning of uncertainty in the English language
Astakhova Tatyana Nikolaevna
Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M. V. Lomonosov
Submitted: 30.03.2023
Abstract. The work aims to identify the semantic features of English modal words with the meaning of uncertainty: ‘probably’, ‘perhaps’, ‘possibly’, ‘maybe’. The study was carried out using the material of The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The scientific novelty lies in clarifying the semantics of modal words based on the analysis of their collocates identified using corpus data. The paper provides a general description of the modality category, specifies the notion of epistemic modality and gives a classification of modal words. Following that, a corpus analysis of modal words with the meaning of uncertainty is carried out to clarify their semantics and usage features. As a result of the study, it has been determined that the modal words ‘probably’ and ‘perhaps’ are used with nouns with the semantics of assumption, unreality, reference to the past, with adjectives with positive evaluative connotations. The modal word ‘possibly’ is accompanied by lexical units with negative evaluative connotations. The modal words ‘perhaps’ and ‘maybe’ are used with verbs expressing obligation, recommendation and mental actions. The modal words ‘probably’, ‘maybe’ are accompanied by adverbs with the semantics of uncertainty.
Key words and phrases: модальные слова, английский язык, эпистемическая модальность, неуверенность, корпусные исследования, modal words, English language, epistemic modality, uncertainty, corpus studies
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