Modality and Tense in Children's Autobiographical Accounts

This is a study of modal time in the autobiographical narratives of a group of five, eight and twelve year old children. Specifically, it is a description of the discourse functions associated with the English modal auxiliaries in conjunction with tense markings in the narratives. The auxiliaries {can, could, will, would, may, must, might, shall, should, ought) are a set of grammatical functors that express a range of related concepts such as ability, permission, possibility, desire, intention and obligation. The narratives are discussed based on a form of variation analysis focusing on both the grammatical and the discursive shape of the stories. It is part of a wider exploration of the role played by language and grammar in the construction of self and identity. {Child language, Narrative development, Tense and modality, Functional linguistics, Grammatical analysis)

Published online: 17 April 2000
https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.9.2.05qui