Article published in:
Grammatical Change in English World-Wide
Edited by Peter Collins
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 67] 2015
► pp. 119–146

Cross-variety diachronic drifts and ephemeral regional contrasts

An analysis of modality in the extended Brown family of corpora and what it can tell us about the New Englishes

| University of Freiburg
The present study offers the first analysis of modals and semi-modals which is based on all six completed Brown family corpora (B-Brown, B-LOB, Brown, LOB, Frown, F-LOB) and shows that the dynamics of diachronic change have prevented the emergence and preservation of stable regional contrasts between British and American English. The significance of this finding for the study of modality in the New Englishes is explored. Keywords. modality; ongoing change; British English; American English
Published online: 24 February 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.67.06mai
References
Aarts, Bas, Close, Joanne & Wallis, Sean
2013 Choices over time: Methodological issues in current change. In The English Verb Phrase: Corpus Methodology and Current Change, Bas Aarts, Joanne Close, Sean Wallis & Geoffrey Leech (eds), 14–45. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Biewer, Carolin
2011 Modal auxiliaries in second language varieties of English – a learner’s perspective. In Exploring Second-Language Varieties of English and Learner Englishes: Bridging a Paradigm Gap [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 44], Joybrato Mukherjee & Marianne Hundt (eds), 7–33. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bowie, Jill, Wallis, Sean & Aarts, Bas
2013 Contemporary change in modal usage in spoken British English: Mapping the impact of ‘genre’. In English Modality: Core, Periphery and Evidentiality, Juana I. Marín-Arrese, Marta Carretero, Jorge Arús Hita, &Johan Van der Auwera (eds), 57–94. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Peter
2009a Modals and Quasi-modals in English. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
2009b Modals and quasi-modals in world Englishes. World Englishes 28: 281–92. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2014 Quasi-modals and modals in Australian English fiction 1800-1999, with comparisons across British and American English. Journal of English Linguistics 42: 7–30. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Peter & Peters, Pam
2004 Australian English: Morphology and syntax. In A Handbook of Varieties of English, Vol 2, Bernd Kortmann, Edgar Schneider, with Kate Burridge, Rajend Mesthrie & Clive Upton (eds), 593–610. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Collins, Peter & Yao, Xinyue
2012 Modals and quasi-modals in New Englishes. In Mapping Unity and Diversity World-wide: Corpus-based Studies of New Englishes [Varieties of English around the World G43], Marianne Hundt & Ulrike Gut (eds), 35–53. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Peter, Borlongan, Ariane Macalinga & Yao, Xinyue
2014 Modality in Philippine English: A diachronic study. Journal of English Linguistics 42: 68–88. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Declerck, Renaat
2010 Future time reference expressed by be to in present-day English. English Language and Linguistics 14: 271–291. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Denison, David
2003 Log(ist)ic and simplistic S-curves. In Motives for Language Change, Ray Hickey (ed.), 54–70. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Deuber, Dagmar
2010 Modal verb usage at the interface of English and a related creole: A corpus-based study of can/could and will/would in Trinidadian English. Journal of English Linguistics 38: 105–142. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hinrichs, Lars, Smith Nicholas & Waibel, Birgit
2007 The Part-of-Speech-Tagged ‘Brown’ Corpora: A Manual of Information, Including Pointers for Successful Use. Freiburg: Department of English, University of Freiburg. http://​icame​.uib​.no​/ij34​/F​-LOB​_Frown​_manual​.pdfGoogle Scholar
Hundt, Marianne
2013 The demise of the being to V construction. Transactions of the Philological Society, published online 13 Nov 2013. Crossref.Google Scholar
Hundt, Marianne & Leech, Geoffrey
2012 ‘Small is beautiful’: On the value of standard reference corpora for observing recent grammatical change. In Oxford Handbook of the History of English, Terttu Nevalainen & Elizabeth Closs Traugott (eds), 175–188. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Jankowski, Bridget
2004 A transatlantic perspective of variation and change in English deontic modality. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics 23: 85–113.Google Scholar
Krug, Manfred
2000 Emerging English Modals: A Corpus-Based Study of Grammaticalization. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey
2003 Modality on the move: The English modal auxiliaries 1961 – 1992. In Modality in Contemporary English, Roberta Facchinetti, Manfred Krug, & Frank Palmer (eds), 223–240. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 The modals ARE declining: Reply to Neil Millar [2009]. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 16: 547–564. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2013 Where have all the modals gone? On the declining frequency of modal auxiliaries in American and British English. In English Modality: Core, Periphery and Evidentiality, Juana I. Marín-Arrese, Marta Carretero, Jorge Arús Hita & Johan Van der Auwera (eds), 95–115. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey & Smith, Nicholas
2005 Extending the possibilities of corpus-based research on English in the twentieth century: A prequel to LOB and F-LOB. ICAME Journal 29: 83–98.Google Scholar
2009 Change and constancy in linguistic change: How grammatical usage in written English evolved in the period 1931-1991. In Corpus Linguistics: Refinements and Reassessments, Antoinette Renouf & Andrew Kehoe (eds), 173–200. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey, Hundt, Marianne, Mair, Christian & Smith, Nicholas
2009 Change in Contemporary English: A Grammatical Study. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lorenz, David
2013 Contractions of English Semi-Modals: The Emancipating Effect of Frequency [New Ideas in Human Interaction / NIHIN] Freiburg: Universitätsbibliothek. http://​www​.freidok​.uni​-freiburg​.de​/volltexte​/9317/Google Scholar
Mair, Christian
2012 From opportunistic to systematic use of the web as corpus: Do-support with got (to) in contemporary American English. In The Oxford Handbook of the History of English, Terttu Nevalainen & Elizabeth Traugott (eds), 245–255. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Mair, Christian & Leech, Geoffrey
2006 Current changes. In The Handbook of English Linguistics, Bas Aarts &April McMahon (eds), 318–342. Oxford: Blackwell. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
McArthur, Tom
2003 World English, Euro-English, Nordic English. English Today 19(1): 54–58. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mesthrie, Rajend & Bhatt, Rakesh M
2008 World Englishes: The Study of New Varieties. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Millar, Neil
2009 Modal verbs in Time: Frequency changes 1923-2006. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 14: 191–220. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Müller, Friederike
2008 From degrammaticalisation to regrammaticalisation? Current changes in the use of need . Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 33: 71–94.Google Scholar
Nesselhauf, Nadja
2006 The decline of be to and the rise of be going to in Late Modern English: Connection or coincidence. In Anglistentag 2005 Bamberg: Proceedings, Christoph Houswitschka, Gabriele Knappe & Anja Müller (eds), 515–529. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag.Google Scholar
Noël, Dirk, Van Rooy, Bertus & Van der Auwera, Johan
(eds) 2014 Special Issue: Diachronic Approaches to Modality in World Englishes. Journal of English Linguistics 42: 3–88.Google Scholar
Nokkonen, Soili
2006 The semantic variation of need to in four recent British English corpora. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 11(1): 29–71. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey & Svartvik, Jan
1985 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Seggewiß, Friederike
2012 Current Changes in the English Modals: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Present-Day Spoken English. PhD dissertation, University of Freiburg.
Schneider, Edgar
2007 Postcolonial Englishes: Varieties around the World. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Nicholas
2003 Changes in the modals and semi-modals of strong obligation and epistemic necessity in recent British English. In Modality in Contemporary English, Roberta Facchinetti, Manfred Krug & Frank Palmer (eds), 241–266. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Taeymans, Martine
2004 An investigation into the marginal modals DARE and NEED in British present-day English: A corpus-based approach. In Up and Down the Cline: The Nature of Grammaticalization [Typological Studies in Language 59], Olga Fischer, Muriel Norde & Harry Perridon (eds), 97–114. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A. & D’Arcy, Alexandra
2007 The modals of obligation/necessity in Canadian perspective. English World-Wide 28: 47–87. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Trudgill, Peter & Hannah, Jean
2008 [1982] International English: A Guide to Varieties of Standard English, 5th edn. London: Hodder Education.Google Scholar
Visser, Fredericus Theodorus
1969 An Historical Syntax of the English Language III/1. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Warner, Anthony R
1993 English Auxiliaries: Structure and History. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 6 other publications

Kranich, Svenja
2021.  In Lost in Change [Studies in Language Companion Series, 218], ► pp. 261 ff. Crossref logo
Laitinen, Mikko
2020. Empirical perspectives on English as a lingua franca (ELF) grammar. World Englishes 39:3 ► pp. 427 ff. Crossref logo
Laliberté, Catherine
2022. A Diachronic Study of Modals and Semi-modals in Indian English Newspapers. Journal of English Linguistics 50:2 ► pp. 142 ff. Crossref logo
Loureiro-Porto, Lucía
2021. Linguistic democratization in HKE across registers: The effects of prescriptivism. Research in Corpus Linguistics 9:2 ► pp. 64 ff. Crossref logo
Mair, Christian
2021. Recent advances in the corpus-based study of ongoing grammatical change in English. Text & Talk 41:5-6 ► pp. 763 ff. Crossref logo
Mair, Christian & Geoffrey N. Leech
2020.  In The Handbook of English Linguistics, ► pp. 249 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 july 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.