Recent quantitative changes in the use of modals and quasi-modals in the Hong Kong, British and American printed press
Exploring the potential of Factiva® for the diachronic investigation of World Englishes
This chapter uses Factiva® to examine recent evolution in the occurrence of verbal modal expressions in the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, in contrast with American and British newspapers. Previous research established that the frequency of the modals is decreasing in both British and American English generally, but increasing within the pages of TIME Magazine. The present research found that American newspaper data on the recent quantitative evolution of the modals parallel the TIME data to a degree, while British newspaper data correspond with data considered to be representative of BrE in its entirety. The quantitative evolutions of both the modals and the quasi-modals in the Hong Kong newspaper resemble the ones in the British newspapers. Keywords: modals and quasi-modals; constructional attrition; newspaper language; HKE; British and American English; Factiva®
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Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Bohmann, Axel
2024.
Future‐time reference in world Englishes.
World Englishes 43:1
► pp. 2 ff.
Collins, Peter
2023.
Modals and Quasi-Modals in English World-Wide.
Journal of English Linguistics 51:3
► pp. 265 ff.
HANSEN, BEKE
2017.
The ICE metadata and the study of Hong Kong English.
World Englishes 36:3
► pp. 471 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
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