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Re-Assessing Modalising Expressions: Categories, co-text, and context
Edited by Pascal Hohaus and Rainer Schulze
[Studies in Language Companion Series 216] 2020
► pp. 195–222

Chapter 8
Present-day English constructions with chance(s) in Talmy’s greater modal system and beyond

| University of Liège & KU Leuven
| University of Liège & KU Leuven

Based on qualitative and quantitative corpus research, this chapter argues that constructions with chance(s) in Present-day English enrich Talmy’s (1988) greater modal system in various ways. Firstly, in their modal uses they are equivalent to core modal auxiliaries and encode especially dynamic and epistemic meanings. We maintain that the partial decategorialization of chance allows for more fine-grained expression of modal meanings by bringing in constructional templates that incorporate slots for potential premodification, as in have a good chance of V-ing. Secondly, they can express caused-modal meanings, in which case a causative operator is added to a basic modal meaning. Finally, structures with chance(s) also exceed Talmy’s (1988) greater modal system, as they can still be used lexically, which core modals no longer can.

Keywords: force dynamics, epistemic modality, dynamic modality, complementation, shell noun, lexicalization, grammaticalization, discourse prominence, decategorialization, verbo-nominal patterns
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. Data and methods
  • 3.General overview: Tripartite classification
  • 4.Modalized expressions
    • 4.1Types of modal meaning
    • 4.2Constructional properties
  • 5.Expressions of caused modality
    • 5.1 Chance and Talmy’s greater modal system
    • 5.2Constructional properties
  • 6.Lexical(ized) expressions
    • 6.1Lexical uses: Chance is discourse-primary
    • 6.2Lexicalized uses: Chance in complex predicates
    • 6.3Lexical uses: Chance meaning ‘coincidence’
    • 6.4Regular uses
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Corpus
  • References
Published online: 12 November 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.216.08van
References

Corpus

WordBanksOnline (WB)
Collins WordbanksOnline, HarperCollins. [URL] (3 June 2020).

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