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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Variation and Diachrony, with Early American English in Focus: Studies on Can/May and Shall/Will

Variation and Diachrony, with Early American English in Focus: Studies on Can/May and Shall/Will

Viereck, Wolfgang
Kytö, Merja
Viereck, Wolfgang

Paperback

Series: Bamberger Beitraege Zur Englischen Sprachwissenschaft / Bamb, Book 28

English as a Second LanguageLiterary CriticismGeneral Reference

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ISBN10: 3631439083
ISBN13: 9783631439081
Publisher: Peter Lang
Published: May 1 1991
Pages: 427
Language: English
This study of diachronic variation addresses two topics, the development of modal auxiliaries can (could), may (might), shall (should) and will (would), and the emergence of early American English as a new variety in the seventeenth century. Within the framework of socio-historical variation analysis, the author aims at accounting for diachronic change by examining the interplay of various linguistic and extra-linguistic factors in the light of evidence drawn from various corpora. The study concentrates on the language spoken and written in the New England area between 1620 and 1720, but to widen the scope in time and region, counterparts for comparison are found in the material included in the Helsinki Corpus of English Texts. The results indicate a gradual change (rather than a sudden re-structuring) in the system of the English modals from early stages on. Cumulative evidence is found for the rise of the forms can and will; in early American English conservative (rather than innovative) tendencies characterize the development.

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