Open AccessStudy on the Use of Modal Verbs in IWriteBaby Corpus—Taking “Can” and “Could” as Examples
Author(s) -
Bilian Zan
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of innovation and social science research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2591-6890
DOI - 10.53469/jissr.2022.09(01).04
Subject(s) - argumentative , modal verb , modal , linguistics , computer science , space (punctuation) , artificial intelligence , philosophy , verb , chemistry , polymer chemistry
Modal verbs are frequently used in English argumentative writing, especially Can and Could, but Chinese English learners are prone to making mistakes when using them. Therefore, based on the IWriteBaby corpus, this paper explores the use of these two of modal verbs in Chinese English learners’ argumentative writing in order to provide theoretical guidance for English argumentative teaching. It is found that Chinese English learners frequently use the negative forms to guide the readers to think critically and limit the space for discourse dialogue, thus achieving the communicative purpose of writing.