Open AccessA New Modal Cycle
Author(s) -
Elly van Gelderen
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nordlyd
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1503-8599
pISSN - 0332-7531
DOI - 10.7557/12.5209
Subject(s) - modal verb , modal , class (philosophy) , determinacy , linguistics , meaning (existential) , set (abstract data type) , mathematics , computer science , philosophy , epistemology , artificial intelligence , programming language , mathematical analysis , chemistry , polymer chemistry , verb
A new set of modals is appearing in contemporary English. The epistemic modals with perfect have are forming a new class including mighta, coulda, woulda, shoulda, and musta, when they are used with an additional have and without a (present) perfect meaning. I look at their structure and examine possible determinacy violations when they (and the core modals) move to C. The data come from corpus and internet sources; the study is not a quantitative one because the change is not yet particularly frequent.