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Publication detail

On Possibility Meanings of COULD in Written English

Authors: Huschová Petra

Year: 2013

Type of publication: ostatní - přednáška nebo poster

Page from-to: nestránkováno

Titles:

Language	Name	Abstract	Keywords
eng	On Possibility Meanings of COULD in Written English	The presentation is concerned with possibility meanings of the modal auxiliary COULD, focusing primarily on interpreting its contextualized occurrences in contemporary written British English. It discusses in detail semantic aspects and syntactic correlations of the modal in order to reveal the most significant contextual factors determining its interpretation. Although COULD conveys, like CAN, essentially root possibility and is commonly employed as the preterite form of CAN in past contexts and reported speech, the presentation explores its occurrence in non-past contexts and potential epistemic usages. In order to obtain a complex picture of the usage and distribution of COULD conveying possibility, stylistic and discourse aspects are included as well. The former is reflected in the selection of the excerpted material; the data have been drawn from administrative, academic, popular scientific and journalistic texts. The latter is concerned with the usage of the modal verb as a hedging device.	the modal verb COULD; epistemic possibility; root possibility; gradience; hedging