Hypothetical Modality: Grammaticalisation in an L2 DialectThis book marks a new development in the field of grammaticalisation studies, in that it extends the field of grammaticalisation studies from relatively homogeneous languages to those possessing well-established and institutionalised second language varieties. In Hypothetical Modality, special reference is made to Singaporean English, a native-speaker L2 dialect of considerable importance in the South-East Asian region, and to the expression in the dialect of hypothetical modality, which appears to be indistinguishable from non-hypothetical modality in terms of the use of preterite or past forms of modal verbs. Within a grammaticalisation framework, a number of factors can be seen to be relevant to an explanation, including substratum and contact features such as tense/aspect marking, levels of lexical retention as an individual (psychological) phenomenon, and the fact that such dialects have a discontinuity in their development. In addition, the book defines pragmatic approaches to the understanding of hypothetical modality, in both diachronic and synchronic terms. |
Contents
CHAPTER | 7 |
CHAPTER | 8 |
Hypothetical modality as a grammatical category | 15 |
A diachronic corpus study of would | 45 |
CHAPTER 4 | 85 |
CHAPTER 5 | 86 |
The interaction of tense and aspect in | 111 |
CHAPTER 6 | 137 |
The Lexical Memory Traces Hypothesis | 205 |
Conclusions | 247 |
Primary sources | 277 |
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Common terms and phrases
acceptable acquisition ambiguity apodosis appear aspect associated Australian English Australian group Bybee cancellation causal Chinese co-occurring conditional apodoses constraints context conversational implicatures counterfactual conditionals counterfactual implicatures counterfactual meanings creole deontic derived diachronic dialects differences distribution earlier evidence example expression factive factual future generalisation grammatical functions grammaticalisation Hokkien hypothesis hypothetical complements hypothetical meanings hypothetical modality illustrated implied indicate inferences irrealis L2 speakers L2 variety language lexical aspect lexical meanings lexical retention main clause Mandarin Mandarin Chinese marked for past marker modal forms modal verb morphology native speakers negative non-factive noted occur party past prediction past stative past tense past tense marking perfect perfective aspect person subjects possible pragmatic predictive meanings present study proposition protasis Q2 implicatures Question questionnaire realisation reference respondents semantic sentence Singapore Singaporean English Singaporean group stages stative verbs subordinate clauses substratum suggest Traugott utterance variation volitional meanings volitional senses wish wolde