The modal verbs will/would, shall/should, can/could, may/might, need, must ought and dare/durst in the English of the time of Shakespeare
The thesis is a corpus study of the modal verbs using eight non-imaginative prose texts written in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Two are translations from Latin, one from French; there is an English text from Bacon with its Latin version, a text from Hooker, from Moryson's Itinerary and two texts which are collections of letters. Each text contains from 400 to 700 uses of the modal verbs. Preliminary to the corpus study is a consideration of the analyses of mood found in the grammars of English of the period, together with the sources of these analyses in Renaissance Latin grammar and in the ancient grammarians. The corpus study is conducted by means of sets of quotations, accompanied in the case of those from translated texts by the parallel Latin or French passages. Starting from the translated texts the selection, first of WILL or SHALL in translating the future, then of CAN or MAY in translating POSSUM/POUVOIR is studied. The idea of the modal pair and its behaviour in early Modern English is elaborated. An account is given of the adaptation of NEED to constitute a third modal pair with MUST. The use of MUST and OUGHT in the expression of obligation and necessity is considered and DARE
Reed, J. O.
Linguistics
The modal verbs will/would, shall/should, can/could, may/might, need, must ought and dare/durst in the English of the time of Shakespeare. The thesis is a corpus study of the modal verbs using eight non-imaginative prose texts written in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Two are translations from Latin, one from French; there is an English text from Bacon with its Latin version, a text from Hooker, from Moryson's Itinerary and two texts which are collections of letters. Each text contains from 400 to 700 uses of the modal verbs. Preliminary to the corpus study is a consideration of the analyses of mood found in the grammars of English of the period, together with the sources of these analyses in Renaissance Latin grammar and in the ancient grammarians. The corpus study is conducted by means of sets of quotations, accompanied in the case of those from translated texts by the parallel Latin or French passages. Starting from the translated texts the selection, first of WILL or SHALL in translating the future, then of CAN or MAY in translating POSSUM/POUVOIR is studied. The idea of the modal pair and its behaviour in early Modern English is elaborated. An account is given of the adaptation of NEED to constitute a third modal pair with MUST. The use of MUST and OUGHT in the expression of obligation and necessity is considered and DARE
modal_verb will would shall can could may might need must ought english time shakespeare corpus_study modal_verb use non imaginative prose text write translation latin french_english text latin version text hooker text collection letter text_contain use modal_verb preliminary corpus_study consideration analyse mood find grammar english period together source analyse renaissance latin grammar ancient grammarian corpus study_conduct mean set quotation accompany case translate texts parallel latin french passage starting translate texts selection first shall translate future may translate study idea modal pair behaviour early_modern_english elaborate account_give adaptation need constitute third modal pair must use must ought expression obligation necessity consider