A Study On The Grounding Function Of English Modal Verb CAN

Modal verbs,which are for expressing speakers’ subjective attitudes and views,are widely used in daily communication and writing.There are 1,228,608 modal verbs in COCA(Corpus of Contemporary American English)occupying highest usage frequency in English modal verbs,hence,it remains a hot topic of research.The previous researches has analyzed on CAN,substantial research has gone to the semantic ambiguity of CAN from the perspective of semantic features,semantic categories and syntactic and semantic features of NP + CAN + VP.There are few researches about the occurrence of action in the sentences in diverse language manifestations.By aid of grounding in cognitive grammar,the thesis adopts the qualitative and quantitaitve method to analyze 991 CANs to reconstruct the grounding model of CAN in hopes of answering the following research questions:(1)What are the syntactic and semantic features of CAN in diverse semantic categories?(2)Based on grounding,what is the main function of CAN in achieving the action of sentences in CAN + VP structure in NP +CAN + VP,and in what ways? The main findings of the research are as follows:On the one hand,CAN occurs in all the three semantic categories,but is distributed differently among 991 CANs in COCA.The number of Dynamic CAN is183 in the corpus of 991 modal verb CAN,accounting for about 18.5%;Deontic CAN has a total of 127,for about 12.8%;Epistemic CAN has a larger number of 681,taking up 68.7%.Dynamic CAN in NP+ Dynamic CAN + VP shows that NP has the capability of an action of VP;Deontic CAN in NP + Deontic CAN + VP shows that NP has permission of an action of VP;and Epistemic CAN in NP + Epistemic CAN+ VP shows that NP has probability of an action of VP.Based on grounding,CAN in NP + CAN + VP is characterized by force-dynamics,non-known reality and so on.On the other hand,CAN as a grounding element in NP + CAN + VP serves the following two functions including time grounding and epistemic grounding for aprofiled process of CAN + VP.The epistemic grounding function of CAN in diverse semantic categories shows that Dynamic CAN unleashes trajector an ability to make profiled process probable in non-known reality;Deontic CAN unleashes trajector a permission to make profiled process probable in non-known reality;Epistemic CAN unleashes a trajector probability to make profiled process probable in non-known reality.And epistemic time grounding function of CAN exhibits that CAN as a grounding element imprints speaking time on profiled process as a standard of speaking time.CAN in diverse semantic categories is endowed with capacity to indicate time for present,past and future,all depending on context.That is,based on grounding,CAN as a grounding element in diverse semantic categories unleashes correspondingly different forces and time to achieve mental coordination referent.There are two research significance as follows:(1)Within the framework of cognitive grounding,the thesis has constructed the grounding models of CAN by aid of an analysis of 991 CANs,and explored the grounding functions and the forces of profiled process,extending a new cognitive perspective for the semantic research of modals.(2)The functions of CAN vary with diverse semantic categories in different language manifestations,which could be applied to language teaching,language acquisition and translation teaching and research.