Patterns Of Modal Verbs In East Asian Varieties Of English

As an important element of English verb system, modal verbs are also crucial ways to convey modality. For a long time, English modal verbs have been the focus of academic attention.Based on the self-compiled corpus of East Asian Varieties of English (for short, EAVE corpus), the present study adopted the corpus-based contrastive approach which combines the quantitative analysis and qualitative interpretations. As one of the important varieties of World Englishes, the East Asian Varieties of English is the research objective of the present study. Through comparisons with native English corpus, this study intends to find out the usage patterns of modal verbs in East Asian Varieties of English as a whole and the differences in the uses of modal verbs across different East Asian countries. The research questions include (1) Compared with native English, what are the significant characteristics of modal verbs in EAVE in the frequency and meaning distribution? (2) What are the differences in the frequency and meaning distribution of modal verbs across different varieties of English in East Asian countries?The results are summarized as follows:(1) SHOULD and WILL are significantly more used by East Asian learners than by native speakers; but WOULD, MIGHT, MUST, COULD, SHALL and MAY are significantly less used by East Asian learners. For the meaning distribution, the dynamic meanings of CAN and the epistemic meanings of MAY in EAVE corpus outnumber those both in LOB and Brown. As for MUST and SHOULD, both of their deontic meanings have been more used in EAVE corpus than that in LOB and Brown. Besides, the epistemic meanings of WILL have been excessively used by East Asians while its dynamic meanings are less used. (2) there are significant differences in the frequency of modal verbs across different varieties of English in East Asian countries. CAN and SHOULD are used more frequently in EAVE-CHN. MUST is used much more in EAVE-JP yet WILL is used less there. In EAVE-KR, COULD, MAY and WOULD are used more frequently. WILL is strikingly used more in EAVE-MG For the meaning distribution, the dynamic meanings of CAN and the deontic meanings of SHOULD are used more frequently in EAVE-CHN. The epistemic meanings of WILL and MAY and the deontic meanings of MUST are used more frequently in EAVE-MG In EAVE-KR, the deontic meanings of MAY, the epistemic meanings of MUST and SHOULD and the dynamic meanings of WILL are used more frequently.The results of the present study are expected to enrich the relevant theories of modal verbs in different English varieties and promote the further research of the characteristics of different varieties. Besides, it would be very conducive to English teachers and learners in East Asian countries to provide them with the latest theory references of modal verbs. In conclusion, it would be beneficial for a better grasp and usages of English modal verbs by learners of East Asian countries.