Devoir et pouvoir, comme les verbes modaux d’autres langues, ont déjà fait l’objet d’une littérature abondante. Le fait qu’ils puissent recevoir des sens différents selon leur contexte d’emploi a particulièrement suscité l’attention des sémanticiens et des pragmaticiens. Cette thèse revient sur la question de la nature des différentes interprétations de devoir et pouvoir, et tente d’établir si leur plurivocité relève de la polysémie ou de la sous-spécification. L’hypothèse polysémique, la plus répandue dans la littérature française, implique qu’au moins le sens radical et le sens épistémique soient inscrits dans la langue et donc représentés en mémoire. Selon l’hypothèse de la sous-spécification, la multiplicité de sens relève de l’enrichissement contextuel d’un unique sens sous-spécifié stocké dans le lexique mental. L’état actuel des recherches, l’examen des différentes interprétations de devoir et pouvoir et de la sous-détermination potentielle de leur sens en contexte, comme l’étude de leur évolution sémantique en diachronie, ne permettent pas de falsifier l’une ou l’autre hypothèse. Des méthodes expérimentales, développées en psycholinguistique et en pragmatique expérimentale, sont donc convoquées. Notamment, l’examen des temps de traitement en lecture, dans une expérience d’eye tracking manipulant le sens et le contexte, suggère une représentation effectivement polysémique pour devoir, mais une représentation monosémique sous-spécifiée pour pouvoir. Devoir et pouvoir sont souvent traités ensemble, les études considérant que l’un constitue, dans son domaine modal, le pendant de l’autre. Nous relevons que le parallèle effectué n’est pas aussi motivé qu’il n’y paraît. / Devoir and pouvoir, as modal verbs in other languages, have already been the subject of extensive literature. The fact that they can convey different meanings depending on the specific context in which they occur is of particular interest to semanticists andpragmaticians. This thesis focuses on the nature of the various interpretations of devoir and pouvoir and attempts to ascertain whether their meaning multiplicity is a result of their polysemy or of their underspecified semantics. The polysemy hypothesis, which is the prevalent view in the French literature, implies that at least both the root sense and the epistemic sense fully belong to the linguistic system and hence that both are represented in memory. On the contrary, according to the underspecification model, contextual enrichment of a unique underspecified meaning stored in the mental lexicon accounts for meaning multiplicity. The current state of research, the review of the several possible interpretations of devoir and pouvoir, the investigation of potential meaning underdetermination in context, as well as the study of their semantic evolution in diachrony, do not allow us to rule out any of the two hypotheses. Experimental methods, developed in psycholinguistics and in experimental pragmatics, are thus used. Notably, analysis of processing times in reading in an eye tracking experiment in which both meaning and context are manipulated favours a polysemic representation for devoir, but a monosemic and underspecified representation for pouvoir. The two modal verbs are traditionally examined together since it is assumed that one matches the other in its own modal domain. This thesis casts doubt on this assumption.

Esta tesina trata las varias maneras de traducir el verbo modal deber (de) al sueco en la novela La Sombra del Viento de Carlos Ruiz Zafón. Compara los resultados con la descripción de los verbos modales suecos en Svenska Akademiens Grammatik. La investigación revela que el uso de los verbos en la traducción en cuestión generalmente corresponde a la descripción de SAG, pero hay excepciones. Las muchas ocurrencias de måste deóntico señala que el sentido de necesidad que expresa no es tan fuerte como sostiene SAG, y además no solo se usa en presente sino también mucho como forma de pasado. En cuanto a deber (de) epistémico, los resultados indican que su significado tiene un campo de aplicación tan grande que los modales suecos no son suficientes como traducciones. No aparece ningún ejemplo de lär en todo el corpus. Además el estudio enfoca la división entre deber y deber de, en la que parece que está en marcha un cambio lingüístico.

Ziel des Beitrags ist die Relevanz der Kategorie Kontrollfeld aus der funktionalen Pragmatik für volitive Modalverben des Portugiesischen aufzuzeigen, und zwar sowohl in der Konstruktion mit einem Infinitiv als auch der mit einem durch de Subjunktor que eingeleiteten Komplementsatz bei gleichzeitiger Koreferenz von Subjekt des Modalverbs und des Verbs des untergeordneten Komplementsatzes. Dabei wird aufgezeigt, das es eine transtheoretische Konvergenz zwischen der funktionalen Pragmatik und der kognitiven Linguistik im Hinblick auf das Phänomen gibt. Außerdem wird aufgezeigt, dass die Koreferenz zwischen Subjekt des Modalverbs und des Verbs des Komplementsatzes bei portugiesischen volitiven Modalverben möglich ist, wenn das Subjekt keine Kontrolle über den durch das Verb des Komplementsatzes bezeichneten Sachverhalt hat.

Este trabalho trata do uso dos verbos modais em manuais de aviação em inglês sob uma perspectiva da lingüística de corpus. O objetivo é gerar subsídios que permitam elaborar materiais didáticos que reflitam as estruturas lingüísticas como aparecem em seu contexto de uso. Parte-se da hipótese de que o uso dos verbos modais no corpus de estudo apresenta peculiaridades com relação à freqüência de ocorrência, estrutura sintática e sentidos. O corpus de estudo é composto de três manuais técnicos da aeronave BOEING 737, sendo dois manuais de operações destinados a pilotos e um manual de manutenção destinado a mecânicos. A pesquisa é realizada em três etapas. Na primeira etapa é realizado um contraste entre o corpus de estudo, um corpus de referência de inglês geral e um corpus de contraste composto de manuais de sistemas operacionais para computadores pessoais. Esse contraste visa a verificar as diferenças de ocorrências entre os verbos modais e as suas estruturas sintáticas. Depois, são realizadas comparações entre os três manuais que compõem o corpus de estudo também com relação às freqüências dos modais e suas estruturas sintáticas. Na terceira etapa são verificadas as colocações principais de cada VM no manual de manutenção e em um dos manuais de operações. Outro objetivo desta investigação é contrastar o manual de manutenção e um livro didático que tem por objetivo ensinar inglês técnico para mecânicos de aeronaves. Nesse sentido, é feita uma análise do livro no que tange os verbos modais e sugeridas algumas modificações. O trabalho reúne referenciais teóricos da Lingüística de Corpus, Lingüística das Linguagens Especializadas e Verbos Modais. Os resultados do trabalho mostram que há diferenças entre a presença dos modais nos três corpora pesquisados e principalmente entre os três manuais que compõe o corpus de estudo. O estudo mostra a importância de realizar pesquisas baseadas em corpus para revelar as peculiaridades de uma linguagem especializada e assim fornecer subsídios para a elaboração de material didático com propósitos específicos mais de acordo com as necessidades do público alvo. / This thesis is about the use of modal verbs in aviation manuals in the light of corpus linguistics. The goal is to gather subsides to enable the creation of classroom material which presents the linguistic structures as they appear in their natural context. The hypothesis is that the use of modal verbs in the corpus has peculiarities in terms of frequency, syntactic patterns, and meanings. The aviation corpus is composed of three manuals from the BOEING 737 aircraft: two operations manuals directed to pilots and one maintenance manual directed to mechanics. The research has been carried out in three stages. In the first stage, the aviation corpus is contrasted to a reference corpus and another specialized corpus composed of personal computer operational systems. Such contrast aims at verifying the differences in the number of modal tokens and their syntactic patterns. In the second stage, the three manuals that make up the aviation corpus are compared in terms of modal frequencies and their syntactic patterns. In the third stage, the main collocations of each modal are checked. This thesis also aims at contrasting the maintenance manual and a course book designed to teach aviation English to mechanics. Thus, an analysis of the modal verbs in the course book is carried out and changes to the book are suggested. This thesis brings together theoretical assumptions from Corpus Linguistics, the Linguistics of Specialized languages and Modal Verbs. The results point out that there are differences in the use of modal verbs in the three investigated corpora and mainly among the three manuals that compose the aviation corpus. This study shows the importance of corpus based research to reveal the peculiarities of a specialized language and, therefore, provide input to produce specific pedagogical material which better meets the needs of the target public.

Este trabalho trata do uso dos verbos modais em manuais de aviação em inglês sob uma perspectiva da lingüística de corpus. O objetivo é gerar subsídios que permitam elaborar materiais didáticos que reflitam as estruturas lingüísticas como aparecem em seu contexto de uso. Parte-se da hipótese de que o uso dos verbos modais no corpus de estudo apresenta peculiaridades com relação à freqüência de ocorrência, estrutura sintática e sentidos. O corpus de estudo é composto de três manuais técnicos da aeronave BOEING 737, sendo dois manuais de operações destinados a pilotos e um manual de manutenção destinado a mecânicos. A pesquisa é realizada em três etapas. Na primeira etapa é realizado um contraste entre o corpus de estudo, um corpus de referência de inglês geral e um corpus de contraste composto de manuais de sistemas operacionais para computadores pessoais. Esse contraste visa a verificar as diferenças de ocorrências entre os verbos modais e as suas estruturas sintáticas. Depois, são realizadas comparações entre os três manuais que compõem o corpus de estudo também com relação às freqüências dos modais e suas estruturas sintáticas. Na terceira etapa são verificadas as colocações principais de cada VM no manual de manutenção e em um dos manuais de operações. Outro objetivo desta investigação é contrastar o manual de manutenção e um livro didático que tem por objetivo ensinar inglês técnico para mecânicos de aeronaves. Nesse sentido, é feita uma análise do livro no que tange os verbos modais e sugeridas algumas modificações. O trabalho reúne referenciais teóricos da Lingüística de Corpus, Lingüística das Linguagens Especializadas e Verbos Modais. Os resultados do trabalho mostram que há diferenças entre a presença dos modais nos três corpora pesquisados e principalmente entre os três manuais que compõe o corpus de estudo. O estudo mostra a importância de realizar pesquisas baseadas em corpus para revelar as peculiaridades de uma linguagem especializada e assim fornecer subsídios para a elaboração de material didático com propósitos específicos mais de acordo com as necessidades do público alvo. / This thesis is about the use of modal verbs in aviation manuals in the light of corpus linguistics. The goal is to gather subsides to enable the creation of classroom material which presents the linguistic structures as they appear in their natural context. The hypothesis is that the use of modal verbs in the corpus has peculiarities in terms of frequency, syntactic patterns, and meanings. The aviation corpus is composed of three manuals from the BOEING 737 aircraft: two operations manuals directed to pilots and one maintenance manual directed to mechanics. The research has been carried out in three stages. In the first stage, the aviation corpus is contrasted to a reference corpus and another specialized corpus composed of personal computer operational systems. Such contrast aims at verifying the differences in the number of modal tokens and their syntactic patterns. In the second stage, the three manuals that make up the aviation corpus are compared in terms of modal frequencies and their syntactic patterns. In the third stage, the main collocations of each modal are checked. This thesis also aims at contrasting the maintenance manual and a course book designed to teach aviation English to mechanics. Thus, an analysis of the modal verbs in the course book is carried out and changes to the book are suggested. This thesis brings together theoretical assumptions from Corpus Linguistics, the Linguistics of Specialized languages and Modal Verbs. The results point out that there are differences in the use of modal verbs in the three investigated corpora and mainly among the three manuals that compose the aviation corpus. This study shows the importance of corpus based research to reveal the peculiarities of a specialized language and, therefore, provide input to produce specific pedagogical material which better meets the needs of the target public.

Este trabalho trata do uso dos verbos modais em manuais de aviação em inglês sob uma perspectiva da lingüística de corpus. O objetivo é gerar subsídios que permitam elaborar materiais didáticos que reflitam as estruturas lingüísticas como aparecem em seu contexto de uso. Parte-se da hipótese de que o uso dos verbos modais no corpus de estudo apresenta peculiaridades com relação à freqüência de ocorrência, estrutura sintática e sentidos. O corpus de estudo é composto de três manuais técnicos da aeronave BOEING 737, sendo dois manuais de operações destinados a pilotos e um manual de manutenção destinado a mecânicos. A pesquisa é realizada em três etapas. Na primeira etapa é realizado um contraste entre o corpus de estudo, um corpus de referência de inglês geral e um corpus de contraste composto de manuais de sistemas operacionais para computadores pessoais. Esse contraste visa a verificar as diferenças de ocorrências entre os verbos modais e as suas estruturas sintáticas. Depois, são realizadas comparações entre os três manuais que compõem o corpus de estudo também com relação às freqüências dos modais e suas estruturas sintáticas. Na terceira etapa são verificadas as colocações principais de cada VM no manual de manutenção e em um dos manuais de operações. Outro objetivo desta investigação é contrastar o manual de manutenção e um livro didático que tem por objetivo ensinar inglês técnico para mecânicos de aeronaves. Nesse sentido, é feita uma análise do livro no que tange os verbos modais e sugeridas algumas modificações. O trabalho reúne referenciais teóricos da Lingüística de Corpus, Lingüística das Linguagens Especializadas e Verbos Modais. Os resultados do trabalho mostram que há diferenças entre a presença dos modais nos três corpora pesquisados e principalmente entre os três manuais que compõe o corpus de estudo. O estudo mostra a importância de realizar pesquisas baseadas em corpus para revelar as peculiaridades de uma linguagem especializada e assim fornecer subsídios para a elaboração de material didático com propósitos específicos mais de acordo com as necessidades do público alvo. / This thesis is about the use of modal verbs in aviation manuals in the light of corpus linguistics. The goal is to gather subsides to enable the creation of classroom material which presents the linguistic structures as they appear in their natural context. The hypothesis is that the use of modal verbs in the corpus has peculiarities in terms of frequency, syntactic patterns, and meanings. The aviation corpus is composed of three manuals from the BOEING 737 aircraft: two operations manuals directed to pilots and one maintenance manual directed to mechanics. The research has been carried out in three stages. In the first stage, the aviation corpus is contrasted to a reference corpus and another specialized corpus composed of personal computer operational systems. Such contrast aims at verifying the differences in the number of modal tokens and their syntactic patterns. In the second stage, the three manuals that make up the aviation corpus are compared in terms of modal frequencies and their syntactic patterns. In the third stage, the main collocations of each modal are checked. This thesis also aims at contrasting the maintenance manual and a course book designed to teach aviation English to mechanics. Thus, an analysis of the modal verbs in the course book is carried out and changes to the book are suggested. This thesis brings together theoretical assumptions from Corpus Linguistics, the Linguistics of Specialized languages and Modal Verbs. The results point out that there are differences in the use of modal verbs in the three investigated corpora and mainly among the three manuals that compose the aviation corpus. This study shows the importance of corpus based research to reveal the peculiarities of a specialized language and, therefore, provide input to produce specific pedagogical material which better meets the needs of the target public.

This study is intended to shed light on similarities and differences in terms of functional structure of the clause when modality is expressed by use of modal operators in Russian and English, in order to arrive at findings which inform, and are applicable to, the process of English language acquisition by the Russian learner. The need for the investigation was prompted by the author’s work experience in the field of English teaching, and the lack of explicit guidance in available textbooks currently used in Russian schools and institutions with regard to the particular issue highlighted. While learning the subject of Systemic Functional Linguistics, I drew parallels between the functional structures in the two languages, the purpose of which is to provide a roadmap which facilitates the learning and teaching of English modality to the Russian learner. The approach of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), focusing on the metafunctions as the correspondence in the sociolinguistic message of the clause, is used as a basis for comparing the functional structures in both languages. The investigation of functional grammar features is carried out in order to spotlight  both the similarities and the differences inherent in expressing a degree of probability of an event or statement indicated, not only by the choice of an appropriate modal verb, but also its placement within the clause. The role of the social context in which the text is set is noted as significant for delivering the precise meaning of the message. Hence, the proposition will be pursued through further investigation in the field of modality, and viewed from perspectives of sociolinguistics.

The subject of the dissertation is the origin of the Old Norse periphrastic future. First, it is shown that the main exponent of future in Old Norse, as opposed to other old Germanic languages, is the auxiliary verb munu, both in terms of its frequency and its remarkably neutral meaning. It is attested as such even in the oldest 9th century sources, the Skaldic poems. These characteristics of munu are in contrast with the other exponent of the periphrastic future, the verb skulu, which was less frequent and more modal. The futural character of munu and the modal character of skulu are further demonstrated by an analysis of the means of future expression used in prophecies and curses. Discussion of the grammaticalization of munu has shown that as early as the 9th century the verb had developed meanings that are derived from future (particularly the probability meaning). Hence, the futural use must have been fairly common for a considerably long period before the first attestations. Further evidence for the early use of munu-future in North Germanic comes from the reconstruction of the morphological development of the verb. It shows a transition from the class of regular weak verbs to the preterite-present class which was associated with modal/function verbs in Germanic. These findings show that the...

This diploma thesis deals with modality in German and highlights possible problems which can arise when modal formulations are translated from German into Czech. It focuses on modal verbs, which are presented as a special verb group. Knowledge of modal verbs is the basic prerequisite for accurate translation as far as semantics, grammar and stylistics are concerned. Since the correct identification of modality in a sentence essentially influences the accuracy of a translation, modality is considered exhaustively. Data was gathered from the parallel corpus Intercorp (project of parallel corpuses of The Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague), the Coocurrency Database (CCDB) IDS Mannheim which competes with the parallel corpus InterCorp, and original German fiction texts and their Czech translations and was the subject of comparative critical analysis. These analyses demonstrate the problematic phenomena encountered when German modal formulations are translated into Czech.

The goal of the thesis is to contribute to the description of the category of aspect and to do so in an alternative way, i.e. without linking aspectual value of a sentence exclusively or directly to the morphological make-up of the verb. The starting point is the distinction between states and activities, i.e. between state and activity events. In the center of our attention are states, namely the way how states are expressed by perfective predicates. Two analyses of corpus data (SYN v7) were performed to pursue the issue. The first analysis focused on the occurrence of state and activity meanings of perfective forms of so-called capacitive verbs. It turns out that one of the decisive factors construing the aspectual meaning of a sentence is the category of tense. The other analysis focused on a collocation we have termed aspectual paradox. It combines durative adverbials (for instance stále) with perfective verbs in the framework of one construction. This analysis has demonstrated that another important factor involved in sentence aspectual construal is modality. Another outcome of this analysis is a classification of state meanings of the "durative adverbial + perfective" collocation. Eleven kinds of meanings were established: ability, possibility, existence, quality, quantity, etc. Verba...