Double modals beyond the Atlantic
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This study investigates the use of double modals in Australian and New Zealand English using Twitter/𝕏 data. Double modals are rare grammatical constructions long believed to be limited to regional dialects in the Northern UK and the Southern US. Utilizing a geolocated corpus of over 80 million tweets, the study identifies 314 authentic double modal instances across 51 types, primarily occurring in informal tweets. Findings reveal widespread, albeit low-frequency, usage across both countries without clear geographical patterns. The results align with recent studies suggesting double modals are not confined to specific regions but are possible for most English speakers. The study also questions the traditional Scots-Irish origin theory, proposing an alternative view where the feature is a broader syntactic possibility. Future research should explore larger datasets and extend investigations to outer-circle English varieties to understand better the historical spread and syntactic nature of double modals.
Source: English Today
Authors: Steven Coats, Cameron Morin
Institutions: University of Oulu, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,450
OpenAlex ID: W4403492183