Towards a Pragmatic Analysis of Modals "shall" and "will" in Chaucer’s Language.

Author / Editor
Nakayasu, Minako.

Title
Towards a Pragmatic Analysis of Modals "shall" and "will" in Chaucer’s Language.

Published
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 46.4 (2011): 73-96.

Description
Analyzes the 125 instances of the modals “shall” and “will” in GP, KnT, and WBPT in their “syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects,” gauging degrees of modality, contingency, futurity, grammaticalization, speech-act functions (e.g., prediction, promising, threatening, questioning, etc.), and discourse markers. Observes, generally, that “shall” has a wider variety of functions than does “will,” and calls for further analysis.

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies
General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
Knight and His Tale
Wife of Bath and Her Tale