Statistical, lexical and grammatical differences between modal constructions with "can/could" and "may/might"

Odessa, Ukraine

Statement of the problem and literature review

In the context of constantly developing globalization and the presence of the Internet, when physical borders are no longer an obstacle to communication between citizens of different states, the ability to use the spoken language becomes relevant.

This concerns to a large extent the non-linguistic universities students-future engineers and scientists in the field of science and technology, because conversational skills will allow them to receive the necessary information in a timely manner, as well as be able to communicate with foreign colleagues at conferences and symposia, when discussing private engineering problems.

Teaching English as a foreign language to the non-linguistic university students, and in particular English conversation, is associated with quite great difficulties. Of course, specialized discourse cannot be compared with fiction discourse in its complexity, since it (specialized discourse) contains some conditions common to all technical fields of knowledge that significantly distinguish these two types. These are: narrowly professional aspects of speech behavior; strictly limited use of data from certain levels of language; greater emphasis on analysis rather than synthesis; higher degree of formalization; binding to a limited sublanguage (or complex of sublanguages).

But the base problem is as follows. The process of teaching the English conversational speech is already sufficiently provided with methodologically reliable literature, the amount of which continues to increase. However, with regard to such aspects of society as scientific, technical and industrial human activity and, accordingly, training future engineers in English (colloquial speech) for specialized purposes, it is covered in existing publications to a much lesser extent. We can give the most, from our point of view, useful and progressive examples of such methodological literature, because they include lexicographic information within phrases, which make it possible to record whole phrases for memorization, rather than individual words (Benson, E. Benson & Ilson, 1997; Wouden, 1992; Yorkey, 1969; Kjellmer, Altmann, 2005) which contributes to more rapid development of oral speech. Moreover, these sources present their data in conjunction with quantitative information, i.e. are based on real statistical calculations.

Another main task of modern methods of teaching the speech is the use of accurate and verified linguistic facts in educational process. What specific scientific research are meant? First of all, this concerns the results of the analysis of text corpora. The problem of combining theoretical issues of grammar and scientific research data, or rather, using the results of scientific research to explain issues of theoretical grammar, has long been overdue. Linguistic scientists call corpus linguistics a promising direction that can be widely used in explaining grammatical topics. They have a fairly reasoned approach to the use of this type of data, believing that when introducing theoretical material in schools and universities, artificially created examples or examples that rely solely on the intuition of native speakers cannot be given, while there exist real examples taken from texts for teachers and students (Barnbrook, 1998). Thus, T Jones (Jones, 2002) directly introduced corpus research data into grammar and vocabulary lessons at the University of Birmingham. There are also attempts by teachers and other universities to apply research data from text corpora into practice. For example, J. Flowerdue (Flowerdue, 1993) believes that data obtained from the study of text corpora allows teachers to introduce exactly those words and situations in which they are used, and which students will later need to work in their subject area.

The younger generation of scientists also contributes to the description and definition of the very subject of corpus linguistics (Finegan, 2014; McEn- ery; Krishnamurthy, 2006). They convincingly demonstrate that the advantage of corpus linguistics also lies in the fact that it studies almost any speech phenomena that function in a specialized text of almost all types of discourse (scientific, technical or humanities): syntactic phrases of any type (phraseological combinations, multi-component constructions, any types of sentences, structural components); structural syntax; word-formation typology of any parts of speech; forms and functions of parts of speech. It also studies the semantic aspect of speech units, і.e. implementation of semantic definitions of words included or not included in standard dictionaries; traces changes in the semantics of words in the process of their implementation in specialized texts, etc. (Alhasov, Verbytska, & Kolenichenko, 2020). The listed scientific topics clearly show that virtually any theoretical topic can be confirmed by statistical data. This confirms the assertion that modern corpus linguistics is not limited to the compilation of corpora, it also involves large-scale research of languages based on a text corpus research of grammar and vocabulary.

Conclusions

The analysis presented above allowed to draw the following conclusions.

1. The statistical characteristics of the modal constructions with `may/might' and `can/could' are different: the `can/could' constructions surpass `may/ might' ones in both the number of units (20 and 13) and the total frequency of the use (1086 and 446, respectively). The correlation of values of `can/could' and `may/might' constructions show the surpass of `can/could' over `may/might' more than 1,5. This can be a statistical mark for English learners.

2. As it as mentioned the `can/could' constructions are grammatically more various.

3. The analysis of the lexis of the infinitives included in the both types of modal constructions has demonstrated that from this viewpoint there are some differences between them (modal constructions). The infinitive constituent in `can/could' constructions possesses both commonly used and scientific lexical meanings. But in `may/might' ones in most cases the infinitive is referred predominantly to the commonly used lexical layer.

Bibliography

1. Benson M., Benson E & Ilson R. The BBI combinatory dictionary of English: a guide to word combinations, Amsterdam-Philadelphia, 1997.

2. Ton van der Wouden Prolegomena to a Multilingual Description of Collocations. Euralex'92 I-II., Proceedings, Tampere: University of Tampere, Finland, 1992. p.p. 449-456.

3. Yorkie R. Which Desk Dictionary Is Best for Foreign Students of English? Havaii: TESOL Quarterly, 1969. vol. 1, №3.

4. Kohler R., Altmann G. Quantitative Linguistics. An International Handbook. Berlin. New-York: Walter de Gruyter, 2005. 1027 p. [Piotrovsky R.G. (Ed.)].

5. Barnbrook G. Language and computer. A practical introduction to the computer analysis of language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University press, 1998. 209 p.

6. Johns T. Data-driven learning: the perpetual challenge. In: Kittemann/Marko, 2002. P 107-117.

7. Flowerdew J. Concordancing as a tool of course design. System. Vol. 21, Issue 2, May 1993, P 231-244.

8. McEnery T. Corpus Linguistics: Method, Analysis, Interpretation. Lancaster University

9. Finegan, E. Language: its structure and use (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, Inc., 2014. 613 p.

10. Alhasov, Y., Verbytska, A., & Kolenichenko, T. (2020). Teaching English to adult learners within extracurricular activities at university: barriers and motivation factors. Advanced Education, 7(15), 12-19.

11. Borisenko T.I., Tsynova M.V. Negative modal verb constructions in the text corpora of scientific and technical discourse. Південний архів (філологічні науки). Херсон, 2020. № 81/2020. С. 61-65.

12. Krishnamurthy R. Corpus Lexicography. Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics. 2006. 250-254.

13. Shapa, L.N., Tomasevich, N.P., & Dantsevich L.G. Terminologization of adjectives in the texts of scientific communication (on the material of the sublanguages of Electrical Engineering). Вісник харківського національного університету імені В.Н. Каразіна. Серія «Філологія». 2015. Вип. 73. С. 172-179.

References

1. Benson M., Benson E & Ilson R. (1997) The BBI combinatory dictionary of English: a guide to word combinations, Amsterdam-Philadelphia

2. Ton van der Wouden (1992) Prolegomena to a Multilingual Description of Collocations. Euralex'92 I-II., Proceedings, Tampere: University of Tampere, Finland, p.p. 449-456.

3. Yorkie R. (1969) Which Desk Dictionary Is Best for Foreign Students of English? Havaii: TESOL Quarterly, vol. 1, №3.

4. Kohler R., Altmann G. (2005) Quantitative Linguistics. An International Handbook. Berlin. New-York: Walter de Gruyter, 1027 p. [Piotrovsky R.G. (Ed.)].

5. Barnbrook G. (1998) Language and computer. A practical introduction to the computer analysis of language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University press. 209 p.

6. Johns T. (2002) Data-driven learning: the perpetual challenge. In: Kittemann/Marko, P 107-117.

7. Flowerdew J. (1993) Concordancing as a tool of course design. System. Vol. 21, Issue 2, May P 231-244.

8. McEnery T. Corpus Linguistics: Method, Analysis, Interpretation. Lancaster University

9. Finegan, E. (2014) Language: its structure and use (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, Inc., 2014. 613 p.

10. Alhasov, Y, Verbytska, A., & Kolenichenko, T. (2020). Teaching English to adult learners within extracurricular activities at university: barriers and motivation factors. Advanced Education, 7(15), 12-19.

11. Borisenko T.I., Tsynova M.V. (2020) Negative modal verb constructions in the text corpora of scientific and technical discourse. Pivdennyi arkhiv (filolohichni nauky). Kherson, №81/2020. С. 61-65.

12. Krishnamurthy R. (2006) Corpus Lexicography. Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics. 250-254.

13. Shapa, L.N., Tomasevich, N.P., & Dantsevich L.G. (2015) Terminologization of adjectives in the texts of scientific communication (on the material of the sublanguages of Electrical Engineering). Visnyk kharkivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni V.N. Karazina.Seriia «Filolohiia». №73. С. 172-179.

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