The Distribution of Central Verbs in Different Types of Literary Works

【Abstract】Using Corpus-based software called anctonc3.2.1 to analysis English Modal verbs distribution in Growing Pains which is an America famous Situation Comedy， and Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe used the first person.We can find that there is a big association between variant degrees of modal verbs and the type of context.The analysis of Corpus-based software， we will analyze the distribution of modal verbs in Situation Comedy and works written by the first person.

【Key words】Modal verbs； Modality values； Situation Comedy； the first person works

I. The Introduction

1. The Brief Introduction of Modality

Modality is a hot topic which linguistics circle discussed often. In a context， modality can be expressed through modal verbs， modal adjunct， degree adverbs.The emergence and development of corpus linguistics makes it more convenient to analyze any types of contexts.Biber et al found modal verbs have different distribution features in different contexts.This paper uses the Anctonc3.2.1， taking Growing Pains as an example to explore the distribution of modal verbs and its reason in situation comedy， Biber et al sorted modal verbs into three types according to their using situation and frequency.

2. The Selection of Linguistic Data

Growing Pains is a famous American Situation Comedy uses lots of daily conversations which are colloquial and humorous.It has 217025 words and there are 2053 modal verbs in it.

3. The Analysis of Result

From statistics， there are 9 central modals in the following table.

We can see that the highest frequency of central modals is can， t， and must is the last.

II. The Analysis of Robinson Crusoe

From statistics， there are 9 central modals which is can， could， would， will， should， need， might， may， must.The frequency of these words in the following table.

In Robinson Crusoe， ‘couldis the most while Growing pains which ‘can is the most.

1. The Reason Why ‘could is the Most

Robinson Crusoe is written in the first person， and this work is about his memories in an island that used the past tense.So‘could is the most used in it.While Growing Pains is a situation comedy which used the present tense， that is why ‘can is the most used central modals.In literary works about situation comedy or written in the first person， the frequency of ‘can or ‘could is the most.

2. The Comparison of ‘Must in the Two Works

From the above two tables， we can see that ‘must in Growing Pains only appears 42times.Because it is an America situation comedy， the main characters are friends or relatives， their relationship is very close， the mood of ‘must is too strong for them.But Robinson Crusoes main character is Robinson alone in an island， so he can use the highest value modal verbs to talk to himself to give him confidence and faith， so that is the reason why the use of ‘must is larger than Growing Pains.Defoe used ‘must always appears in the conversation talked to himself to encourage himself in tough situation.We also talk to ourselves to persuade to do something in our daily lives.

III. The Conclusion

Through the comparison of two different literary works， we can easily get the distribution of modality verbs are different in varies types of literary works.In our daily life we may use lower value modal verbs， such as can， may， would.While in literary works written in the first person which the result usually different， the distribution of central modal verbs are totally different.We should choose the certain modal verbs when talking with different people.

參考文献：

[1]魏本力.情态动词的量值取向[J].外语学刊，2005（4）.

作者简介：高慧鑫（1995-），女，汉族，黑龙江黑河人，学生，2017级西语学院硕士研究生，研究方向：英语语言学。