JoLIE 9:3/2016

 

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COMPARISON BETWEEN HAVE AND YOU CAN HAVE/ YOU MUST HAVE/ YOU WILL HAVE AS STRUCTURES CONVEYING INDUCEMENT IN THE BYU-BNC CLASSROOM LANGUAGE[1]

 

 

Petranka Ruseva

Shumen University, College-Dobrich, Bulgaria

 

 

 

Abstract

 

Generally, the English imperative is accepted to be presented by bare verb stem and imperative clauses are the ones whose verbs are in imperative mood. But the idea about the variety of ways possible to express imperative meaning is also widespread. One of the possibilities suggested by some authors involves modal verbs. Although some differences between the two types are recognised, the focus of the paper is on the similarities between the imperative in its general use compared to prefabs of second person structures with some of the modal verbs (can, must and will, in particular). The hypothesis adopted here concerns the similarity between the two types and it is a starting point for the search for examples confirming it in an online corpus (BYU-BNC). In order to limit the enormous range of possibilities in the language to be examined, the paper studies only those with have and you can have/ you must have/ you will have in spoken classroom language. Two are the main steps that are undertaken.

Firstly, the investigation aims at finding the similarities in the VP. The task is facilitated by using valence patterns. Have as a lexical verb is targeted in both cases, i.e. on the one hand in the imperative and on the other, as a part of the structure where it follows one of the central modal verbs, mentioned already, which is preceded by the second person pronoun you. The paper does not consider other possibilities for subjects. The choice of this particular structure is determined by the imperative as it is usually referred to and implies second person subject. However, this does not mean that other overt subjects are impossible. Another point to mention is that have as one of the so called light verbs is related to Sinclair’s “progressive delexicalization”. This phenomenon is paid attention to as it is closely connected to the next step.

Secondly, the similarities are looked for in pragmatics. In general, imperatives are associated with requests and commands but a number of other uses are also recognized. The corpus offers examples that illustrate the variety. The context is of great importance to get the intended meaning of the addresser. There are words that are sometimes crucial for understanding the clause properly. These could be markers of politeness, such as please, or words that are sometimes signs of minimization of the imposition (e.g. just), or words that signify stages of instruction (e.g. first, next, then) and so on.

 

Key words: Imperatives; Valency; Inducement; Progressive delexicalization.

 

 

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How to cite this article: Ruseva, P. (2016). Comparison between have and you can have/ you must have/ you will have as structures conveying inducement in the BYU-BNC classroom language. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 9(3), 133-152. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2016.9.3.9

 

 

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[1]This article is published with funding from project RD-08-143/08.02.2016, Scientific Research Fund of Shumen University, Bulgaria.