Peculiarities of modal verb constructions functioning in technical sublanguages

• Main Authors: Т. І. Борисенко, М. В. Кашуба, О. В. Мардаренко, М. В. Цинова
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Odessa I. I. Mechnykov National University 2015-04-01
• Series: Записки з романо-германської філології
• Subjects: модальні дієслівні конструкції; діференціальні та інтегральні ознаки; видо-часові та станові форми конституентів
• Online Access: http://rgnotes.onu.edu.ua/article/view/41487

This article is devoted to the study of modal verb constructions functioning in three technical sublanguages: Thermal Engineering, Electric Power Supply and Automobile Industry. The subject of this study is modal verb constructions (MVC) and their constituents foregrounded in sublanguages of technology. The aim of this study is to determine the characteristics of functioning of MVC in sublanguages of technology. Grammatical meaning of MVC constituens permits to determine not only the differential and integral features of the constructions within each of the three sublanguages, but also the parameters that apply to any text within the scientific functional style. The text sampling yielded 2458 modal verb constructions. All the MVC are represented by three main types: 1. modal verb (verbs to have, to be in a modal meaning) + passive infinitive; 2. modal verb (verbs to have, to be in a modal meaning) + active infinitive; 3. modal verb (verbs to have, to be in a modal meaning) + be + adjective. The studied sublanguages impose restrictions on the realization of grammatical categories, on the system of grammatical meanings of the verbs in the English modal verb constructions. All the constituents of the modal verb constructions in terms of their frequency, tense relation, realization of tense and voice, grammatical meanings of constituents of syntactic structures within the analyzed text samples exhibit their own specific characteristics. In all the sublanguages there is a tendency to use the first constituents of modal verb constructions in the present tense, which is predetermined by the specifics of the communicative act in the scientific and technical literature, which is characterized by a description of facts, objects and phenomena. The most frequent form is can, which is employed 1183 the recurrence of which is 5.19 times higher than of could. The preferential use of present tense forms of the first constituents of modal verb constructions may be considered as the norm for their realization in the texts of sublanguages of thermal engineering, electric power supply and automobile industry.