ENGLISH MODAL <em>CAN</em> – CHANGES AND TENDENCIES

Abstract

Recent relevant literature (for instance, Leech 2003) noticed that English modals have been going through a period of restructuring during the recent decades, that is their frequency and uses underwent some changes. Starting from these assumptions, this paper analyzes the corpus with the examples from the American variant of the English language (the best-selling novel The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown) in order to determine the frequency and uses of the English modal can. On the basis of relevant literature, examples from the corpus are classified into four meanings (dynamic ability, epistemic possibility, deontic order/instruction and characteristic behaviour/feature). As expected, the largest number of examples from the corpus was classified into dynamic and epistemic meanings, while the other two meanings included only four examples each. In addition to the facts about the frequency of these meanings of the modal can, the analyzed sentences also pointed to the significance of certain components from the context for the classification into specific modal meanings, particularly when it comes to the border-line cases of dynamic, epistemic and deontic uses. Serbian translation equivalents were listed along with the English sentences, because they could contribute to a more comprehensive insight into the recorded modal meanings.