Expressions of Future
in Present-Day English
A Corpus-based Approach
By Ylva Berglund
November 2005
Uppsala University Press
ISBN: 9155462480
194 pages, 6" x 8 ¾"
$57.50 Paper Original
This is a Ph.D. thesis. This corpus-based study of the use of expressions of future in English has two aims: to examine how certain expressions of future are used in Present-day English, and to explore how electronic corpora can be exploited for linguistic study. The expressions included in the discussion are five auxiliary or semi-auxiliary verb phrases: will, 'll, shall, going to, and gonna.
The study examines the patterned ways in which the expressions are used in association with various linguistic and non-linguistic factors. The linguistic factors investigated are co-occurrence with particular words and co-occurrence with items of particular grammatical classes.
The non-linguistic factors examined are medium (written vs. spoken), text category, speaker characteristics (age, sex, social class, etc.), region and time. The data for the study are exclusively drawn from computer-readable corpora of Present-day English. Methodological issues related to corpus-based studies in general are discussed in the light of the insights gained from the study.
Language Studies
Studia Anglistica Upsaliensia, No. 126
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