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Chapter 4 - Are Comparative Modals Converging or Diverging in English? Different Answers from the Perspectives of Grammaticalisation and Constructionalisation

from Part I - Approaches to Grammatical Categories and Categorial Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2019

By
Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Edited by
Nuria Yáñez-Bouza ,
Emma Moore ,
Linda van Bergen  and
Willem B. Hollmann
Nuria Yáñez-Bouza
Affiliation:
Universidade de Vigo, Spain
Emma Moore
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Linda van Bergen
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Willem B. Hollmann
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
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Summary

In the last few years several papers have appeared on the synchrony and diachrony of the ‘comparative modal’ (had/‘d) better, inspired by Denison and Cort (2010), which pays particular attention to the rise of ‘bare’ better, as in You better go. Van der Auwera et al. (2013) provide extensive statistical analysis of British and American usage of ‘d better and its variants.

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Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax , pp. 105 - 129
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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