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Profiling CAN and MAY: A comparison of two near-synonyms in Norwegian-English interlanguage

Benjaminsen, Sofie
(2019)

Files

SofieBenjaminsen_12531701_2019.pdf
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SofieBenjaminsen__12531701_2019_Appendix1.pdf
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SofieBenjaminsen_12531701_2019__Appendix2.pdf
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Details

Supervisors
Paquot, Magali ; Signe Oksfell Ebeling
Faculty
Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres
Degree label
Master [120] en linguistique
Abstract
enThis thesis investigates what characterises the use of two near synonyms, can and may, in the interlanguage of Norwegian advanced learners of English. Employing statistical testing on a high number of annotated sentences extracted from two comparable corpora of native English and Norwegian-English interlanguage, the thesis explores what characterises the two modal auxilliares not just in terms of meanings expressed, but also in terms of the linguistic contexts they occur in. It is concluded that the Norwegian learners and their native speaking peers use the modals in a surprisingly similarly in terms of semantics, but that the two groups differ in their use of can and may in terms of which grammatical contexts to a certain extent.