A Semantic Analysis of Quasi-Modals in VESAL 10:

A Study in Polysemy

Abstract

English modal verbs (both central and quasi-modals) have more than one interrelated meanings. This flexibility in meanings belongs to the polysemous phenomenon, in which it exposes the diversity of meanings within the same lexeme. Due to the importance of using modals in academic writing, this paper aims at analysing fourteen quasi-modals (henceforth QM) in (VESAL 10)[1], in the shed of the polysemous view. In its conference proceedings book, twenty-one academic papers have been published. QMs have their own importance in the academic atmosphere. They indicate the author's attitude towards any statement within the text. The researcher verifies the hypothesis by presenting the results of the analysis. The current paper aims at identifying the most frequent polysemy of QMs, examining the meanings and the functions of QMs, and presenting a frequency range of QMs in (VESAL 10). The paper ends up with findings that are inferred from the results of the study, where the (be to, need, need to, want to, and have to) are the most frequent QMs, while the (have got to, be supposed to, be bound to etc.) are the least common, since they have recorded zero frequency. Nevertheless, the most frequent meanings of QMs are (necessity, logical necessity, temporal meanings and obligation).