NEGATIVE MODAL VERB CONSTRUCTIONS IN THE TEXT CORPORA OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to describe the results of the analysis of modal verb constructions (MVCs) used with negative not in the texts of scientific and technical discourse. Although modal verb constructions are already presented both in classical textbooks and research studies in sufficient detail but for the first time they are examined on the basis of technical text corpora, in this article – “Heat Engineering”, “Automotive” and “Electrical Engineering”.

Methods. The following methods were used in the article: continuous sampling for compiling the text corpora; expert assessment for the correct attribution of a particular lexical unit to a specific area of scientific discourse or the lexical layer; “quantitative” mathematics to summarize, compare and generalize the data obtained.

Results. The results of a quantitative analysis of negative modal verb constructions showed that their distribution across the text corpora of three specialties is uneven: “Heat Engineering” contains 50 units, “Automotive” – 30, “Electrical Engineering” – 27 MVCs, but only 8 units that were found practically in all corpora entered the list considered. An analysis of the lexical meanings of the notional verbs (the second constituent of MVC) included in the MVCs was also made to find out if there is a dependence of intralinguistic factors on extralinguistic ones in the MVCs.

Conclusions. The study shows that there is a direct relationship between extra linguistic factors – the existence of certain processes, objects and phenomena of a particular technical field, and intralinguistic characteristics – lexical meanings (common, general scientific and terminological) of notional verbs that are included in negative MVCs. It was determined that in the texts of the specialty “Heat Engineering” these MVCs do not directly participate in describing the operation of technical objects or production processes, since notional verbs have common or general scientific meanings. But in the automotive industry texts, the lexical meanings of notional verbs refer mainly to the terminological layer, which shows their significant role in the direct description of objects, phenomena and processes in this technical field. From the viewpoint of the lexical meanings the notional verbs in negative MVCs in the specialty “Electrical Engineering” texts, they occupy an intermediate position between “Heat Engineering” and “Automotive”, i.e. here along with the units having general scientific meanings there are several terms.