期刊名称：Revista Virtual de Estudos da Linguagem - ReVEL
电子版ISSN：1678-8931
出版年度：2007
卷号：5
期号：8
出版社：Gabriel de Ávila Othero
摘要：Modality and English modals have been largely discussed in the literature. Basically, scholars have focused on three main issues: the nature of modality, the formal system and the meaning. Among these issues, meaning seems to be the most controversial point, with many different ways to categorize and define the same modal verb. In this paper I will concentrate mainly on the uses of can as well as on a discussion about monosemantic or polysemantic approaches in relation to its meaning. An analysis of the subsenses of can in two monolingual English-English dictionaries will be carried out in order to exemplify different readings of the same modal verb.
