Another Look at the Development of Epistemic Meanings in English: A Historical Collocational Approach

Abstract

This study examines the collocational pattern of modal verbs with adverbs to identify the rise of epistemic meanings in the history of English, with special emphasis on may well. The expression may well has been considered as the most problematic collocation. However, once comprehensive collocational patterns of modal verbs and adverbs are examined, may well turns out to be the most conventionalized collocation in terms of semantics and frequency. Adverbs play a crucial role in the semanticization of epistemic meanings and serve as a good indicator for determining the degree of epistemicity in modal verbs.