고려대학교

초록/요약

This study investigates the epistemic modality hierarchies of negative modal auxiliary verbs and the role of the past tense form in L1 and L2 English. Negative epistemic modal auxiliary verbs such as can’t or wouldn’t express certain degrees of certainty or doubt of a situation described (Coates 1983, Huddleston and Pullum 2002, Larsen-Freeman and Celce-Murcia 2016, Palmer 1990). This study presents the epistemic modality hierarchies of six negative modal auxiliary verbs in L1-English speakers (n=28) and Korean L2-English speakers (n=67), and explores the non-temporal role of the past tense form of the modal verbs. Based on the data from the certainty judgement task, we have got four major findings. The first finding is the epistemic modality hierarchy of negative modal auxiliary verbs in L1-English, which differs from the one of the previous studies (Larsen-Freeman and Celce-Murcia 2016). The second one is the epistemic modality hierarchies of negative modal auxiliaries in two groups of Korean L2-English learners (high, n=30, and intermediate, n=37) different at the proficiency level. The third finding is that the past tense form of the modal auxiliaries significantly lowers the level of certainty of the non-past form in L1-English. The final finding is that the Korean college students have difficulty with the certainty degrees of won’t and wouldn’t and with the certainty-lowering role of the past tense form. Based on these findings and the analysis of the English textbooks of the secondary schools, this study makes some suggestions for teaching the English modal auxiliary verbs.