The modals of possibility and permission in Standard English varieties of England, Scotland, and the United States: A study in dialectal variation

Variation in modal usage among Standard English varieties has been found in corpus studies of British English (BrE), American English (AmE), and Australian English (AusE) (Coates & Leech, 1980; Ljung, 1996; Collins, 2007, 2009). In addition, elicitation and case studies of Standard Scottish English (St ScE) (Brown & Miller, 1975; Brown & Millar, 1980; Miller & Brown, 1982) have documented divergence between St ScE and the Standard English of England (St EngE), including the near absence of may from St ScE. The current study investigated variation in the use and connotations of the modals of permission and possibility ( may, might, can, and could ) in St EngE, St AmE, and St ScE through interviews and written questionnaires administered to 14 American, 11 English, and 15 Scottish students at universities in Washington, DC, Leeds, and Edinburgh. The study found dialectal differences in the use of may and non-modal expressions, and will emerged as an additional modal of possibility for some Scottish and English respondents. In all dialects, the modals of possibility were not found to differ by degree of likelihood, while the modals of permission were strongly marked for style.