From modals to modal constructions: An n-gram analysis of can, could and be able to
Résumé
The goal of this paper is to present the results of a corpus analysis aimed at identifying n-grams (i.e., lexical sequences) with the modals can , could and be able to . While details about the functional profile of these verbs are still being discussed (e.g., Leclercq & Depraetere 2022 ), it is surprising that relatively scarce attention is given to the lexico-grammatical patterns in which they are found and which come with their own semantic and pragmatic features. Using the methodology developed in Cappelle and Depraetere (2016b) , a total of 1,640 n-grams were extracted from COCA ( Davies 2008- ). A number of these patterns are discussed and, in keeping with the approach developed in Construction Grammar ( Hilpert 2019 ), it is shown that an enhanced understanding of these verbs can be achieved when viewed as part of more complex networks of constructions.