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The history of modals in English has played a prominent role in diachronic generative syntax (cf. Lightfoot 1979 and much subsequent work). There is some consensus that modals underwent a reanalysis at the beginning of the Early Modern English period, which changed their categorial status from lexical to functional. Accounts differ with respect to whether this recategorization involved a radical change from V to T or whether this transition was less abrupt in that modals were already categorially distinct in some way as compared to regular main verbs in the earlier history of English. In this chapter, we examine the diachronic development of the distribution of modals with respect to adverbs with the aim of evaluating these proposals. Furthermore, we show that quantitative data involving modals and adverbs provide new evidence for the dating of the reanalysis of the modals. |
