Modal verbs of strong obligation in Scottish Standard English

This article investigates differences between Scottish Standard English (SSE) and Southern British (SBSE) in the semantic domain of strong obligation. Focusing on modal verbs must , have to need (have) got we use new corpus material from nineteen written spoken genres component International Corpus (ICE-SCO) corresponding texts ICE-GB. Data are analysed using a mixed-effect multinomial regression model predict choice verb. Language-internal factors include mode production (written/spoken), grammatical subject (first/second/third person) source obligation (objective/subjective). Our results show that, as previous research suggests, SSE is much more likely employ for expression obligation, less . general pattern remains essentially unaffected by language-internal factors. To account our findings, draw sociologically motivated process democratisation grammaticalisation.