“Must” As a Concept of Obligation and its Equivalences: A Semantic-Syntactic Study in the Performance of Iraqi University Learners of English | ||
| Journal of Tikrit University for the Humanities | ||
| Article 1, Volume 19, Issue 5, May 2012, Pages 522-545 | ||
| Authors | ||
| ; S. Othman | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Abstract The study aims at considering the meaning of obligation expressed by the central modal 'must' and its equivalences. The study tackles the syntactic and semantic uses of 'must' and its equivalences with respect to its occurrences in four types of sentence along with tense, aspect, negation and reported speech. The study aims at analyzing the occurrence of 'must' and its equivalences according to their meaning, i.e. interpreting their functions in the performance of the Iraqi learners of English. It is hypothesized that Iraqi university learners of English (IULE) consider the modal auxiliary 'must' as an indication of obligation only. Such learners consequently, negate this modal verb by inserting ‘not’ after it. They usually do not think of any equivalence might be used inseat of ‘must’ although some learners know that ‘have to’ can be used as an equivalence. The results suggest that the functions and meanings of ‘must’, i.e. obligation and necessity overlap and may be said to cohere rather than be distinguishable. This classification of ‘must’ is inefficient in practical communication, however, its use may vary according to variables such as subject matter, medium, attitude, and style. | ||
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