Phraseology and Culture in English

Particularly local they might just do something. Yeah. I might 
The overall pattern that emerges from the concordance search of might just
then, suggests that this cluster is used to indicate certainty especially in the 
context of juxtaposing different possibilities of behaviour. However, there 
is one other prominent pattern which occurs when might just is followed by 
be. In these instances, which amount to a total of 13 occurrences, just re-
tains non-compositional meaning of ‘only’ or ‘simply’, as is shown in the 
following concordance lines: 
eed look= It might only be something simple it might just be she needs em pills for for er her
ask her. Because it might not be a problem. It might just be because it’s like the first Sunday
mean cos he’s thinking about retiring. But that might just be because he’s ill rather than beca 
Oh that might just be personal preference though.
works or anything. I thought it might just be cos that. I mean it does s 
We could argue then that the pattern it might just be is a cluster in itself, 
one in which the modal items might and just retain their meaning, while the 
cluster might just outside of this construction tends to take on an additional 
meaning of certainty in expressing future actions. 
In terms of contextual categories, might just occurs 29 times in the inti-
mate category (0.0029%), 34 times in the socio-cultural (0.0019%), 5 times 
in the professional (0.001%), 20 times in the transactional (0.0017%) and 6 
times in the pedagogic (0.0013%). Since the CANCODE categories vary in 
size, the figures above are expressed as a percentage in brackets following 
the number of occurrences. Considering the degree of determination and 
certainty expressed by might just, it is maybe not surprising that it is most 
commonly used in contexts where the distance between the speakers is at a 
minimum (i.e. in the intimate category). This is followed by the socio-cultural 
context, in which the relationship between the speakers is still marked by 
informality and often by directness. It is interesting to note that this modal 
cluster is used least in the professional context, where interactants are gen-
erally more on their guard and where it may be construed as inappropriate 
to voice strong opinions or emotions. The number of occurrences in the 
transactional category is remarkably high considering that the interactants 

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Definitely maybe: Modality clusters and politeness in spoken discourse 
265
in this category do not usually know one another prior to the conversation 
taking place. However, it may be the case that the fleeting nature of service 
encounters allows for a more expressive way of conveying information. 
5.1.2. Could possibly
The modal auxiliary could occurs 7,723 times in the CANCODE corpus 
and as such accounts for 0.16% of the whole corpus. Could carries a down-
toning function in requests and in terms of recurrent phrases, this modal has 
been discussed as a stable part of an indirect request following the pattern 
of ‘Could + you + verb phrase’. As such, it functions as part of a request in 
discourse (Aijmer 1996; Brown and Levinson 1987). Other common 
phrases include the syntactic structure ‘Personal Pronoun + could + verb 
phrase’, as in the following example “So maybe I could pick you up from 
work”. Here, could is used to minimise the imposition of a suggestion and 
acts as a general marker of convergence between speakers. Another mean-
ing is the past simple tense of can, but a randomised sample of 100 in-
stances indicates that this meaning only accounts for 12% of all occur-
rences. As a modal auxiliary verb, could can be used to express both 
deontic and epistemic modality. In the example “I mean I have work that I 
could be doing”, could implies a possibility and refers to the nature of the 
obligation involved. On the other hand, in the utterance “That could be a 
good plan”, could is used in an epistemic context, as it hedges the truth 
value of the proposition. 
The adverb possibly occurs 360 times in the CANCODE corpus. It is 
mainly epistemic in nature as it denotes degrees of certainty / uncertainty, 
as in the following example “I interact with all levels of staff which is pos-
sibly why I end up doing you know ending up…”. It is also used to add 
emphasis to statements, usually in the context of achieving a particular 
goal, as the following utterance illustrates: “I mean it is a fact that you give 
the best you possibly can er at the lowest possible cost.” In 17 cases, out of 
a random sample of 100 instances, this meaning carries a negative semantic 
prosody (Sinclair 1996), as in the following utterance from CANCODE: 
“They stink. I don’t understand. How can men possibly give back some-
thing that smells this bad?” 
There are 35 instances of the cluster could possibly in the CANCODE 
corpus and 4 instances of possibly could. It is interesting to note that in 31 
out of 34 instances could possibly expresses certainty and adds emphasis, 

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Svenja Adolphs
rather than functioning as a politeness marker or hedging device. This pat-
tern is illustrated in the following concordance lines: 
d watch videos in there. Everything that you could possibly want in a 
was brand new but it was the cheapest you could possibly find. It was the chea 
it at the same time. It’s the worst place you could possibly be ill like+ Mm. 
very unlikely one the kind of worst case we could possibly imagine was if if all of the sto 
the only other you know sort of suggestion I could possibly make is supposing we put in 
it sounds awful for the life of one child you could possibly save the lives of hundreds of 
It should be noted that two of the instances in which could possibly is used 
to express politeness occur in the context of pedagogic meta-discourse on 
politeness markers. 
In 20 out of the 31 examples where could possibly functions to add em-
phasis to an opinion / statement, there is a clear negative semantic prosody 
as the following concordance lines illustrate: 
t’s not long-term like. There’s no way in hell I could possibly live in Switzerland for the res 
I just don’t get it. I don’t understand how it could possibly be a good night. 
I just don’t get it. I don’t understand how you could possibly have a good time at 
it at the same time. It’s the worst place you could possibly be ill like+ Mm. 
very unlikely one the kind of worst case we could possibly imagine was if if all of the sto 
It can be noted then that the cluster could possibly does not retain the 
meaning of ‘possibility’ that is displayed by the modal verb could when it 
occurs outside of this cluster. Rather, could enforces a particular slant of 
the meaning of possibly, which is that of certainty and emphasis. As such 
the cluster takes on a particular meaning and function in discourse and is 
not merely an accumulation of individual modal items. As can be seen from 
the concordance output above, the use of this cluster in the CANCODE 
corpus is often part of a hyperbolic expression, i.e. “There’s no way in hell..”, 
“the worst place..”, “the worst case..” etc. Hyperbolic expressions are a regu-
lar feature in spoken discourse. In their examination of hyperbolic expres-
sions in the CANCODE corpus, McCarthy and Carter (2004) argue: “Ex-
amination of hyperbole in interactive contexts also underlines the expressive 
and interpersonal meanings foregrounded in its use: intensification, humour 
and banter, empathy, solidarity, antipathy, informality and intimacy, along 
with evaluative and persuasive goals, are all recurrent features” (2004: 28).