The Use of Modal Expression Preference As a Marker of Style and Attribution

Can an author's preference for expressing modality be quantified and then used as a marker of attribution? This study explores the possibility of using the subjunctive mood as an indicator of style and a marker of authorship in Early Modern English texts. Using three works by the 16th century biblical translator and polemicist, William Tyndale, Canon establishes a predictable preference for certain types of modal expression. The theory of subjunctive use as a marker of attribution was then tested on the anonymous 1533 English translation of Erasmus' Enchridion Militis Christiani. Also included in this book is a modern English spelling version Tyndale's The Parable of the Wicked Mammon.

Elizabeth Bell Canon holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Georgia. She is currently Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse.