La distribuzione dei verbi modali in testi legislativi europei e italiani. Uno studio corpus-based sulla variazione intralinguistica di dovere e potere

Abstract

This study focuses on the distribution of modal verbs (dovere and potere) in EU and Italian legislative texts. The analysis of intralingual variation is led by comparing three legislative corpora belonging to the Eurolect Observatory Multilingual Corpus: Corpus A (EU directives), Corpus B (Italian implementing laws of EU directives) and Corpus C (Italian national laws). Quantitative data are discussed and exemplified in order to provide qualitative considerations related to the expression of obligation or necessity, prohibition and permission. Cross-corpora results show morphological variation between Italian Eurolect (Corpus A), EU-derived legislative Italian (Corpus B) and national legislative Italian (Corpus C) as far as the deontic modality is concerned.