Social changes through the lens of language: A big data study of Chinese modal verbs.

PLoS One · 2022 · PMC8726480 · PMID 34982791

Europe PMC DOI

hedged sentence

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closest p

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boldest claim

The sentences

a clear trendno p-value reported

In other words, the English language showed a clear trend of moving from modal verbs that require high-low power relations and demand high levels of obligations.

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Quoted from the open-access full text in Europe PMC under the licence the publisher applied. The sentence is reproduced exactly as published; the emphasis is ours.