The symbiosis of choices and control: Toward a discourse-based account of can

Drawing on data from academic counseling encounters, this article argues that a semantic account of the modal can must take into consideration its discursive purposes and sequential positions in interaction. Instead of imposing pre-conceived classifications of meanings, we examine the situational and conversation-structural forces that motivate the use of can. Our objective is primarily a methodological one of providing a conceptual tool for understanding can and of detailing our interpretive processes. In an effort to build a modal semantics of can that is grounded in situational, interactional, as well as grammatical details, we propose a tripartite interpretative framework which consists of the grammatical co-text of can, the sequential organization of talk, and ethnographic background.