Abstract
The aim of the current study is to investigate the discoursal function of modality in presidential victory speech. The victory speech of Biden in 2020 has been selected as the data source in the present qualitative study. The data of this study has been attained through purposive sampling from ‘The Washington Post’. The analysis is restricted to clauses that are found in the speech by tabulated them and analyzing each type of modality. Modality is used as a linguistic system which reflects the social role, power, and the type of formality relationship. In addition, modality can reflect the speaker judgments toward certain topics. To this end, The Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) 2014 was adopted as a theoretical framework to study language structure and function. Major findings reveal that three types of modality were used in Biden’s speech. Inclination was used (20) times in the speech and probability was used (26) times, and obligation was used only (4) times. In addition, the fourth type (usuality) was not used in Biden’s victory speech.
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