A Feminine Discourse of Illness: Transformation and Modality

Abstract

In this chapter we will investigate how key concept and keyword analysis of the interviews with women may provide insights into feminine linguistic strategies and discursive styles. We will suggest that feminine strategies are characterised by a careful control over the modal resources of language that contributes to a discourse of transformation. ‘Modality’ is a term used to describe a speaker’s attitude towards the possibility, or necessity, of what they are saying; for example, if a doctor was talking to a parent about a sick child, and said ‘She must be sick’, ‘must’ conveys the idea that on a scale of possibility the child definitely is sick (given her symptoms) as compared with ‘she may be sick’ where this is less certain. If the doctor said ‘She really ought to be in bed’ this is a different kind of modal expression, indicating that it is highly necessary for the person caring for the child to take her to bed, as compared with ‘she might need to have a lie down’ which indicates a lower degree of necessity. Modality is therefore an important resource in language through which speakers communicate a perspective on the informational content of what they are saying as it indexes how far what they are saying is represented as being true or necessary.