Defamiliarization through modality of discourse: Waiting for Godot

Since political discourse portrays politicians’ knowledge state and their ideological assumptions, a critical analysis of Clinton’s speeches may unveil her perceptual and conceptual worlds. More specifically, critical discourse analysis may uncover her mental representations about the Tunisian Revolution and the US attitude towards such an important political event in North Africa and the Middle East. Studying factive presupposition and epistemic modality seems to be an effective pragmatic tool to reveal what is presented as factual and ideological knowledge in political discourse. The research instrument used to work out the frequency distribution of these lexical features is the latest version of ‘AntConc’ software. To uncover the epistemic state of Hillary Clinton, van Dijk’s (1995b) socio-cognitive approach, mainly discourse-cognition-society paradigm, is applied to analyze her speeches between January 2011 and December 2012. At the discourse level, research findings reveal that factive presupposition, epistemic modality and evidential verbs unveil the speaker’s strong personal commitment to the truth value of her propositions. At the cognitive level, results show that the speaker’s personal and social values, attitudes, ideologies and knowledge unmask her mental mapping of Tunisia, democracy and human rights. It also uncovers the cognitive mechanisms that govern discourse production and understanding via ICMs, cognitive frames, mental models and context models. At the social level, research demonstrates that Clinton's perceptual and conceptual worlds are based on a dichotomy that involves ‘WE’, or democracies Vs. ‘THEY’ or the enemies of democracy, hence a dual vision of the world or polarization. This research bridges the lack of research combining epistemic presupposition, epistemic modality and evidentiality within a socio-cognitive framework

Dictionaries are increasingly making use of corpus data or, at least, of secondary sources based on them. This has brought about a revision of the concept of the standard of usage and changes in modality of lexicographic discourse, first in general-purpose explanatory dictionaries and later in dictionaries of usage. The paper analyses Oxford Fowler’s Modern English Usage, registering the markers of frequency in its entries expressing modal meanings other than “statement of fact” for epistemic modality and modal markers expressing deontic modal meanings, taking into account high and low modality in both types. The findings have revealed that the balance is decidedly in favour of epistemic modality, while in both types of modality it is in favour of low modality markers. The data show that some epistemic markers of frequency referring to high probability or likelihood of occurrence have functions opposite to those in academic discourse beyond lexicography, where they are used primarily as hedges. This allows us to conclude that genre (or type of discourse) and context are the decisive factors in establishing the meanings and functions of modality markers.

The article reveals linguistic aspect of modality in modern math discourse in English, critically outlines a number of actual problematic issues in the area, such as the distinction between epistemic modality and evidentiality marked by formal logics philosophical grounding. General reference to previous scholarly activity in math modality research proves that it is largely based on propositional aspects of meaning. The math text corpus analysis aims to extract a set of modalities that are indispensable for formulating modal deductive reasoning. However, from a linguistic perspective academic math discourse requires natural language premise selection in the processes of mathematical reasoning and argumentation. It is presumed that two different self-attention cognition layers are focused at the same time on the proper classical symbolic logic and mathematical elements (formal language), while the other attends to natural language. Defining the semantic meanings of math discourse modality markers involves the interpretation phase. Thus, objectivity is generally associated with evidential adverbs which are markers of the evidence verification concerning the speaker’s assessment of the truth value of the proposition. Modal auxiliaries of high, medium and low modality, semimodal verbs and conditionals involve ascribing a justification value in the set of possible logical inference making. The formal logical structure of mathematical reasoning explains the non-intuitive possibility of a deductive proof. It has been grounded that a linguistic category of modality in math discourse indispensably presupposes the universal truth of knowledge, high level of logical formalization in propositional verification status, formulaic nature of the argumentation, i.e. synthesis of hypothetical preconditions, theoretical knowledge and subjectivity of reasoning leading to a new hypothesis verification and visual exemplification of the empirical deductive processes in particular by linguistic means of modality expression.

: This is a pragmatic study of the use of the items of epistemic modality in a literary discourse with the main aims to identify, analyze and describe the ways the items of epistemic modality are used. Their contextual meanings, functions, and implication to the pedagogical attempts are also unfolded. The results of the interpretative and descriptive analysis reveal that the items of epistemic modality are found to be very dominant which also suggests that the genre of narrative fiction is linguistically characterized by the utterances that are established on the basis of knowledge and reasoning. The items of epistemic modality are found to be polysemous and polyfunctional which are reflected pragmatically in the forms of politeness, negotiative and constructive functions. All these lead to the acknowledgement that the use of the items of linguistic modality in literary discourse and their usage for language teaching in the applied linguistic contexts is worth conducting.Keywords: pragmatics, Linguistic modality, Epistemic modality, Pedagocical implication

Modality is a semantic medium that colors the way the language user views the world around him/ her in terms of certainty, necessity and obligation; hence, it places extra effort on the translator while attempting to capture modalistic shades of meaning. The task may become more challenging when the translator is dealing with a language pair where modality is grammar-oriented in one member (English, for example) and lexis-oriented in the other (Arabic, for example). The present paper aims to investigate the rendering of speaker participation in the speech event as embodied in modality when translating English fiction into Arabic. In particular, it will examine the corpus of two sets of data involving past modality (modal + have + past participle) extracted from two English novels which will be compared with their counterparts in the Arabic translations. Four main issues will be discussed. The first is to see whether the distinction between epistemic and deontic modality is maintained in translation. The second is to check whether the translators are sensitive to the import of modality in discourse as manifested in the speaker’s attitudes toward what is happening. The third is to check whether English modalized propositions are sometimes erroneously rendered into modality-free Arabic propositions. Last, the study discusses the Arabic modality markers employed to capture past modality. Both a quantitative account (focusing on form and function) and a qualitative analysis (focusing on adequacy of translation procedures) are furnished.

Modality is a semantic medium that colors the way the language user views the world around him/ her in terms of certainty, necessity and obligation; hence, it places extra effort on the translator while attempting to capture modalistic shades of meaning. The task may become more challenging when the translator is dealing with a language pair where modality is grammar-oriented in one member (English, for example) and lexis-oriented in the other (Arabic, for example). The present paper aims to investigate the rendering of speaker participation in the speech event as embodied in modality when translating English fiction into Arabic. In particular, it will examine the corpus of two sets of data involving past modality (modal + have + past participle) extracted from two English novels which will be compared with their counterparts in the Arabic translations. Four main issues will be discussed. The first is to see whether the distinction between epistemic and deontic modality is maintained in translation. The second is to check whether the translators are sensitive to the import of modality in discourse as manifested in the speaker’s attitudes toward what is happening. The third is to check whether English modalized propositions are sometimes erroneously rendered into modality-free Arabic propositions. Last, the study discusses the Arabic modality markers employed to capture past modality. Both a quantitative account (focusing on form and function) and a qualitative analysis (focusing on adequacy of translation procedures) are furnished.

Modal verbs expressing epistemic and deontic modality can be used as discourse markers to implicate the authors’ attitude to the propositional content (doubt, certainty, hedging). Based on English modality framework, this paper discusses the uses of modals in expressing author’s attitude in Romanian and Serbian scientific discourse (social sciences and humanities) and compares these uses in the two languages.

This study focuses on the development of epistemic modality, with particular attention to how French children evaluate the conditions of use for modal expressions marking certainty and uncertainty. Sixty children aged four, six and eight were shown films involving verbal interactions in which a target speaker accused another of having performed a deed. The analysis examine children's responses during a subsequent interview in which they were asked to attribute an epistemic attitude of certainty/uncertainty to the target speaker as a function of three factors: (a) whether he had witnessed the deed; (b) whether his accusation was modalized by the verb croire ('think/believe'); and (c) whether the accusation was true or false. The results show that the four- and six-year-olds attribute certainty more often than the eight-year-olds. This dissymmetry is accompanied by a developmental progression in children's conceptions of these modal categories, which change from a 'realistic' conception (mainly based on truth/falsity) at four years to an increasingly metalinguistic and relativized conception thereafter.

This article investigates epistemic modality in political discourse. It focuses on modality markers in terms of their word classes, semantic meanings and discourse functions in political speeches. The data were taken from three speeches delivered by the 23rd Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The results show that the markers found in the three speeches are of five different types, i.e., lexical verbs, modal adjectives, modal adverbs, modal auxiliary verbs and modal nouns, with meanings ranging from possibility, probability, to certainty. The markers also indicate the speaker’s commitment whose degree reflects the function in the social context. The speaker’s commitment is divided into three degrees of engagement, each of which serves as a means to be polite, to be diplomatic, and to be persuasive. The findings suggest that Trudeau tends to use reasonable judgment expressions to sound diplomatic and persuasive in his speeches.

This article investigates epistemic modality in political discourse. It focuses on modality markers in terms of their word classes, semantic meanings and discourse functions in political speeches. The data were taken from three speeches delivered by the 23rd Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The results show that the markers found in the three speeches are of five different types, i.e., lexical verbs, modal adjectives, modal adverbs, modal auxiliary verbs and modal nouns, with meanings ranging from possibility, probability, to certainty. The markers also indicate the speaker’s commitment whose degree reflects the function in the social context. The speaker’s commitment is divided into three degrees of engagement, each of which serves as a means to be polite, to be diplomatic, and to be persuasive. The findings suggest that Trudeau tends to use reasonable judgment expressions to sound diplomatic and persuasive in his speeches.

Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality: Conceptual and Descriptive Issues presents ground-breaking research on the domains of evidentiality and epistemic modality. The book includes papers on key theoretical issues (the nature of evidential inference and the challengeability criterion for evidentiality), and descriptive studies covering various European languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Romanian, Catalan and Latvian), based on general corpora or specific discourse types. The prominent corpus-based contrastive methodology uncovers a wide range of idiosyncratic discourse-pragmatic features of diverse languages, discourses and genres. The contributions are representative of the work on evidentiality and epistemic modality in a substantial number of countries.

This essay is an opinionated exploration of the constraints that modal discourse imposes on the theory of assertion. Primary focus is on the question whether modal discourse challenges the traditional view that all assertions have propositional content. This question is tackled largely with reference to discourse involving epistemic modals, although connections and parallels with deontic modals and conditionals are noted along the way. The essay also discusses the impact of the idiosincrasies of modal discourse on the theory of assertion. The first topic in this thread is whether the relevant fragment of modal discourse is subject to some of the norms of assertion that are ordinarily invoked for nonmodal discourse. The second topic is whether theories of assertion that focus on the effects of assertions on context must be viewed as fundamentally disjunctive in order to capture the distinctions between modal and nonmodal assertion.

Discourse and interactional functions of the Japanese modal adverb Yahari/Yappari

The article deals with the specific features of the English theological discourse and various interpretations of this term. The first part of the article emphasizes lexical peculiarities of theological texts and semantic-structural peculiarities of theological texts. In the second part of the article the authors draw a distinction between the terms “modality of theological discourse” and “mode of theological discourse”, sharing the viewpoint of T.V. Shmelyova in favour of the term “mode of theological discourse”. The definition of the concept of "mode of theological discourse" and the classification of modes are based on the works of the British theologian John Macquarie. By describing in detail, the characteristics of some of the modes, the authors draw the reader’s attention to the use of empirical mode not only as a specifically theological mode, but also for the description of acute global problems that came to the attention of theologians, such as the destruction of the environment as a result of anthropogenic factors. The theme of ecology in theology – eco-theology – is a new direction in the study of the English language of theology.

Sounding convincing in order to convince ‒ this simple strategy seems to come in handy for politicians trying to win over the electorate. Strong epistemic modality, which allows politicians to express a great degree of commitment to the truth of the utterance, pervades political discourse in general and parliamentary discourse in particular. The aim of the paper is to examine the linguistic devices employed to express certainty and commitment, i.e. to study strong epistemic modality systematically in the UK parliamentary language. The examination is carried out on strong epistemic adverbs, verbs, nouns and adjectives both quantitatively and qualitatively, and some reflections regarding their use in the Labour and the opposition discourse are presented. The results point to a relatively strong presence of strong epistemic modality in parliamentary discourse and light is shed on the ways it is used in this type of discourse.