Abstract
This paper employed the qualitative research approach to investigate the use of epistemic modality (EM) in four selected inaugural speeches of ex-presidents in the fourth republic of Ghana. It was underpinned by the interpersonal metafunction in Hallidayan’s (1994) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) theory which dovetails into the concept of EM. The analysis was done with the aid of corpus-based computer software—AntConc. The findings revealed a preponderant use of modal verbs with a frequency of 165 representing 84.2% while lexical verbs occur 13 times representing 6.6%. Adjectives and adverbs are minimally used with a frequency of 11 and 7 representing 5.6% and 3.6% respectively. The findings also revealed that Ghanaian presidents in the fourth republic dominantly use high values of EM to present themselves as bold, confident, committed and forthright in their utterances. Additionally, they were also communicatively sensitive as they use tentative markers when addressing sensitive issues. The study bears implications for pedagogy, theory and practice as it boosts the concept of EM and its appropriate use in political discourse.
Highlights
Political discourse is a major discourse in every society because it has the capability to either hold together or disintegrate the society
From the corpus-based analysis of the data, it was found that the notion of epistemic modality (EM) in the selected inaugurals was coded by only four linguistic categories according to Halliday’s (1994) concept of EM
This finding corroborates Hoye’s (1997), who postulates that EMs are the most frequently used linguistic strategies by which political leaders especially presidents express their conviction or assessment of a proposition in terms of their truth-value or otherwise
Summary
Political discourse is a major discourse in every society because it has the capability to either hold together or disintegrate the society. Politics is generally considered as the use of language to organize people’s mind and reorient their opinions and beliefs about a subject/topic. It is for this reason that Wilson & Sperber (2001) postulates that a political discourse is a complex cross-disciplinary enterprise which explores the social, psychological, cultural, ideological and linguistic factors. It is a discourse that affects the ways political factors such as presidents convey social meanings and make rhetorical and linguistic choices in order to align themselves with the audience and to legitimize their ideological views and power status. Politicians are very careful in their choice and use of linguistic strategies/devices
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