The force dynamics of adjectival deontic modality in the mediatised register of the fatwa: a corpus cognitive–semantic analysis

Abstract

This study offers new insights into how the cognitive–semantic analysis of adjectival deontic modality in the mediatised ‘fatwa’ register can be methodologically enhanced at both quantitative and qualitative levels. Drawing on the force-dynamics model originated by Talmy (1981 , 1988 ) and developed by Sweetser (1990) , the adjectivally modal expressions of obligation and permission have been investigated in an electronic corpus of fatwas (353,293 words in 1,440 texts). The research data is manipulated by the Wmatrix ( Rayson, 2003 ) corpus tool with a view to calculating the relevant modal keywords and generating their concordances; further, the interactive register analysis of the tenor in the fatwa discourse is provided in a way that ( i) facilitates the concordance reading of the adjectival keywords of deontic modality, and ( ii) examines the force dynamics underlying these adjectival keywords in terms of their modally interactive meanings. The study has reached three main findings. First, in the specialised corpus of electronic fatwas there are five keywords of adjectival deontic modality: obligatory, obliged, permissible, impermissible and forbidden. Second, the force dynamics of obligatory, obliged and permissible reveals enacting positive-compulsion with attitudinal variations of objective and subjective meanings towards real-world content (themes) and participants (questioner and questionee) in the mediatised register of the fatwa. Third, complementary to the second, the force dynamics of impermissible and forbidden reveals a set of debarring negative-restriction barriers of various forms, namely personal, collective, generic and topical, in the same fatwa register.