Modal Verbs Research Articles

Presenting grammar through Internet memes in teaching English for specific purposes

The article discusses the potential of using Internet memes in teaching a foreign language. We consider an Internet meme to be a set of semiotic signs. This approach explains the potential of Internet memes application in educational process since most of the language learning methods rely on semiotic elements. Internet memes are multimodal structures that can be used as an efficient tool for presenting material in teaching English. Memes are classified into verbal, nonverbal and complex ones (combining image and verbal element). A set of sample memes presenting the combination of images and verbal elements has been selected to demonstrate the process of meaning making, which is an integral part of mastering a foreign language. Due to the importance of visual perception in learning process and the very nature of Internet memes as widespread forms of expression and communication existing in visual format, the use of them if beneficial for both teachers and learners. The elements of the sample memes are analyzed in terms of Roland Barthes’ theory of image narrative potential. We provide the evidence that anchorage and relay functions of linguistic messages account for the process of meaning making. In terms of semiotics the effects of text and image combination are examined in detail. Special attention in the article is given to the ways of memes application and the effectiveness of their use in the in-class and out of class learning process for practicing a grammar phenomenon of modality. Memes demonstrate a modal construction in the situation close to real life providing a sample of using it in context and provoking imitation of real-life situation by student. The humorous effect inherent to Internet memes is aimed at achieving a reaction from numerous addressees, thus making memes an efficient tool for teaching/learning a foreign language due to an expected feedback. Special attention has been paid to Internet memes containing constructions with modal verbs expressing irony and paradox. The article provides tools of teaching English modals via memes as well as experiment results and their analysis. The study reveals positive results of the experiment in terms of efficiency of using Internet memes in educational process that demonstrates better results in learning new material as well as a higher level of students’ involvement and creativity.

Study of English Grammar Teaching Practice in Senior High School under the Background of New Curriculum Standards

The English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools (revised in 2020, 2017 edition)(hereinafter referred to as the "New Curriculum Standards") advocates a three-dimensional dynamic grammar view of "form-meaning-use", which is oriented by language application. Under the guidance of thematic meaning, English grammar teaching in high school can try to start from the four levels of "introducing the theme, exploring the grammatical form", "exploring the theme, identifying the grammatical form", "expanding the theme, exploring the grammatical rules", and "sublimating the theme, applying the grammatical rules", so as to enable students to understand, analyze, summarize and use the grammatical rules in the context of the theme, and cultivate their comprehensive language application ability. Therefore, this paper expounds the basic principles that should be followed in grammar teaching practice under the background of the new curriculum Standards, and designs a teaching case of modal verbs in senior high school English grammar based on this principle, so as to explore the combination and application of the basic principles in the teaching of new curriculum standards and senior high school English grammar teaching.

Modal Verbs in Sustainability Reports by the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford

This article presents and discusses a study on modal verbs in sustainability reports that are communicated online by the University of Cambridge (UC) and the University of Oxford (UO) in the United Kingdom. The study is based upon a contention proposed by Fløttum (2010), who posits that modal verbs are used in sustainability discourse as micro-linguistic means that are involved in a range of pragma-communicative strategies. Following Fløttum (2010), the present study seeks i) to establish the frequency of the occurrence of the so-called “central” modal verbs, i.e. can/could, may/might, must, shall/should, and will/would and ii) to identify their involvement in the programa-communicative strategies in the sustainability reports by UC and UO. The sustainability reports by UC and UO were analysed in the computer program AntConc version 4.0.11 (Anthony, 2022) in order to compute the frequency of the central modal verbs. Thereafter, they were analysed qualitatively to establish their relationship with a range of pragma-communicative strategies that were employed in the sustainability reports by UC and UO, respectively. The quantitative computer-assisted analysis indicated that can and will were the most frequent modal verbs in the UC’s and UO’s sustainability reports. However, the qualitative investigation demonstrated that can and will were associated with different pragma-communicative strategies in the reports. The findings were further discussed in the article.

DEONTIC MODALITY IN GHANAIAN PENTE-CHARISMATIC SERMONS

The linguistic analysis of sermons has in recent times attracted some attention in linguistic research. Notwithstanding, studies on language use in sermons have predominantly examined the style of individual preachers but with limited attention to linguistic resources on deontic modality. To fill this gap, the present study examines the linguistic resources employed in expressing deontic modality in selected Ghanaian Pente-Charismatic sermons. It is theoretically underpinned by the Register Theory propounded by Halliday (1989) and Biber and Conrad (2009). The study is a qualitative case study that purposively sampled twenty Pente-Charismatic sermons delivered by three Ghanaian preachers namely Apostle General Sam Korankye-Ankrah; Bishop Charles Agyin-Asare and Bishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams. The findings reveal that modal verbs are used to make declarations and admonish listeners on various Christian principles, lexical verbs are used dominantly in the form of action verbs to construe preachers as powerful people who instruct congregants on their Christian obligations while auxiliary verbs are used to support the main verbs to emphasise various actions in the sermons. Phrasal verbs, adverbs, and clauses on the other hand are insignificantly used to enable the preachers to convey their messages in plain language that would be understood by their audience. This paper extends the scholarship on register analysis of sermonic discourse by focusing attention on Pente-Charismatic sermons, a context underexplored in the literature. It also illustrates the communicative implications that underpin the use of various forms of deontic modality in sermonic discourse. The study therefore has implications for the register theory and studies on language use in sermonic discourse.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0056/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF MODALITY IN THE COVID-19 ADDRESSES BY PRESIDENT AKUFFO ADDO

<p>This study aims at investigating the most used modal verbs and their semantic implications on the <em>COVID-19 addresses</em> delivered by Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, the president of the Republic of Ghana. In all, 96,784 running words were culled from thirty (30) presidential addresses to build a specialised corpus for the study. Using the Antconc corpus software, 3.5.9 version, five (5) modal auxiliaries, that is, epistemic and non-epistemic (root) modal verbs were found to constitute the most frequently occurring modals in the <em>presidential COVID-19 addresses</em>. The analysis revealed five (5) thematic areas which these modal verbs covered - willingness, possibility, prediction, ability, and probability. These thematic areas give an indication that the president showed more commitment to dealing with the pandemic. This was evidenced by the number of times the president used non epistemic modal verbs which demonstrate ability, willingness, and possibility in handling the coronavirus pandemic. Again, the corpus revealed that the president’s measures were on the back of some form of his existing knowledge in dealing with the pandemic.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0056/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Trends in the Expression of Epistemic Stance in NIH Research Funding Applications: 1985–2020

AbstractWe report on changes in the expression of epistemic stance in competitive funding applications—that is, applicants’ confidence and certainty towards knowledge and beliefs. We analysed abstracts describing all projects funded by the US National Institutes of Health during the period 1985–2020 for 140 stance features. Trends that we identify indicate that applicants adopt a stance less cautious and less tentative, and increasingly confident, optimistic, and promissory. This is evidenced, for example, by a consistent decline in weak possibility/probability, as expressed by modal verbs (e.g. may, might, should), by epistemic status verbs (indicate, seem) and adverbs (e.g. possible, probable, perhaps); and an increase among features that convey certainty, importance, and empiricism—for example, status verbs (e.g. demonstrate, establish, reveal), and adverbs that emphasize frequency/degree (usually, widely, almost). We argue that (i) these shifts are best understood in relation to increasing salesmanship and structural and cultural shifts within the research ecosystem, and (ii) trends in this dataset are better analysed at the level of individual features, rather than at the level of metadiscoursal categories.

A Corpus-based Analysis of Modal Auxiliaries of William Golding’s Novel “The Lord of Flies”

A Corpus-based Analysis of Modal Auxiliaries of William Golding’s Novel “The Lord of Flies”

POSSIBILITY TREND of 'CAN' AND 'MAY' AS MODALS: A SEMANTIC ORIENTED STUDY

This article tackles the notion of possibility of the two central modal verbs 'can' and 'may' in English. It starts to introduce 'can' concentrating on its possibility sense. It sheds light on how linguists present the various aspects of meanings of 'can' especially Palmer (1990). It also introduces 'may' as a polysemous modal verb. So 'may' could be regarded as an epistemic and root possibility verb at the same time. There is involvement of certain steps to distinguish the ambiguous senses of 'may'. In negation, 'may' affects the proposition. Ultimately, it shows that both 'can' and 'may' share a feature of similarity and certain features of difference especially the theoretical and factual possibility difference where 'can' expresses 'theoretical possibility' and 'may' indicates 'factual possibility' sense

The creativity and limitations of AI neural machine translation

Abstract This study examines the performance of the neural machine translation system DeepL in translating Shakespeare’s plays Coriolanus and The Merchant of Venice. The aim here is to explore the strengths and limitations of an AI-based English-Chinese translation of literary texts. Adopting a corpus-based approach, the study investigates the accuracy and fluency rates, the linguistic features, and the use of various methods of translation in the Chinese translations of Shakespeare’s plays conducted via DeepL. It compares these to the translations by Liang Shiqiu, a well-known Chinese translator. The study finds that DeepL performs well in translating these works, with an accuracy and fluency rate of above 80% in sampled texts, showing the potential of the use of neural machine translation in translating literary texts across distant languages. Our research further reveals that the DeepL translations exhibit a certain degree of creativity in their use of translation methods such as addition, explicitation, conversion and shift of perspective, and in the use of Chinese sentence-final modal particles, as well as Chinese modal verbs. On the other hand, the system appears to be limited in that a certain amount of translation errors are present, including literal translations.

Grammaticalization and Lexicalization: A Discourse Analysis of Modality Expressed in English and Romblomanon in Classroom Interaction and Conversation

The Romblomanon language profoundly influenced the learning process of acquiring English as a second language. In this study, the researcher focused on how Romblomanon learners expressed modality in English, which can be defined by grammaticalization (mood, tense, aspect, among others) and lexicalization (modal verbs, modal adverbs, modal adjectives, among others). Romblomanon modality can also be expressed in three universal semantic roles: agent, theme, and location. This study used the qualitative discourse analysis method using the descriptive and contrastive approach to identify English and Romblomanon modals expressed in actual classroom interaction and conversation of Romblomanon students. The recorded conversation and interaction from the two subjects of the students majoring in English enrolled at Romblon State University-Romblon Campus were transcribed and analyzed based on their epistemic and deontic meanings. Results showed that many Romblomanon English learners constructed their statement in Romblomanon and translated itno literally to English statements. It was concluded that the Romblomanon English learners are deeply influenced by their native tongue, resulting in the misuse of modality.

DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING GERMAN MODAL VERBS TO ECONOMICS STUDENTS

Modal verbs are an important chapter in learning German. The paper presents how the modal verbs are thought to the economics students in our university, emphasizing the common mistakes of the students and possible measures the teacher should take in order to diminish the number of learning mistakes. The first part of the paper deals with the theoretical background, thus being such a difficult subject for the Romanian student, the paper brings up even the conjunction differences on this subject, dealing with different verbal tenses in the German grammar. The second part of this paper presents a text full of modal verbs, in different tenses, the students are asked to recognize them. In the paper I will show the mistakes the students usually make and the proportion of the right answers at this task. The following part deals with different exercises, in order to conclude the mistakes and the proportion of the right answers at this challenge. The final part shows the conclusions of this study that reflects on the results of the conducted measurements. The modal verbs play an important role in facilitating an efficient and understandable communication pattern in the society and therefore, they form significant aspect in the human language. Modal verbs add to the text precision and clearance in its meaning.

Unrealized speech of A.P. Chekhov's characters in the aspect of family communication

The article presents an analysis of fragments of unrealized speech of A.P. Chekhov's heroes in the texts of novels and short stories written in 1888-1904: "Women", "Wife", "Neighbors", "Fear", "Black Monk", "The Story of an unknown person". Typical ways of introducing unrealized speech into the author's context are revealed. In the course of the study, it was found that unrealized speech conveys the innermost thoughts and emotional state of the main characters, being an important factor for understanding the essence of many events that occur in the adult life of A.P. Chekhov's characters. Unrealized speech is a significant component of the text that contributes to the correct interpretation of a particular situation that is associated with the family communication of Chekhov's characters. Unrealized speech, internal in nature, has an extra-verbal reason why it cannot be expressed verbally. In most cases, such a reason is the emotional state of the character, represented in the Chekhov text by a description of facial expressions or gestures, an out-of-speech situation that does not allow you to express the programmable so as not to offend the other. Analyzing fragments of stories from this period of Chekhov's work, representing family communication, one can come to the conclusion that unrealized speech actualizes the internal speech situation in the texts under study. Typical ways of transmitting unrealized speech are improper-direct, direct or indirect speech, thematic speech in the author's narrative is less common in this function. A typical input for unrealized speech is a modal verb with the meaning of desire or expression of will + an infinitive with the meaning of speech activity in a construction with a contrastive conjunction: I wanted to say, but ...; I wanted to say, but ...; I wanted to answer, but... etc.

Morphosyntactic and semantic properties of Romanian modal verbs putea and trebui

The paper presents some key aspects related to the semantics of Romanian modal verbs putea, ‘can’/’may’ and trebui, ‘must’, focusing mainly on identifying the interaction between these verbs on the one hand and temporal and aspectual marking on the other. It is shown that certain temporal relations are associated with certain modal flavors. These interactions are better understood by teasing apart two distinct temporal anchors (the temporal perspective, i.e. the time of the modal evaluation), and the temporal orientation (i.e. the time of the event introduced by the lexical verb). Certain patterns emerge: for instance, deontic readings are associated with future orientation, epistemic interpretations are associated with present temporal perspective etc. Non-episodic contexts are shown to resist such generalizations.

MODALITY AS A TOOL OF AUTHORIAL PRESENCE IN PAKISTANI ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS

This study explores how modality is used in editorials related to Covid-19 from two Pakistani newspapers, to establish the author's presence in the text. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 50 editorials, and a concordance tool was employed to categorize the data. Modal verbs and other linguistic elements with modal meanings were analyzed using the interpersonal metafunction, as per Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics. The findings indicate that editorial writers predominantly employed modal verbs of prediction such as 'will' and 'would' when discussing the pandemic, and generic phrases were frequently used to express an objective, explicit orientation of modality. The fact that predictive modals are utilized in editorials implies that the main aim of the writers is to forecast upcoming occurrences. Additionally, the study found that the editors from both newspapers showed an equal interest in finding solutions to the pandemic by using obligatory modals such as 'should' and 'must'. It was found that the editors employed various linguistic techniques, including modality, in their editorials with the aim of impacting and molding the way readers view the pandemic. Keywords: modality, authorial presence, modal expressions, modal verbs.

Epistemic Modal Verbs in the Field of Linguistics and Literature: A Corpus-Based Study

Epistemic modality, a linguistic category, particularly deals with the interactive dimensions of various discourses. Epistemic modality in broad terms can be defined as any modal system that indicates the degree of assurance of what a speaker says. The present study identifies and analyzes the epistemic modal verbs EMVs in the dissertations of linguistics and literature. For this purpose, two sub-corpora of Ph.D. dissertations from the fields of linguistics and literature were constructed. The concordance tool AntConc3.5.8 was used to analyse the selected modal verbs. The most frequent epistemic modal auxiliaries used in both disciplines were found to be may, would and could. Interestingly, the EMVs were deployed by the researchers of linguistics more than twice as much used by the researchers of literature.

A cross-sectional investigation of the use of modal verbs in Chinese EFL learners’ English writing

This study, based on a corpus of Chinese EFL learners’ writing, has investigated their use of modal verbs at levels 1 to 7 according to the China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE). The results of quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that: 1) Chinese EFL learners at CSE levels 1-7 use more modal verbs in writing than native learners in MICUSP; 2) they consistently overuse CAN, WILL and SHOULD but underuse WOULD in their writing across levels; 3) salient forms and fundamental senses of modal verbs are the most recurrent in writing at CSE 1 to 3 levels and learners’ use becomes more productive and variant at higher levels; and 4) form-meaning pairs seem to exist--the past affirmative and negative forms and their associated senses are rare in Chinese learners’ writing. Cross-register variation and structure complexity may account for the absence of some modal verb forms in learners’ writing.

Types of Causative Verbs in English, Their Forms and Usage in Different Contexts

Causative verbs are an essential part of the English language, allowing speakers to describe the act of causing something to happen. This paper provides an overview of causative verbs in English, their various forms and uses, and some common misconceptions about their usage. The paper also explores how causative verbs can be used in different tenses and how they interact with modal verbs. Finally, the paper examines the use of causative verbs in passive voice constructions.

An analysis of impoliteness as the oppositional discourse in the Nigerian #EndSARS protest

ABSTRACT This study investigates the possible application of impoliteness strategies to discourse on the 2020 Nigerian #EndSARS protest on Twitter. Examining impoliteness strategies employed in tweets and comments on the #EndSARS protest in Nigeria, identifying the most used impoliteness strategy(ies) and contextualising identified strategies remain the study’s preoccupation. The data, drawn from 350 tweets to 100 tweets and 250 comments with the hashtag #EndSARS, are descriptively analysed based on the tenets of Culpeper’s anatomy of impoliteness. The findings of the study reveal the presence of five impoliteness strategies in tweets and comments with the hashtag #EndSARS with no manifestation of off-record impoliteness. It is found that face threatening acts (FTAs) are both culture- and context-specific; membership categorisation and impoliteness strategies especially bald-on-record and negative impoliteness work hand in hand to produce the full effect. The study establishes further that the interplay of prior knowledge and actual situation knowledge gives rise to bald-on-record impoliteness while also noting that conjunctions, adverbs, and modal auxiliary verbs depending on their manner of application are capable of triggering impoliteness. The study, therefore, concludes that context, together with turns preceding and succeeding any turn construction unit (TCU), are strong determinants of impoliteness in any discourse.

Directives in COVID-19 government guidance: An international comparison

The importance of language to changing public behaviours is acknowledged in crisis situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A key means of achieving these changes is through the use of directive speech acts, yet this area is currently under-researched. This study investigates the use of directives in the 2020 COVID-19 briefings of four leaders of English-speaking nations, Jacinda Adern, Boris Johnson, Scott Morrison, and Nicola Sturgeon. We developed a classification system including 16 directive types and used this to compare directive use across these four leaders, examining directness and forcefulness of directive use. The analysis finds Sturgeon to be the most prolific directive user and also to have the highest reliance on imperatives. Johnson, meanwhile, has a preference for directives involving modal verbs, particularly with first- and second-person pronouns. In contrast, Ardern and Morrison show a higher use of indirect directives, normally thought to be a less effective strategy. While Ardern often combines this strategy with judicious use of imperatives, this is not seen in Morrison's COVID-19 briefings. These findings tend to confirm earlier, more impressionistic evaluations of the communication styles of these leaders but also suggest other avenues for research on directive use. We conclude with implications for political crisis communication and analysis of directives in crisis communication.

Agree and the subjects of specificational clauses

AbstractThis article investigates agreement in Persian sentences with a specificational copular clause embedded under the epistemic modal tavānestan ‘can’. We argue that this structure is a raising structure. It exhibits agreement on both the embedded and modal verbs. Crucially, while the subject fails to control agreement in the embedded clause, it successfully controls agreement on the modal. We argue that the subject's failure to form an Agree relation in the embedded specificational clause is due to its defective feature structure, resulting in agreement with the lower noun phrase instead, this being an accessible goal as well. In the matrix clause, the lower noun phrase is inaccessible, due to the presence of an intervening domain boundary. This triggers probe reduction, a process that impoverishes the feature structure of the probe, expanding the set of possible goals to include the subject. We extend this analysis to subject agreement in simple specificational clauses in languages like English.