Text Modality

in Discourse
Analysis
 Modality to Frawley and Charles (1992) modality is ”a
According
semantic phenomenon, expressing the attitude and state of
knowledge about a proposition”

 Halliday (1985) presented modality means the speaker’s

judgment of the probabilities, the obligations or so on, involving
in what he/she is saying.

 Modality, according to Palmer (1986), is defined as semantic

information associated with the speaker’s attitude or opinion
about what is said. He gave the point of the fact that modality
concerns the factual status of proposition.

 According to Searle (1969), belief of the speaker or commitment to the

fact of proposition. He agreed that directives and commissives are
related to deontic modality while expressive, assertive and
declaratives have the relationship with epistemic modality.
 Themain carriers of modality are a set of
auxiliary verbs called modals: will, would, can,
could, may, might, shall, should, must and
ought to. Modality is encoded in various other
expressions, too: possibly, probably, have
(got) to, need to and be able to. 

 For examples,
 a. You must apologize. ( obligation)
 b. You can come in now. (permission)
 c. She’s not able to see you until Tuesday.
(feasibility)
 Modal verbs

 Low modality shows less certainty.

• I might leave early today.
• You could try to do it again.
• She may want to check the results.

High modality shows a high degree of certainty.

• I must leave early today.
• You will do it again.
• She has to check the results.
 Modality is expessed by Modal verbs ,
Adverbs and Adjectives
 Adverbs ( perhaps , possibly , possible ,
sometimes , certainly , definitely)
• Example:
 I could possibly go , perhaps I will go.
 She certainly didn’t feel any different .

Adjectives ( possible , probable , obligatory ,

necessary , required, determined , likely)
- It is the most likely event to occur.
Types of Modality

 “Epistemic” means “understanding” or

“knowledge”.
 Epistemic modality refers to the
degree of commitments by the speaker
to what he says – the extent to which
the truth of a proposition is possible.
Example

 Johnmay be in the office.

here explains for uncertainly/a possible
conclusion of speaker in the speculative
sentence through using the modal verb “may”.

 John must be in the office.

this degree here is the only possible
conclusion of speaker which is showed in
the word “must”.
 According to Palmer, there are two kinds of
epistemic commitment such as judgement and
evidential. About judgement, the creator relates to
possibility and necessity and the judgements appear
to be more “subjective” because the commitment
comes from the speaker’ knowledge or belief.
 Example:
 She is likely to be late.
 “likely” used to describe the commitment of
speaker. He think that “she” maybe goes to late and
maybe basing on the time the train run away.
 He believes that and that is his thinking in his mind.
So, it seems likely more subjective – not sure, not
exactly for listener.
 If “judgement” concerns of “subjective”, ” evidential”
relates to “objectively”. It is encoded the ground on
which a speaker makes an overtly qualified assertion
and represents a proposition more objectively.

 Ex: They say the match has been called off.

 It is clear that speaker has a particular evident to give
out his word. By using the third speaker, his word has
the higher belief.
 Therefore, when speaker does not ensure the truth of
what he/she says, he often chose one of four to say
what he is thinking:
 What speaker infer
 What speaker reasons
 What speaker is reported by another
 What speaker is felt by his/ her sense
 Wecan interpret these ideas by using
some sentences with:

I think that
 They say that
 It seems
 As a result
 Forinstance, “They say the match has
been called off.” “The math-called
off”- in the first listening, listener
perhaps think that there is no subjective
in this word. Specially, the speaker does
not show any commitments in his word
but only gives the problem by evident
“they say”. 
 Inshort, epistemic modality gives the
status of the speaker for the truth what
he says which is based on evidences of
judgments he takes.
Deontic
 Deontic contains an element of will,
concerning with actions rather than with
belief, knowledge and truth.
 necessity-based/ obligation- based.
 dimension of: obligation, permission,
prohibition, etc.
 Ex:
 – You mustn’t do it – it’s against the law.
 Through these examples here, we can see that
deontic can be characterized as necessity-based or
obligation-based.

 In the sentence, for instance, “you mustn’t do it –

it’s against the law”, it wants to say the
obligation of the action: “don’t do” – it is necessary
because if you do it, you will break the rules.
 Obligation and different degree of obligation can be
expressed by other verbs of adjectives as well. In
English, speaker can say “need to/ ought to/ have
to/ should/ can/ must/etc”
Example:
 You need to leave now => You will
leave. (You are obligated to leave now)
 It is necessary that you come in time.
=> You will come in time (It’s necessary
for you to come in time)
 There will have many grammatical types of deontic modality. The first type
consists of imperatives and directives “where we try to get people to do
things
Ex:
 You ought to leave now.

- It means getting listener to do action “leave”

Subjects must be compulsory, not deny or postpone the given request.

 Another type is commissives “where commit ourselves to do things” which

surface as declaratives since they concerned with action.
Ex: I will give you a hand.
 These sentences here present the undertaking of the speaker. However,
speaker cannot do the action in the future

 By explaining the above, epistemic modality is interested in the truth, the

belief of knowledge. In contrast, deontic modality is interested in the action.

For example:
 You should do your homework.
 You must do your homework.

- In these examples, the participants are urges as expressed by the

subjects of the sentences, to changing degrees, to form an action.
 Content-modality markers
 the speaker can give comment on the extent to which he believes that what he
is saying is true.
For example:
“To our surprise, he arrived home late.”

 In this example, speaker expresses his attitude on the extent “to our surprise” to
which he is saying. Here only has “our” – it means the limited field in someone
(consist of speaker and listeners staying in this time)

 In the content- modality markers, it is divided into two types and each type has
some words to indicate modality more easily. The first type is the degree of
belief:
Ex: Surely, he can solve his problem by himself.
- Express primarily a subjective view on the truth of what he is saying is
truth: certainly, admittedly, surely, undeniably, undoubtedly, unquestionably.
Ex: Clearly, he can solve his problem by himself.
 Markers of degree of convictions as open to objective evidence: clearly,
evidently, obviously, plainly.
 Ex: Technically, he can solve his problem by himself.
 Markers of reality or lack of reality in what is said: actually, officially, technically,
theoretically.
 Showing types of modality in
performing sentences
 This
study will present some points of view where modality is
shown in grammar system to perform a sentence with
complete meaning about epistemic or deontic modality.

 Form – modality markers

- the speaker can participate by offering his comment on the
form of what he is saying, defining in some way under what
condition he is speaking.
Frankly, I’m tired.
- speaker has a personal attitude for a person who both speaker
and listener know to give comment. We can see that epistemic
modality in this sentence because it shows the speaker’s belief
with the truth in the sentence.
 We have modal adverbs to make the form-modality
markers : frankly, confidentially, generally, honestly,
Personally, I don’t like your plan.
 The second type is comment other than on the truth value
of what is said.

- Without necessary implication that the judgement applies to the

subject of the sentence or indeed to the speaker.
Ex: Hopefully, John returned home yesterday.
-> John was hopeful in doing so
-> That someone else was hopeful as a result of John’s action.

 Other markers: annoyingly, curiously, funnily enough, happily,

hopefully, luckily, naturally, surprisingly
– With an implication that the judgement applies to the subject of
the sentence.
Ex: Wisely, John returned home yesterday.
-> The speaker considers the action as wise and he also considers
John wise for doing the action.
 Other markers: wrongly, rightly.
 Modality in subordinate clause
 Subordinate clause consists of nominal clause,
adverbial clause and adjectival clause. How do
we indicate modality in subordinate clause?
Ex: I believe that she did the right thing.
 The verb “believe” is a lexical verb, and it
expresses belief. The clause “that she did the
right thing” is a subordinate clause and shows
the belief about what.
 It presents the belief more than the action or it
is the epistemic modality. By this explanation,
the subordinate clause presents the proposition
whereas the main lexical verb indicates
modality.
 Modal lexical verbs
Palmer (1986) considered: “in some languages such as
English for one, there exist some “modal” lexical verbs with
complement clauses which can be used performatively to
indicate the attitudes and opinions of the speaker.” mostly verbs
with a 1st subject. For instances:

 I believe that he will become a good student. (epistemic)

“That he will become a good student” in the sentence is the
object of the main verb “believe”. This verb expresses the
thinking of the speaker. So, this sentence creates the epistemic
modality. It is the same the above example, we has another
sentence:
 I request you to clean your room immediately. (deontic)

- It is interested that the form of this sentence is the same the

form of the above sentence. “You to clean your room
immediately” is the objective of the main verb of the sentence
“request”. However, this sentence here brings the deontic
modality because it has the action’s concentration.
How to distinguish between epistemic modality and
deontic modality in modal words?
 English is a language which is rather rich in modal words,
especially modal verbs such as:“may, might, will, would,
should, must, ought to, need, can, could”.
 These verbs have a number of meanings, for example, the

verb “MUST” can express both epistemic and deontic

modality:
a. Heaven must be at work now.
 “must” expresses a strong commitment on the part of the
speaker to the truth of the proposition. (Heaven is at work.)
b. You must finish your homework before going to bed.
 It is about an obligation on the part of the person denoted
by you, the statement is about action to be accomplished.
(You do your homework.)
 For modal verbs in the past, deontic modality also is
also expressed in the past action.
Ex: “You should have gone to the meeting yesterday”
 Deontic modality is presented in the appreciation
with the action in the past. In this utterance, speaker
does not obligate listener to go to the yesterday
meeting, he only confirms that in the point before
the present time, listener was in the circumstance
which listener had to go to the meeting. Therefore,
we did the action which was a confirmation.
 In which general, we can admit the distinguishing
between epistemic modality and deontic modality
which is based on three 3 items: necessary, ability
and reality.