modality

Modality: expressing degrees of definiteness
Speakers and writers take up different positions about a range of phenomena. They may express a position about how probable or usual something is when giving or asking information. For example:
They are three possible reasons why deserts remain dry. (Probability)
How often does Penny’s brother smoke?
Or they may express different degrees of obligation or inclination when asking somebody to do something or making an offer. For example:
You must not trespass on school property.(obligation)`
Would you like a cup of tea? (Inclination)
Modality expresses strong, medium or weak positions and includes all of the choices between a definite ‘yes’ and a definite ‘no’.
Exercise 5.4
Read text 5.4 and 5.5. answer the questions which follow them. Text 5.4
School violence
There are a number of possible reasons for school violence. perhaps children who have problems at school or at home feel frustrated because they cannot solve their problems. They might not be able to talk to their teachers or parents and may sometimes feel that they have no friends. This frustration could possibly turn to anger and they may take it out on other people. Children who watch a lot of violent TV shows may think that violence is the way to solve problems. Adults may need to help these children to express their feelings in a peaceful way.
1.What is the main type of modality expressed in text 5.4? (Eg.
Probability, usuality, obligation, inclination)
2.Place a cross on the cline below to indicate how strong or
weak you think the position of the writer is.
Weak position Medium position strong
position
Text 5.6
Dear minister,
I believe that Australia must accept more refugees into the country. We have learned that recently there are many people who have had to leave their country because of war or their beliefs. They could not wait to get visas or stay in camps for many years so they risked their lives to come to Australia. They would not do this if they did not have to. These people need homes. We must help them to settle in to the country, not send them away. Please change your polices about refugees before it is too late.
Yours faithfully
Ming
1.What is the main type of modality expressed in text 5.6? (eg.
Probability, usuality, obligation, inclination)
2.Put a cross on the cline below to indicate how strong or weak
you think the position of the writer is.
Weak position medium position
strong position
Text 5.5 and text 5.6 express different degrees of probability and obligation about the information they include. As with types of clauses, the degree of modality chosen by speakers or writers is influenced by how they view their relative status, power,
commitment or expertise. For example, the writer of 5.6 has used a high degree of modality (must) in order to persuade the minister to act. this shows that he feels a high level of commitment to the information and that may be indicating to their readers that they do not have a high level of expertise and are willing to negotiate with other viewpoints.
Grammatical structures for expressing modality
Speakers and writers have a range of choices available to express modality. They may take a strong, weak or medium position and express this position in more or less direct ways. In chapter 4 we saw how grammatical structures such as verbs, adverbials, adjectival and nouns were used to tell us what’s going on in the text, i.e. To express experiential meanings. table 5.2 show how these structures can also express different position of the writer or speaker.
Another language resource for being forceful or tentative is to do with frequency ...
In the past families in Australia 1 ........................... had a roast dish for Sunday lunch. Dishes 2 ....................... consisted of meat with three boiled vegetables. 3 ..................... dessert would be served after the meal. These days 4 ......................... people enjoy a wider variety of meals from a number of different cultures. Previously, for example, people 5 ........................ ate muesli and yogurt for breakfast, but nowadays this is common. Most families in the 1950s would 6 ........................... eat out, but today many families 7 ................................ have dinner at fast food restaurants.
................................ People like ice-cream. ................................ Living things need oxygen to survive. ................................ People can hold their breath for several minutes. ................................ Dogs are afraid of the water. ................................ Experts agree that fluoride is beneficial for teeth. ................................ Men turn bold in their thirties. ................................ Kangaroos are marsupials. ................................ Mammals are marsupials.
In the past families in Australia 1 ........................... had a roast dish for Sunday lunch. Dishes 2 ....................... consisted of meat with three boiled vegetables. 3 ..................... dessert would be served after the meal. These days 4 ......................... people enjoy a wider variety of meals from a number of different cultures. Previously, for example, people 5 ........................ ate muesli and yogurt for breakfast, but nowadays this is common. Most families in the 1950s would 6 ........................... eat out, but today many families 7 ................................ have dinner at fast food restaurants.
................................ people like ice-cream. ................................ living things need oxygen to survive.
................................ people can hold their breath for several minutes. ................................ dogs are afraid of the water. ................................ experts agree that fluoride is beneficial for teeth. ................................ men turn bold in their thirties. ................................ kangaroos are marsupials. ................................ mammals are marsupials.
Being assertive and tentative
It’s going to rain tonight.
Discuss with a person next to you how could you put this statement in a most assertive/forceful way (to do with certainty). ……..
Now put it in a most tentative way (to do with uncertainty).
Modality is about how to avoid making ‘bald’ or ‘sweeping statements’ which can be easily challenged. That is, we need to
‘temper’ our statements if our claim is not ‘true’ in all cases.
The text on 8
Another way in which we can indicate degrees of certainty is to refer to the number of people or things involved - from the most definite (‘all’ or ‘none’) through to the least (‘some’ or ‘a few’). This will help us to av oid making ‘blanket statements’ or
‘generalisations’,e.g. ‘Everyone should exercise for an hour a day, and to help us modify our claims depending on the circumstances.
‘Absolute’, medium or ‘relative’?
None/no; certain; several; no-one; the majority of; a few; everyone; all;
Not many; a great number of; some; most;
…………………………… people like ice-cream. …………………………… living things need oxygen to survive.…………………………… people can hold their breath for several minutes.
………………………….. Dogs are afraid of the water. ………………………….. Experts agree that fluoride is beneficial for teeth.
………………………… men turn bald in their thirties. ……………………….. Kangaroos are marsupials. ……………………….. Mammals are marsupials.
We also can either intensify the definiteness with which we make assertions or we can tone down our statements by using certain modifying words before the adjectives (intensifiers).
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