1. Analyze the language of three different academic and professional contexts (health sciences, journalistic and literary criticism) in order to detect possible variations in the use of epistemic or deontic modality.

2. In which of these types of discourse modal verbs are used mostly in their epistemic / deontic meaning?

Epistemic modality, on the one hand, implies that the speaker assesses “the probability that the proposition is true in terms of the modal certainty, probability or possibility” (Downing & Locke, 1992: 382), as in It may be the case that ..., Results might change if certain conditions ..., or The concert must be over.

Deontic modality means that the speaker “intervene[s] in the speech event by laying obligations or giving permission” (Downing & Locke, 1992: 382), as in One must look into this matter in detail..., or Shall we negotiate peace now?

• Health sciences contexts:

1) If all cells that harbored HIV could quickly be destroyed in this manner, the virus might be cleared from the body.

2) What's more, the immune system, in killing off infected cells, may play a significant role in its own destruction.

3) On the basis of these findings, researchers have developed theories on how HIV might indirectly destroy nerve tissue.

4) This process will allow for the identification of those measures which hold the most promise of moving the field forward and of critical gaps that persist in the HIV HRQoL measurement arena.

5) Most clinicians would probably agree that this amount of difference would be a clinically significant difference.

• Journalistic criticism contexts:

6) As it is, the shower of Grammies and BPI awards that Telboy earned from his 1987 debut album now seems a long time ago, and he finds himself in what must be a slightly uncomfortable midpoint.

7) 'What you did that evening in Mrs. Longden's flat was a disgraceful exhibition of uncontrolled bad temper which split over into the commission of a crime for which you must be punished.'

• Literary criticism contexts:

8) The effort of accurate transcription involved must have been heroic. But exactly what the utility of the exercise was I, for one, have never understood.

9) If we want to understand America, you must realize that the greatest love is this homoerotic passion, which is in some ways as strong, though also as sublimated, as Dante's love for Beatrice.

10) There's a famous essay by Mark Twain, which is called 'The Literary Offenses of Fenimore Cooper", in which he points out that Cooper couldn't build a novel. His structures are pitiful; he couldn’t write dialogue.

11) It is, one may think, a relief that more records do not remain, since if they did, and if McKenzie transcribed them as assiduously as he does those for 1696-1712, his history of the press would run to 120 quarto volumes.

12) In a superficial and simplified way (which reaches, nevertheless, as far as we might wish to extend it, and with all of the nuances which are considered necessary), literature is a product of human activity ...

13) And this takes me back to my beginning, which will also be my end.

14) But I would like to take this as far as possible.

Questions for Self-Control

1. Give the definition of modality and its types.

2. What are the main groups of modal meanings?

3. What are the ways of realization of modal meanings?

4. Comment upon the adjacent to modality categories.

TOPICS FOR SELF-WORK

TOPIC 1. Notion of Discourse and its Features

1. The Definition of Discourse Analysis and its Features.

2. Criteria Used to Qualify a Written Text as a Discourse.

3. Historical Backgrounds of Discourse Analysis.

4. Dimensions of Discourse and Fields of Discourse Studies.

5. Conversation Analysis.

6. Discourse Grammar.

7. The Future of Discourse Studies.

1. The Definition of Discourse Analysis and its Features.

Most linguists and most grammars have been exclusively concerned with the analysis of isolated sentences. Yet, both theoretically and especially empirically, this restriction to the sentence boundary has led to several important problems.

• First of all, it appeared that many properties of the sentence, not only morpho-phonological and syntactical, but above all semantic and pragmatic, cannot be adequately accounted for without taking into consideration structures of other sentences in the discourse or conversation.

• Secondly, it was shown that sentence sequences have important linguistic characteristics of their own, such as connection, coherence, topics and changes of topics, turn taking systems in conversation, and so on.

• Thirdly, it was shown that language use should not only be accounted for in terms of sentences or even in terms of sentence sequences, but also in terms of more embracing units, namely texts or discourses as a whole.

• And finally, several of the levels and dimensions of discourse analysis do not properly belong to linguistics or grammar, but should be described in terms of theories of narrative, style, conversation, rhetoric, etc. In other words, a more adequate linguistic theory should pertain to sequential and textual structures of utterances, and should be connected with other theories which account for certain properties of discourse and language use.

Thus, a new cross-discipline appeared. Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is the branch of linguistics that deals with the study and application of approaches to analyze written, spoken or signed language.

The objects of discourse analysis—discourse, writing, talk, conversation, communicative event, etc.—are variously defined in terms of coherent sequences of sentences, propositions, speech acts or turns-at-talk. Contrary to much of traditional linguistics, discourse analysts not only study language use 'beyond the sentence boundary', but also prefer to analyze 'naturally occurring' language use, and not invented examples. Originally the word 'discourse' comes from Latin 'discúrsus' which denoted 'conversation, speech'. Since its introduction to modern science the term 'discourse' has taken various, sometimes very broad, definitions. Though the accurate and conventional definition of the “discourse”, which will cover all the cases of its usage, does not exist, it is mainly characterized as “written or spoken communication or debate” or “a formal discussion or debate”. There is no agreement among linguists as to the use of the term discourse in that some use it in reference to texts, while others claim it denotes speech which is for instance illustrated by the following definition: "Discourse: a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often cónstituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke, or narrative". On the other hand Dakowska, being aware of differences between kinds of discourses indicates the unity of communicative intentions as a vital element of each of them. Consequently she suggests using terms 'text' and 'discourse' almost interchangeably, though keeping it in mind that the former refers to the linguistic product, while the latter implies the entire dynamics of the processes.