Modality And Dramatic Conflicts In Thunderstorm

This dissertation is a detailed analysis of the unmarked modality used in the classic drama, Thunderstorm by Cao Yu. The dissertation starts with the introduction of research of modality done by linguists from the formal and functional perspective respectively and takes the functional research of Halliday, M. A. K. as the basic theoretical framework for the following analysis of modality in Thunderstorm. A literature review of the research of Chinese modality is done to find the meeting point of the research of modality in both Chinese and English in order to carry out a logical application of foreign theory of modality to the study of Chinese texts. The application of linguistics research of modality in stylistics and the researches of theme and dramatic conflicts of Thunderstorm are also introduced to provide this dissertation a solid foundation. The personality conflict and social position (power and solidarity) conflicts are displayed through the statistic data and the analysis of the use of modality by different characters in Thunderstorm.