A Comparative Analysis Of The Use Of Modals In Identification Strategies From The Perspective Of Identification Theory

As an influential form of public speaking,campus speech attracts celebrities from different fields to address student audience for the purpose of influencing and inspiring the youth.This research,combining Burke’s identification theory and the study of modal verbs,tries to compare the identification strategies and the related modal verbs employed by American and Chinese celebrities to achieve identification with students.Altogether 16 campus speeches,delivered by American and Chinese celebrities in English,are chosen as subjects of this study.UAM Corpus Tool is applied to annotate the use of modal verbs and the distribution of identification strategies.Based on the annotated data,the similarities and differences in the use of modal verbs in identification strategies are presented and discussed in a descriptive and qualitative way.Study results show that,in general,the identification strategies employed by American and Chinese speakers follow very similar patterns.Identification by sympathy is the most commonly used strategy,followed by identification by antithesis and by inaccuracy.This result agrees with Burke’s view that identification by sympathy is the most commonly used strategy.Moreover,in identification by sympathy and by antithesis,identification is largely achieved and manifested by epistemic modality(possibility/prediction/necessity)in speeches given by both Americans and Chinese.This shows that both American and Chinese speakers rely heavily on subjectivity to convey ideas and share feelings with student audience.However,Chinese speakers use more “predication” to express epistemic meaning,but Americans tend to apply “predication” and “possibility” in a balanced way,which indicates that Chinese speakers show less diversity in their choice of modality.Similarly,identification by antithesis and by inaccuracy is largely achieved by employing dynamic modality,and the higher percentage of “ability” than “volition”shows that both Americans and Chinese speakers,when faced with student audience,prefer to emphasize action and competence rather than wish or request to encourage and inspire them.As for the use of modal verbs,both American speakers and Chinese speakers apply epistemic “will” most frequently to relate to the students’ future.In theprocess of achieving identification by antithesis and by inaccuracy,“can”(ability)is used more frequently than “will”(volition),thus impressing and motivating students with ability rather than with verbal requests.As for the differences,American celebrities tend to apply “could” and “must” to achieve epistemic effect while Chinese speakers use “may” and “should” with a higher frequency.This difference suggests that with similar identification intention,Chinese have a tendency to choose low or medium value modal verbs while Americans use medium or high value modals.The low value modals show politeness and give audience enough space to accept,but it also implies the speaker’s lack of confidence and assertion in the propositions.As for use of high value modal verbs in “necessity” and “obligation”,Chinese speakers tend to emphasize personal duty and subjective initiative with “should”,while American speakers highlight objective necessity by using “must”.Moreover,the large proportion of negative form in dynamic modality in all speeches reveals that the speakers know to seek identification or unity with students by setting up a real or imaginary common enemy.However,Americans more often choose the negative form of dynamic “can” to express negation whereas Chinese like to use dynamic “will”.Considering the characteristics of student audience,the denial of their ability can provoke and motivate students to challenge a common enemy,thus achieving more effective identification by antithesis.It can be concluded that when Chinese celebrities give speeches to students,they demonstrate the capability of using identification strategies similar to those used by native speakers.In the process of achieving identification,there exist some differences in the choice of modals.On the whole,Chinese speakers rely more on low or medium value modality,presenting a slightly more moderate,less assertive image as a speaker of English.