A Study Of Modality In Fictional Discourse

As a philosophical, logical and linguistic concept, modality has been the object of continual scrutiny since the time of Aristotle. In the domain of linguistics, modality generally, denotes a speaker's judgment of and attitudes towards his utterance. However, most of the past studies have treated modality as a notion associated with the meanings of modal auxiliary verbs.Since the late twentieth century, there has been a new interest in modality at home and abroad, and linguists, have conducted extensive research from various perspectives. Among them are the Systemic Functional linguists, represented by Halliday. They argue that modality is a subsystem of the mood system, having the function of realizing the interpersonal meanings of language. It is not only associated with modal verbs, but also with interpersonal metaphor, modal adjuncts, modal adjectives and modal nominal equivalents.Based on the theoretical framework of Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar, this paper ventures to investigate the linguistic representations, the frequency, the distribution and the function of modality in the fictional discourse, especially in the language of dialogues in fiction. It also attempts to provide a new perspective to get better understanding of the design of the language in fictional discourse.The results of the analysis show that the modality expressions used in the characters speech can help to disclose the relationship of the speakers and reflect the character's personality.The thesis falls into five parts. The introduction sets out the outline of the thesis. Chapter One reviews the history of modality studies in different branches. Chapter Two explains the theoretical background of the present research and presents some key issues of modality in Systemic Functional Linguistics. Chapter Three focuses on the analysis of the modality instances in the dialogues in the novel Native Son. Statistics and analysis are given to illustrate the frequency, distribution, value and metaphorical use of modal expressions. The conclusion generalizes the whole thesis and points out the significance of this study.