A Corpus-based Study On Modal Sequences In Conclusion Sections Of Research Articles

Research Articles have become one of the major channels for communicating the latest researches andviews among researchers in the world, and one of the major problems is how to convey statements with anappropriate degree of doubt and certainty. Therefore, the usage of modal expressions, especially modalverbs is important. In the last three decades, modal verbs have been researched by many linguists andscholars from different angles, however, most of the previous studies focus only on the logic meanings andthe semantic characteristics of modal verbs, ignoring the research of modal verb phrases. Conclusionsection as the ending part of RA is the essence of the whole study, while it has been generally considered asa part of discussion section and seldom studied by researchers. In this thesis, modal verbs and modalsequences will be studied from distributional perspective in conclusion sections of RAs.Data resources of this study were collected from two influential journals on applied linguistics,Applied Linguistics and Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics. The reference corpus of ALC includes36conclusion sections of research articles written by western scholars which published in a five-year periodfrom2005to2009. And31conclusion sections of research articles are selected randomly from ChineseJournal of Applied Linguistics written by Chinese scholars, which published in2010and2011. This thesisis a preliminary investigation into modal verbs, modality values and modal sequences in Conclusion sectionof RAs in order to find out the characteristics of modal verbs and modal sequences used by Chinesescholars. Through the contrast of the distribution of central modal verbs and modality values in ALC andCALC, the author finds that should is overused in observed corpus, while can is underused in theConclusion section of CALC.“may”,“could”,“might”,“would”,“will” and “must” does not havesignificant difference (p﹥0.05) in the two corpora. And then the proportion of low modality value in ALCis higher than that in CALC, while the proportion of high modality value is lower than that in CALC.Through concordance analysis of modal sequences in CALC, the author also finds that Chinese scholarstend to use the modal sequences of “VM+stative verbs” and “inanimate subject+VM” to conveyepistemic modality in CALC, it is accordance with the findings of Biber et al. However, there are somecharacteristics of modal sequences used by Chinese scholars. The majority of Chinese scholars avoid usingsome complicated patterns of modal verbs, such as “VM+deontic modality adverb”,“VM+perfect aspect” and “It+VM”. And Chinese scholars usually use students, teachers, researchers and learners as thesubject of modal verbs in the pattern of “animate subject+modal verb”, which related to the contents ofChinese Journal of Applied Linguistics.Meanwhile, this thesis also analyzed the interpersonal functions of modal verbs and modal sequencesunder the framework of Systemic-functional grammar. Low value modality occupies the largest proportionin ALC, the usage of low value modal auxiliary verbs in RAs indicates that the author leave a leeway totheir proposition and consideration of readers’ possible reflection. The author used low and median valuemodal verbs which expressed euphemistic mood to convey their attitudes and ideas to readers, and theuncertainty conveyed by median and low value modal verbs can reduce coerciveness to readers. Theproportion of high value modal verbs takes up5.2‰in CALC, higher than that in ALC. The writer assumesthe role of giving commands and put the readers in the role of one expected to obey orders or ideas if highvalue modal verbs are overused in RAs. Chinese scholars tend to use the modal sequences of “VM+stativeverbs” and “inanimate subject+VM” to convey epistemic modality in CALC, which are tightly related totwo levels of interpersonal functions in RAs. They are “scientific objectivity” and the principle ofpoliteness. At last, this thesis analyzed the possible reasons of the differences in using modal verbs andmodal sequences between western scholars and Chinese scholars. Firstly, negative transference of motherlanguage. Secondly, different principle of social cultures and values. Thirdly, avoidance strategy. Lastly, theinfluence of teaching materials in China.The present study enriches the analysis of modal sequence of conclusion sections in RAs. It may helpthem write effective conclusions in RAs in the discipline of applied linguistics. So their RAs might beaccepted by international journals easily.