An Analysis Of Modal Operators In Tourism English Texts

Modality refers to a person’s asserting or denying attitude toward the possibility, impossibility, contingency, or necessity of the content. In functional linguistics. Halliday regards it as an important factor in interpersonal metafunction, and upgrades it into a system, which includes modalization. modulation, modality orientation, and value of modality. The realization of modality in functional linguistics mainly depends on the application of finite modal operators, modal adjuncts and metaphors of modality. Finite modal operators are one of the most effective tools to realize the modality function in interpersonal relationship. Tourism text, a specialized text which contains mass of tourism information, tries to set up grand interpersonal relationship with potential tourists. And this aim largely will depend upon the appearance of the finite modal operators in the text.Whether the finite modal operators in Sanya official tourism website have played their function in arousing the tourists’interest to come and take a trip is a key question that this thesis attempts to answer. By setting up a corpus (163,250words) to compare the finite modal operators used in the British official tourism websites and Sanya official tourism websites, the thesis is dedicated to find out the difference and the similarities in them with a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies.What has been found from the comparison is listed below:it is calculated that the total number of modal operators in Britain Publicity Materials is more than that in Sanya Publicity Materials. British official websites use more modal operators with low value (can), while Sanya and Hainan official tourism websites use more modal operators with median value(will). Low and median value modal operators (can, will, may, could) are used more than high value modal operators(must). And among the low and median value modal operators, the positive forms are used more than the negative forms.British official websites use can to express the greatest respect to the potential readers, at large extent permit what they can do in the scenic spots. Can from British and Sanya official websites is more inclined to express inclination rather than probability, proposal rather than prediction. And the mood of can is suggestive and persuasive, and in most situations, the subject in the sentences is’you’. The usage of may and might in British and Sanya official websites are similar, most of which are for probability, but the latter expresses the less uncertainty. So is must, the usage of must in British and Sanya official websites are for obligation. As a modal operator with high value, besides it is used to express compelled necessity, it also can be applied to mean confidently strong recommendation.The frequency of would occurs in Britain Publicity Materials is much higher than in Sanya Publicity Materials. Britain people use would to express politeness more than Chinese people. The frequency of could occurs in Britain Publicity Materials is twice more than that in Sanya Publicity Materials. Could in Britain corpus tends to imply that the possibility that the service or privilege would be provided or the advice the tourist would take is quiet little, therefore they are used to express more respects to the tourist. While could in Sanya corpus mainly is used to be the past tense of can for the recall of the past event or past prediction. Should, a model operator with median value, in Britain Publicity Materials mostly convey kind reminding or convincible advice, but in Sanya publicity materials, the tone of should sounds harsh and serious, revealing an obliged necessity. The ’need’ in Britain Publicity Materials is often used as a serious command or requirement or to present harsh attitude while the ’need’ in Sanya Publicity Materials.presents to be action verb or noun rather than modal verb and sounds more gentle and softer.The suggestion for the standard of modal operators in the Sanya publicity materials is listed below: more modal operators should be used to express the respect to the foreign tourists; the usage of could should be enriched; the mood of should should be softened in the texts since it is only a modal operator with median value. The usage of need in the tourism texts should be more formal and careful, because it is a modal operator with high value, it can not be applied in the kind or gentle suggestion.This thesis is made up of five chapters. Chapter one introduces the background of research, as well as the purpose and methodology of the study; in chapter two, there is a brief introduction of the research of modality in China and abroad and publicity materials. Chapter three illustrates the modality theory, its classification, and its realization in functional linguistics. Chapter four analyzes the usage of eight finite modal operators from Britain and Sanya corpus respectively, explains the difference and put forward suggestion for the perfection of Sanya publicity material. Chapter five summarizes the findings of the study, its implication as well as its limitation and future expectation.