A Contrastive Study On Modality In The Discourses Of The Self-made And Other-made Prefaces To English Linguistic Works

A preface, as an important part of a book, is generally divided into the self-made prefaceor the other-made preface. It can impose an influence on a potential reader’s attitude towardsa book. Hence, a preface plays a significant role in promoting a book to the public. The theoryof systemic-functional grammar by Halliday assists us know how preface writers uselanguage to communicate with readers, express their own attitude and influence the readers’attitude and behavior. However, little attention has been paid on the systemic-functionalstudies on prefaces by scholars, and the relative research literature is quite scare. The thesisattempts to apply the theory into practice to make a tentative contrastive study on thelinguistic realizations of modality between the self-made and other-made prefaces to Englishlinguistic works. It aims to help people get a better understanding of the discourses ofprefaces to English linguistic works, especially the use of modal expressions in the prefaces toEnglish linguistic works. In addition, it is hoped that it may serve as a guide to the translationand writing of English prefaces.The ten self-made prefaces and the ten other-made prefaces to English linguistic worksare collected as the research samples. Based on Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar, thisthesis makes a focus on the two linguistic realizations of modality in the prefaces to Englishlinguistic works, namely modal operators and modal adjuncts. It first analyzes the distributionfeatures of the two modal expressions and then makes a contrast between the self-made andother-made prefaces to English linguistic works in the use of the two modal expressions.Finally, the distribution features and the differences in the two kinds of prefaces to Englishlinguistic works are explored further in terms of communicative purposes, generic structureand cultural factors.Through the study, it is mainly found that, firstly, in the self-made prefaces to Englishlinguistic works, the median modal operators mostly used explore the preface writer’sconfidence about what he or she predicts; adjuncts of modality are slightly highly used toemphasize the readability of the works. Secondly, in the other-made prefaces to Englishlinguistic works, the highly used low modal operators which are central to express probability favor the objectivity of the given information in the prefaces; adjuncts of intensity are moreused so as to highlight the authority of the works. Thirdly, there is no significant differencebetween the self-made and the other-made prefaces to English linguistic works in the use ofmodal operators and modal adjuncts. The common communicative purpose to introduce andpromote the works, the same generic structure of prefaces to English linguistic works and thesimilar politeness strategy to save readers’ faces and preface writers’ own faces may beresponsible for the insignificant difference.