Studies On The Interpersonal Meanings Of Deontic Modality In Female Language In Moment In Peking

Halliday believes that modality can be regarded as the principal way to realize the interpersonal meanings and he divides modality into cognitive modality and deontic modality.Most scholars focus on the cognitive modality study and the deontic modality study can be considered as a new area. While at present, the scholars who study deontic modality always choose American dramas, English speeches and English contracts as discourses, the thesis chooses Moment in Peking as the discourse to study deontic modality in female language. And it also explores the main ways of female figures at that time to realize deontic modality and the main reasons of deontic modality. The thesis chooses dialogues between female figures to analyze the deontic modality in female language. Through the study, the thesis finds that in the aspect of value the female figures are more willing to choose the modal value words and high modal value operators to realize the deontic modality,in the aspect of orientations the female figures choose the implicit subjective and explicit objective modal orientation expressions more to realize the deontic modality. In this novel, the female figures utilize the words and sentences to express deontic modality. After studying the expressions, the thesis explores the main reasons, which include religion factors with Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism in it,the social factor with the social background influences, the social status of female at time and the different education. Just these factors cause the different ways to express deontic modality to realize the interpersonal meanings.