Modality Resources In Fairy Tales Discourse

Fairy tales play an important role in children’s early cognitive process and lay the foundation for children’s future socialization.Since its publication,Grimm’s fairy tales has been deeply loved by readers,especially children,and has become an indispensable part of people’s childhood memories and a well-deserved classic in the collection of fairy tales in the world.Modality,as a subsystem of interpersonal system,expresses the speaker’s subjective judgments,opinions and attitudes,and is an important way to realize the interpersonal function of language.In recent years,the number of researches on Grimm’s fairy tales is gradually increasing.However,investigations on the distribution characteristics of modality resources in fairy tale discourses are very limited,let alone studies on modality resources in Grimm’s fairy tales.This research focuses on Margret Hunt’s English translation of Grimm’s fairy tales and takes 30 fairy tales as research data,and builds a corpus.With the help of corpus software Ant Conc3.4.4W,this research combines quantitative and qualitative analysis methods under the framework of modality theory from the perspective of System Functional Linguistics.This study aims to explore the following research questions:(1)What are the distribution characteristics of modality resources in Grimm’s fairy tales?(2)How does the author of Grimm’s fairy tales use modality resources to construct the meaning of negotiation?(3)How does the author of Grimm’s fairy tales arrange the modality resources to achieve specific social educational functions?The findings are obtained as follows:(1)The total number of sentences in Grimm’ fairy tales database is 2254,while various modality expressions appear 2108 times,indicating that modality plays an important role in Grimm’s fairy tales;(2)The proportion of various modality expressions from high to low is: modal adjuncts(55.03%)> finite modal operator(43.26%)> expansion of predicator(1.52%)>metaphors of modality(0.19%);(3)In terms of modality types: modalization(57%)> modulation(43%),the proportion of each sub-item in descending order is:probability(48.56%)> willingness(25.82%)> obligation(17.18%)> probability(8.44%);(4)In terms of modality values,the proportion of each value in descending order is: median(52.5%)> high(27.1%)> low(20.4%),of which the median expression dominates,high value and low value expressions are similar in frequency;(5)In terms of modal orientation,the proportion of each modal orientation in descending order is: objective implicit(54.89%)> subjective implicit(44.92%)>subjective explicit(0.14%)> objective explicit(0.05%),among which subjective explicit and objective explicit expressions account for a large proportion.The above findings indicate that:(1)In fairy tales,modality plays an appraisal function and makes the text negotiable.(2)In terms of modal types,the fairy tale author mainly expresses his or her appraisal through probability and willingness.(3)In terms of modal orientation,the extensive use of implicit modality creates Grimm’s fairy tales that the narrative point of view is not a subjective emotional reaction of the author,but a representation based on factual judgment.This relative objectivity in expression makes the moral and aesthetic values preached by Grimm’s fairy tales easier for readers to accept,and contributes to the realization of its educational function.The fairy tale author hides his attitude through the use of objective and subjective implicit expressions,which makes the expression more polite,euphemistic,and objective modality can help the author avoid taking too much responsibility and increase the objectivity and credibility of the narration degree.While subjective modality can help authors take more responsibility for the authenticity or certainty of the proposition.(4)At the same time,modality is an important engagement resource,which can build and adjust the dialogue space.(5)In terms of modality values,the extensive use of median modality expressions shows a certain negotiation strategy.To a certain extent,they are willing to tolerate and negotiate with other voice,which opens up the dialogue space of the discourse and shifts part of the dialogue.Responsibility for evaluation leaves room for readers to express different views.High-value modal expressions are mainly used to convey the ideology and values of the mainstream social groups to which they belong to help teach children to distinguish right from wrong,correct behaviors,and cultivate aesthetic ability.The research findings may be of significance to help readers better understand the modality resources in English fairy tales,and provide certain helpful enlightenment for the teaching of English fairy tale texts.It also provides inspiration for the writing,translation and research of fairy tales.