An analysis on some discourse features of english economics news = phân tích một số đặc điểm diễn ngôn trong các bản tin kinh tế tiếng anh

vinh university
foreign Languages department
===    ===

phan thÞ dung

AN ANALYSIS ON SOME DISCOURSE FEATURES
OF ENGLISH ECONOMICS NEWS
(Ph©n tÝch mét số đặc điểm diễn ngôn
trong các bản tin kinh tế tiÕng anh)

graduation thesis
Field: Linguistics

Vinh - 2011


vinh university
foreign Languages department
===    ===

AN ANALYSIS ON SOME DISCOURSE FEATURES
OF ENGLISH ECONOMICS NEWS
(Phân tích một số đặc điểm diễn ngôn
trong các bản tin kinh tế tiếng anh)

graduation thesis
Field: Linguistics

Supervisor: vâ thÞ hång minh, m.a
Student:

phan thÞ dung, 48A1 - English

Vinh, May 2011


GRADUATION THESIS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The thesis could not be completed without the great support from my
lecturers, my family and my friends.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest and special gratitude to my
supervisor, M.A Vo Thi Hong Minh, for her readiness at all time to discuss the
problems and give me precious advice, valuable materials and enormous
corrections.
Next, I am grateful to my loving parents, my dedicated friends for their
unconditional love, support and forbearance.
Finally, I am all too aware that despite all the advice and assistance, I feel
that the project is too far from perfect ; it is, therefore, my sole responsibility for
any inadequacies and shortcomings that the thesis may be considered to have

Vinh, May 2011
Phan Thi Dung

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GRADUATION THESIS

ABSTRACT
In this thesis, the author studies how grammatical cohesion and epistemic
modality manifested in some English economic news. First, she discusses about text
and discourse, discourse analysis, types of cohesive devices, and modality. She
mainly focuses on grammatical cohesion, its sub-types and epistemic modality.
They are basic theoretical background for analyzing the data. Then, she surveys
how grammatical cohesion and epistemic modality manifested in ten English
economics news. Finally, the author mentions to some difficulties that students and
readers often meet in learning and understanding a news report, from that giving
some implications to help them have better results in their work.

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GRADUATION THESIS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................... iii

LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... v
PART A: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1
1.

Rationale of the study .................................................................................... 1

2.

Aims of the Study .......................................................................................... 2

3.

Scope of the Study ......................................................................................... 2

4.

Methods of the Study ..................................................................................... 3

5.

Design of the Study ....................................................................................... 3

Chapter 1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .................................................. 4
1.1.

Discourse versus Text .................................................................................... 4

1.2.

Discourse Analysis ........................................................................................ 5

1.3.

Cohesion and Coherence ............................................................................... 5

1.4.

Types of Cohesive Devices ........................................................................... 6

1.4.1.

Reference ....................................................................................................... 7

1.4.2.

Substitution .................................................................................................... 8

1.4.3.

Ellipsis ........................................................................................................... 9

1.4.4.

Conjunction .................................................................................................. 10

1.5.

Modality ....................................................................................................... 12

1.5.1.

Definition ..................................................................................................... 12

1.5.2.

Modal categories .......................................................................................... 12
1.5.2.1. Deontic modality ............................................................................. 12
1.5.2.2. Epistemic modality.......................................................................... 13

1.5.3.

Expressions of modality .............................................................................. 14
1.5.3.1. Verbs ............................................................................................... 14
1.5.3.2. Adverbs ........................................................................................... 15
1.5.3.3. Adjectives ........................................................................................ 15
1.5.3.4. Nouns .............................................................................................. 16

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GRADUATION THESIS
1.6.

The concept of a newspaper ........................................................................ 16

1.6.1.

Classification of newspaper ........................................................................ 16

1.6.2.

General structure of a news report ............................................................... 17

Chapter 2. AN ANALYSIS ON SOME DISCOURSE FEATURES OF
ENGLISH ECONOMICS NEWS ................................................... 19
2.1.

Some Information about the Material Selected ........................................... 19

2.2.

Grammatical Cohesive Devices ................................................................... 19

2.2.1.

Reference ..................................................................................................... 19

2.3.2.

Substitution .................................................................................................. 21

2.3.3.

Ellipsis ......................................................................................................... 23

2.3.4.

Conjunction .................................................................................................. 23

2.4.

The frequency of occurrences of grammatical cohesive devices in
English Economics news ............................................................................. 26

2.5.

Epistemic Modality Manifested in English Economics News .................... 27

2.5.1.

Verbs ............................................................................................................ 27
2.5.1.1. Modal Verbs .................................................................................... 27
2.5.1.2. Lexical Verbs .................................................................................. 30

2.5.2.

Adverbs ........................................................................................................ 31

2.5.3.

Adjectives .................................................................................................... 31

2.5.4.

Nouns ........................................................................................................... 32

Chapter 3. DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ......................................... 33
3.1.

Findings and Discussion ............................................................................. 33

3.2.

The problems ............................................................................................... 34

3.3.

Some implications for students and readers to get good results in
learning and reading a news report .............................................................. 35

PART C: CONCLUSION....................................................................................... 40
1.

Recapitulation .............................................................................................. 40

2.

Suggestions for Further Studies ................................................................... 40

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 42
APPENDIX

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GRADUATION THESIS

LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: General information about the selected material ................................... 19
Table 2.2. Frequency rates of anaphoric reference refering to person and
thing ....................................................................................................... 20
Table 2.3. Survey results on anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference .......... 21
Table 2.4. Survey results on different types of substitution ................................... 22
Table 2.5. The frequent use of nominal, verbal and clausal ellipsis ....................... 23
Table 2.6. The proportion of different types of conjunction in terms of its
meaning .................................................................................................. 26
Table 2.7. The frequency of occurrences of cohesive devices in English
Economics News ................................................................................... 27
Table 2.8. The frequency of occurrence of epistemic modality seen from
types of modal verbs .............................................................................. 30
Table 2.9. The frequency of occurrence of epistemic modality seen from
fours types of word-forms manifested ................................................... 32

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GRADUATION THESIS

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
English has asserted its big role in our life on many fields such as education,
politics, science, technology, economics, etc. Among them, economics is
considered to be one of the objects that has been significantly affected. In fact, the
world economy is developping very rapidly and actively. To have such success, it
requires all countries in the world to unify their economy to lead to the
globalisation. And the first thing they must do is to use a common language in trade
exchanging. English is the best choice for this. In fact, most economics news and
reports are written and published in that language. Therefore; if businessmen,
companies would like to read or understand them to serve for their business better,
they must know how to use English. As we can see, the more information we have
from market, partners and customers, the more big chances we will get.
In addition, in the process of conducting this research, we realized that English
economics news is said to be a vital and useful expression of grammatical cohesion as
well as modality usage. It is an ideal place where journalists try to convey as much
information as possible by using cohesive devices, especially grammatical device.
Morever, by using modality, especially, epistemic modality, writers can

express their opinions and stances about economic issues to help readers, those who
are businessmen to have a better advice for their work. However, most readers find
them difficult to understand because they contain a lot of grammatical cohesion and
epistemic modality. Therefore, it is necessary to do the research about how English
economic news is built and how grammatical cohesion and modality are used. The
materials choosen to do the the research retrieved from VOA- a famous broadcast
brand all over the world because of its believable information resources to assist
businessmen and anyone who is interested in economics have more knowledge and
experience to get more success in their work.
Starting from these issues above, the author chooses the topic ―Some
Discourse Features of English Economics News” to do her research.

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GRADUATION THESIS
2. Aims of the Study
The aims of the study are:
• Providing some general knowledge and emphasize the important role of
grammatical cohesion and epistemic modality in creating textual coherence and
various meanings in English Economic News.
• Giving and analyzing some statistics and descriptions of grammatical

cohesion as well as epistemic modality in newspaper articles.
• Studying the reasons leading to the different degrees of fondness in
different types of grammatical cohesion and epistemic modality.
• Suggesting some implications for students and readers in learning and
reading to understand English economics news.
To fulfill these above aims, the thesis will answer questions as follow:
- What are Grammatical Cohesion and Epistemic Modality?
- What are grammatical devices and markers of epistemic modality
frequently used in economics news reports?
- How to help students and readers to get good results in learning and reading
an economics news report ?
3. Scope of the Study
A text is often analyzed by many different discourse features, for example,
form and fuction, cohesion, theme, rheme, register, etc. However, for the time and
resource constraints as well as the limited size of the thesis, refering all of those
features seems impossible. Thus, this paper would like to go into the analysis of
some prominent points in ten English Economics News given from VOA. They are
grammatical cohesion and epistemic modality.
The theoretical background of the first issues above are provided mainly by
Halliday and Hassan’s (1976) and some taken from textbooks as well as references
from internet, newspaper, and so on. These discriptions are used as the framework
for data analysis.

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GRADUATION THESIS
4. Methods of the Study
To achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following methods are used:
• The descriptive method: after collecting data from newspaper articles
relating to the topic, the author carries out to describe and investigate data through
the study.
• The analytical method: to analyze discourse features of English Economics
News by analyzing the frequency of occurences of grammatical cohesion as well as
modality in those news.
5. Design of the Study
The study will consist of three main parts.
Part A is Introduction. The Introduction discusses the reasons for choosing
topic, the aims, objectives, scope, methods and design of the study.
Part B is the Development which involves three chapters. Chapter 1, with the
title "Theoretical Background", presents the general information about grammatical
cohesion and modality. Chapter 2 entitled "the Development" provides practical
analysis through describing and investigating percentage of occurrence of
grammatical cohesion as well as modality in texts. Chapter 3 named "Discussion
and Implications" gives some implications for students and readers to get good
results in learning and reading a news report.
Part C is the Conclusion in which the author summarizes the main points
discussed in chapter 1, 2 and 3 of the study. Beside that, she also provides some
suggestions for further studies.
This study ends with References and Appendix.

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GRADUATION THESIS

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Chapter 1

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. Discourse versus Text
So far, there has been some confusion in understanding two terms
"discourse" and "text". They are thought as synonyms. Therefore, it is time for us to
study as well as discover this to have a clearer distinction between them.
First, the term "discourse" has several definitions. In the study of
language, "discourse" often refers to the speech patterns and usage of language,
dialects, and acceptable statements, within a community. According to Cook
(1989:56), discourse is "a stretch of language perceived to be meaningful, unified
and purposive". Crystal (1992:25) gives another definnition of this as "a continuous
stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than a sentence, often constituting a
coherent unit, such as a sermon, argument, joke or narrative". In addition, Nunan
also contributes a clear and short understanding way as follows
"discourse is a stretch of language consisting of several sentences which are
perceived as being related in some way, in term of the ideas they share and in term

of the jobs they perform within discourse - that is, their functions". This is
considered to be the most sufficient and acceptable notion about "discourse".
Similarly, "text" is defined in many different ways. Basically, it is made up
of sentences. Brown and Yule (1983:6) see text as " the verbal record of a
communicative act". While, Crystal claims that: "Text is often a language unit with
a definable communicative function, such as a conversation, a poster.". What is
more, in the long study of cohesion in English, Halliday and Hasan (1976:4) state a
similar definition, that is, "a text is a unit of language in use. It is not a grammatical
unit, like a clause or a sentence and it is not defined by its size".
In fact, there are many ways to understand the term "text". However, in this
paper, we use the definition given by Halliday and Hasan (1976: 1)"... a text is best
regarded as a semantic unit: a unit not of form but of meaning" to adopt.

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GRADUATION THESIS
From these opinions, it can be seen that there is disagreement about the
meaning of these two terms. For some writers, the terms are used almost
interchaneablly; for others, discourse refers to language in context. All, however,
seem to agree that both text and discourse need to be defined in terms of meaning,
and that coherent texts or discourse are those that form a meaningful whole.

According to Salkie (1995) " the term text refers to any written record of a
communicative event, discourse refers to the interpretation of the communicative
event in context".
1.2. Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis, or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of
approaches to analyzing written, spoken, signed language use or any significant
semiotic event.
In other word, discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the
relationship between language and the context in which it is used, that is, it involves
the study of language in use: written texts of all kinds, and spoken data from
conversations to formal forms of speech.
1.3. Cohesion and Coherence
The distinction between cohesion and coherence in the text often makes
readers confused. With the aim to help students or readers have a broader and clearer
understanding about two terms above, here, we would like to provide some examples
first, and then their definitions. Let us have a look at two following examples.
E.g (1): Although it rains heavily, he goes out.
E.g (2): A: I'm freezing
B: You're in San Francisco in the summer!
Example (1) is an illustration of cohesion and example (2) is of coherence.
The meaning of the first sentence is easy to understand because two clauses
in one sentence are connected to each other by the conjunction although that refers
to the contrary between things.

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GRADUATION THESIS
However, in the second example, there is no formal link between A and B,
but the listener can infer that in San Francisco, the weather in the summer also
extremely cold .
From two above-mentioned examples, we can indicate the difference
between cohesion and coherence as follows.
Cohesion is the glue that holds a piece of wrting together. In other words, if a
paper is cohesive, it sticks together from sentence to sentence and from paragraph to
paragraph.
Making sense of a text is an act of interpretation which involves various
procedures. Besides interpreting the ties and making sense of them, we also have to
use schemata (background knowledge) to understand it. Here, we discuss about the
use of coherence in the text.
Unlike cohesion, coherence is the feeling that the text makes sense. It usually
depends on the common shared background knowledge, implication or inference.
To make this distinction clear and specified,we take Nunan's opinion
(1993:116) as a reference:
" Coherence is the extent to which discourse is perceived to hang together rather than a
set of unrelated sentences or utterances and cohesion is formal links showing the
relationships among clause and among sentences in discourse".

In short, we can summarize the distinction between cohesion and coherence
through the following table.
Cohesion

Coherence

- in the text

- in the reader's / listener's mind

- grammatical links

- the feeling that the text makes sense

- clues signals guide to coherence

- the reader has to create coherence

1.4. Types of Cohesive Devices
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976) cohesion can be divided into
two types: grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion. The previous refers to the
structural content. The latter refers to the language content of the piece.

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GRADUATION THESIS
Grammatical cohesion can be divided into four kinds: reference, substitution,
ellipsis, and conjunction.
1.4.1. Reference
Reference is a grammatical cohesion device in a text that can only be
interpreted with reference either to some other parts of the text or to the world
experienced by the sender and receiver of the text.
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976:32), "reference can be seen through
situational reference (refering to a thing as identified in the context of situation) and
textual reference (refering to a thing as identified in the surrounding text)". And
they discuss situational reference as exophoric reference and textual reference as
endophoric one.
Exophoric reference refers to the immediate context or the shared
background between hearer and speaker. It is very important because when
speaking and writing, we should consider to whom, in what context and the purpose
in order to include or exclude (ir)relevant information. Take the following simple
example to consider:
Yesterday, I went to the capital
Receiver outside the situation finds it difficult to understand what is
demonstrated because the sentence above does not make it explicit which capital is.
They may guess that the capital here is Ha noi or Paris, etc. Thus, exophoric
reference will often be a world shared by the sender and the receiver of the
linguistics message, regardless of cultural background.
In contrast, endophoric reference is reference in text. It is divided into two
types: anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference. We would like to give two
examples before indicating their definitions.
E.g: Last night, I saw a girl in the park. She is very beautiful and active (1)
They pressed round him in ragged fashion to take their money. Andy,
Dave, Phil, Stephen, Bob. (2)
(Graham Swift, The Sweet Shop Owner, Penguin Books Limited, 1983: 13)

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GRADUATION THESIS
The first example is seen as anaphoric reference. We can notice that "she" in
the second sentence refers back to "a girl" in the first one.
However, in the next example, it is difficult to interpret the pronoun "they"
unless we read on the second sentence. This pattern is known as cataphoric
reference.
From two examples and analysis above, we can understand the two terms
as follows.
Anaphoric reference is confirmed by looking back in the text for its referent
while cataphoric is looking forward in the text for its referent. Of the two genres,
anaphoric reference is more common than cataphoric reference.
Halliday and Hasan (1976) identify three sub-types of referential cohesion personal, demonstrative and comparative. These various devices enable the writer
or speaker to make multiple references to people and things within a text.
1.4.2. Substitution
Substitution is used where a speaker or writer wishes to avoid the repetition of
a lexical item and is able to draw on one of the grammatical resources of the language
to replace the item. According to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 88), substitution is seen
as the replacement of one item by another. In addition, it is a relation within the text.

In English, the substitute may function as a noun, a verb or as a clause. These
correspond to the three types of substitution: nominal, verbal, and clausal.
According to Nguyen Van Sy (2009:9), nominal substitution occurs when a
noun in the previous sentence is substitued by another word or element usually by
one, ones, and the same. Take some examples to illustrate:
I like to read this short story because the long one would make me bored
(Nguyen Van Sy, 2009: 9)
A: I'll have two poached eggs on toast, please.
B: I'll have the same
Verbal substitution is do. This operates as head of a verbal group and its
position is always final in the group.

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GRADUATION THESIS
E.g: A: We all hate hypocrisy
B: Yes, everybody does (does = hates hypocrisy)
Another type of substitution is clausal substitution. This is clearly
emphasized in the study of cohesive devices of Halliday and Hasan (1976) as
follows "In clausal substitution the entire clause is presupposed, and the contrasting
element is ouside the clause".

E.g: Is there going to be an earthquake? - It says so.
Here, "so" presupposes the whole clause There is going to be an earthquake
and the contrastive environment is provided by "say" which is outside it.
1.4.3. Ellipsis
Ellipsis can be defined in different ways.
Nguyen Hoa in "An introduction to discourse analysis" (2001:26), sees
ellipsis as the omission of certain elements from a sentence, allowed by context.
The website http://www. teachingenglish.org.uk defines this as follows:
"Ellipsis is the omission of one or more words from a sentence, where they are
unnecessary because they have already been mentioned. Meaning can be
understood without these words. Ellipsis is one of the aspects of language that
gives text cohesion".

In "Introducing Discouse Analysis for Language Teacher", Mc Cathy states
that ellipsis is the omission of elements normally required by the grammar which
the speaker/writer assumes are obvious from the context and therefore need not be
raised. This definition is considered the most sufficient to understand.
However, it appears to us that it is necessary to distinguish between
substitution and ellipsis. Firstly, both have the relation at the grammatical level
(wording), a relation within the text.
In contrast, ellipsis is a special case of substitution: substitution by zero.
This means that while in substitution: one item is substituted by item of the same
word class, ellipsis: an item is omitted.
E.g: My axe is too blunt. I must get a sharper one (Substitution)

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C.33.44.55.54.78.65.5.43.22.2.4..22.Tai lieu. Luan 66.55.77.99. van. Luan an.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.22. Do an.Tai lieu. Luan van. Luan an. Do an.Tai lieu. Luan van. Luan an. Do an

GRADUATION THESIS
It's cold. - Yes (Ellipsis)
Ellipsis is divided into 3 types: nominal, verbal and clausal ellipsis.
Nominal ellipsis means ellipsis with the nominal group. In other words, in
nominal ellipsis, " the noun may be obmitted and replaced by deictic, numerative or
epithet" (Halliday and Hassan:1976:147).
E.g: The father and the mother were so busy making money that the two
children left to their own devices. Naturally, both were resentful
In this case, the father and the mother are obmited after the word "both" in terms
of deictic element
Verbal ellipsis is the omission of verb. Two types of verbal ellipsis include
lexical ellipsis and operator ellipsis. If in lexical ellipsis, it is the lexical verb that is
always omitted, in operator one, the subject is done the same from the clause. Take
two following instances to illustrate.
1. Have you been singing ? - Yes, I have ~ (lexical ellipsis)
2. What is he doing ? - ~ Taking photograph. (operator ellipsis)
Clausal ellipsis often occurs in the form of answer to the question. In this
case, the answer whether yes or no or other response can be considered as
substitute.
E.g: 1. Can you swim ? - Yes (I can)
2. Don’t tell anyone what you saw! - Yes, I will
The omitted part in example (1) is the clause "I can swim".And in (2) is "I will not
tell anyone about that".
1.4.4. Conjunction

According to Van Lam and Dinh Phuong (2009:27), "a conjunction does not
set off a search backward or forward for its referent, but it does presuppose a textual
sequence, and signals a relationship between segments of the discourse ".
There are several kinds of conjunction: single-word conjunctions, phrasal
and clausal ones.

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GRADUATION THESIS
E.g: He was insensitive to the group's needs. Consequently, there was a lot of bad
feeling. (1)
He was insensitive to the group's needs. As a consequence, there was a lot of bad
feeling. (2)
The bad feeling was a consequence of his sensitivity to the group's needs. (3)
Here, in (1) we can realize the use of single-word conjunction
"Consequently", the second example is of adverbial phrase as conjunction whereas
the third one indicates the use of lexical item within the predicate of the clause.
In the terms of meaning, conjunction can be categorized into addition,
adversative causality and temporality.
The additive conjunction is the addition to the things that have been said or
discussed earlier. And, in addition, similarly, morever,or, etc. are several examples

of the additive conjunction. In these conjunctive relations, "and" is a special word.
It often makes readers misunderstand the use of "and", one of coordinating
conjunctions that used to link individual words or phrases, and independent clauses.
E.g: Lilacs and violets are usually purple
"And" with the role of a additive relation is placed at the beginning of a new
sentence, not in the middle as the coordinating conjunction "and". Furthermore,
their sense is not similar as well. However, this issue has been vague up to now.
E.g: For the whole day he climbed up the steep mountainside, almost without
stopping. And in all time he met no one
Adversative conjunction expresses a contrast between two statements in a
sentence. Examples are: but, nevertheless, however, whereas, only, still etc.
E.g: He is poor but he is honest.
Causal conjunction marks the relationship of reason, consequence and
purposes such as: because, so, consequently, hence, as in:
Eg: He was lazy, therefore, he failed.
Temporal conjunction specifies the time relationship which exits between
sentences such as: then, before, finally, at the same time, etc.

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C.33.44.55.54.78.65.5.43.22.2.4..22.Tai lieu. Luan 66.55.77.99. van. Luan an.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.22. Do an.Tai lieu. Luan van. Luan an. Do an.Tai lieu. Luan van. Luan an. Do an

GRADUATION THESIS

E.g: Brick tea is a blend that has been compressed into a cake. First, it is ground
to a dust. Then, it is usually cooked in milk.
1.5. Modality
1.5.1. Definition
The term "modality" can be understood widely. In "Discourse Analysis", Van
Lam and Dinh Phuong consider it as "the province of the closed class of modal
verbs (must, can, will, may,etc) and treated as part of the grammar of English, but a
large of number of "lexical" words (noun, adjectives, verbs and adverbs) carry the
same or similar meanings to the modal verbs".
According to Pamper (1986), "modality" is associated with "subject's attitude
or opinion about what is said".
Modality "is a category of linguistic meaning having to do with the
expression of possibility and necessity" (cited in ). This
website also gives some examples as follow.
Sandy might be at home

(There is a possibility that Sandy is at home)

Sandy must be at home

(In all possibilities, Sandy is at home)

Above all, Nguyen Hoa (2004:176) summarizes this term briefly as follow
"Modality is described as the expression of the speaker's attitude or opinion toward
the content of proposition".
Modal meanings include degrees of certainty and possibility, permission and
obligation.
1.5.2. Modal categories
Most of linguists agree that modality consists of two main kinds: deontic and
epistemic. But, in our thesis we mainly focus on analyzing the second type:

epistemic modality expressed via four different word-form: verbs, adverbs,
adjectives and nouns.
1.5.2.1. Deontic modality
Deontic modality is a kind of modality having to do with permission and
obligation. Unlike epistemic modality, it refers to acts not propositions.

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C.33.44.55.54.78.65.5.43.22.2.4..22.Tai lieu. Luan 66.55.77.99. van. Luan an.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.22. Do an.Tai lieu. Luan van. Luan an. Do an.Tai lieu. Luan van. Luan an. Do an

GRADUATION THESIS
Deontic modality can be subdivided into:
(i) possibility (permission): You may leave
(ii) necessity (obligation): You must go
(iii) volition

: He won't go

1.5.2.2. Epistemic modality
The term "epistemic modality" derived from Greek word meaning
"understanding" or " knowledge". According to Lyons, it refers to " the speaker’s
belief or opinion about the validity of the proposition" (1977: 793). He subdivides it
into the two types as follow (i) the speaker’s judgments of necessity and possibility

(including the two above categories), and (ii) evidentiality (expressed explicitly
by evidentials), the evidential basis for what is said.
1.5.2.2.1. Judgment
Judgment involves necessity or possibility and has two degrees: a "weak" one and a
"strong" one. Correlatively, there are two typical representatives: may and must
E.g: Cheryl may be at home. (It is possible Cheryl is at home)
Cheryl must be at home (It is necessary that Chery is at home)
According to Coates's comment cited in "The Semantics of the Modal
Auxiliaries" (1983), may and must carry Speculative and Deductive like "the
modals of epistemic possibility, expressing the speaker's lack of confidence in the
proportion expressed".
1.5.2.2.2. Evidentials
Aikhenvald (2003,2004) states two broad types of evidential marking:
* Indirectivity marking
* Evidential marking
The first type expresses comment on the extent to which he believes that what he is
saying is true. It is subdivided into 3 cases:

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GRADUATION THESIS

(i) They express a subject view on the truth of what is said: certainly, surely,
undeniably, undoubtfully, unquestionably
E.g: Surely, she is a hard worker
(ii) Markers of degrees of convictions as open to object evidence: clearly,
evidently (inevidently), obviously, plainly
E.g: Inevidently, objections will be raised to the promotion of the motor cycle
as the saviour environment.
(iii) Markers of reality or lack of reality in what is said: actually, officially,
technically, theoretically.
E.g: Obviously, he is telling lie
The second type refers to speaker's comment on the truth value of what is
said. It can carry the attitude of the speaker without any necessary implication that
the judgment implies to the subject of the sentence or to the speaker.
E.g: Luckily, he passed the final examination
In the above example, the speaker aims that "It is lucky for him to pass the final
examination"
Other markers are annoyingly, curiously, happily, hopefully, surprisingly, etc.
Or it can emphasize speaker's attitude toward the subject of the sentence:
E.g: Wisely, Huong did not invite him to her birthday party
Clearly, speaker would like to remark that Huong was wide in doing so.
Some other markers are: rightly or wrongly
In conclusion, both deontic and epistemic show the speaker's opinion or
attitude toward what he or she utters.
1.5.3. Expressions of modality
There are numerous kinds of expression that have modal meanings: verbs,
adverbs, adjectives and nouns.
1.5.3.1. Verbs
Downing and Locke (1992) classify the verbs expressing modality into 4 groups as follow.

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GRADUATION THESIS
(i) Lexical verbs: appear, assume, look as if, suggest, think, believe, etc. They often
occur in subordinate clauses such as: I think/suppose/ believe that...., It
seems/appears that...
E.g: “I think that what China is doing today is no different to other
advanced economies,...” Shen said
(quoted in " Global Development Aid from China on the Rise")
(ii) Lexical-modal auxiliaries: able to, about to, bound to, due to, going to, likely to,
mean to, certain to, etc.
E..g: The research also revealed that passive smoking had a large impact on
women, killing about 281,000 worldwide. This is due to the fact that in many parts
of the world, women are at least 50% more likely to be exposed to second-hand
smoke than men.
(iii) Modal auxiliaries: can, could, may, might, must, will, should, ought to
E.g: It is estimated that over the next 20 years India will buy 1,150
commercial jets valued at $130 billion to cater to the growing demand in the
country
(quoted in " Aviation Recovers After Global Economic Downturn ")
(iv) Semi-modals: have to, ought to, had better, be going to, used to
E.g: He has to take responsibility for the accident

1.5.3.2. Adverbs
Many adverbs show modality meaning such as probably, possibly, surely, hopefully,
actually, inevitably, obviously, certainly
Eg: Obviously, that is not her real name
1.5.3.3. Adjectives
Adjectives that have modality meaning include certain, sure, likely, possible,
necessary, etc.
E.g: Unless you make it a totally totalitarian society it is impossible to
control prices
(cited in " Ethiopia’s Inflation Rate Hits Nearly 15 Percent in December")

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C.33.44.55.54.78.65.5.43.22.2.4..22.Tai lieu. Luan 66.55.77.99. van. Luan an.77.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.37.99.44.45.67.22.55.77.C.33.44.55.54.78.655.43.22.2.4.55.22. Do an.Tai lieu. Luan van. Luan an. Do an.Tai lieu. Luan van. Luan an. Do an

GRADUATION THESIS
1.5.3.4. Nouns
Modal nouns express modality meaning include possibility, probability, ability,
necessity, likelihood, capability, etc.
E.g: "I'm angry with the government, because the government counts on its
capability to control price", said Bulcha
(cited in " Ethiopia’s Inflation Rate Hits Nearly 15 Percent in December")
In short, in terms of frequency, verbs, adverbs are considerably more frequent than

nouns and adjectives.
All these words carry important information about the stance and attitude of the
sender to the message; they are concerned with interpersonal meaning, assertion,
tentative, commitment, etc.
1.6. The concept of a newspaper
A newspaper is a printed periodical whose purpose is to deliver news and
other information in an up-to-date, factual manner. Newspapers appear most
commonly in daily and weekly editions, but may also be issued twice a day or
weekly. Although, the content of a newspaper varies, it generally consists of
a predetermined combination of news, opinion, and advertising. The editorial
section is written by reporters and other journalists at the direction of editors and
may also be compiled from wire service reports
1.6.1. Classification of newspaper
Nowadays, newspaper types are becoming more and more various and
attractive due to the social development. Here, we only wish to mention to the most
typical and popular to the readers at the same time. They are daily newspaper,
weekly newspaper, international and online newpaper.
Firstly, a daily newspaper is issued every day, sometimes with the
exception of Sundays and some national holidays. Sunday editions of daily
newspapers tend to be larger, include more specialized sections and advertising
inserts, and cost more.

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GRADUATION THESIS
Secondly, weekly newspaper is a general news publication that is published
on newsprint once or twice a week. Such newspapers tend to have smaller
circulations than daily newspapers. Most weekly newspapers follow a similar
format as daily newspapers (i.e., news, sports, obituaries, etc.). However, the
primary focus is on news within a coverage area.
There is also a small group of newspapers which may be characterized
as international newspaper. For example, The International Herald Tribune.
These international editions are scaled down to remove articles that might not
interest the wider range of readers.
Finally, nowadays there has also been a modern and popular type of
newspaper with readers due to its convenience. It is online newspaper. An online
newspaper, also known as a web newspaper, is a newspaper that exists on the World
Wide Web or Internet, either separately or as an online version of a printed
periodical. The emerging of this newspaper type has been creating more
opportunities for newspapers as well as readers.
1.6.2. General structure of a news report
News reports are found in newspapers and their purpose is to inform readers
of what is happening in the world around them. News reports have a certain
structure that you need to follow. This structure is sometimes called the Inverted
Pyramid. The journalist puts the essential and most interesting elements of his or
her story at the beginning, with supporting information following in order of
diminishing importance. This structure enables readers to stop reading at any point
and still come away with the essence of a story. It allows people to explore a topic
to only the depth that their curiosity takes them, and without the imposition of
details or nuances that they could consider irrelevant, but still making that
information available to more interested readers.

1. News Reports begin with a catchy HEADLINE.

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GRADUATION THESIS
2. The LEAD PARAGRAPH informs the reader of the most important aspects of
the story as soon as possible. The LEAD PARAGRAPH is often the only part of the
story that people read which use the 5Ws rules:
• WHO (is involved)
• WHAT (took place)
• WHEN (did it take place)
• WHERE (did it take place)
• WHY (did it happen)
• HOW (did it happen) – only include this if there is space
3. The body of the news report gives more details and provides more information
about WHY and HOW of the story
4. The tail contains the less information which is often omitted by the newspaper
editor if there is not enough space left in the newspaper.

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