A comparative study of the lexical means of modality employed in culture and sport editorials of commendation on the usatoday co nd the vietnamnews vn from 2010 to 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ THÙY

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE LEXICAL MEANS OF
MODALITY EMPLOYED IN CULTURE AND SPORT EDITORIALS
OF COMMENDATION ON THE USATODAY.COM AND
THE VIETNAMNEWS.VN FROM 2012 TO 2015

NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH NHỮNG PHƢƠNG TIỆN TỪ VỰNG CỦA
TÍNH TÌNH THÁI TRONG CÁC BÀI XÃ LUẬN KHEN NGỢI VỀ
LĨNH VỰC VĂN HÓA VÀ THỂ THAO TRÊN BÁO USATODAY.COM
VÀ VIETNAMNEWS.VN TỪ NĂM 2012 ĐẾN 2015
M.A. Minor Thesis

Field: English linguistics
Code: 60220201

HANOI – 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ THÙY

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE LEXICAL MEANS OF
MODALITY EMPLOYED IN CULTURE AND SPORT EDITORIALS

OF COMMENDATION ON THE USATODAY.COM AND
THE VIETNAMNEWS.VN FROM 2012 TO 2015
NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH NHỮNG PHƢƠNG TIỆN TỪ VỰNG CỦA
TÍNH TÌNH THÁI TRONG CÁC BÀI XÃ LUẬN KHEN NGỢI VỀ
LĨNH VỰC VĂN HÓA VÀ THỂ THAO TRÊN BÁO USATODAY.COM
VÀ VIETNAMNEWS.VN TỪ NĂM 2012 ĐẾN 2015

M.A. Minor Thesis

Field: English linguistics
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Tô Thị Thu Hƣơng, Ph.D

HANOI – 2016


DECLARATION

I certify that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my own
research, and this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other
university or institution.
Hanoi, October 2016
Signature

Lê Thị Thùy

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the following people who
have offered support and encouragement in all their different ways throughout
this study.
I am indeed thankful to my supervisor, Dr. Tô Thị Thu Hương, whose
sympathetic guidance has been the source of inspiration and knowledge for my
research. I am also grateful to other teachers of the Department of Post-Graduate
Studies for their encouragement and valuable advice.
My great thanks are also given to my family and my friends who have
encouraged me a lot during the process of my study.

ii


ABSTRACT
The thesis analyzed the selected editorials of commendation on cultural and
sporty fields chosen from the American English newspaper, the usatoday.com,
and the Vietnamese English newspaper, the vietnamnews.vn, to identify the
lexical means of modality employed in the two newspapers. The study aimed at
analyzing how similar and different in tendencies of using modality as well as
the functions of modality employed in commendation editorials in the two
newspapers. The data showed that modality was realized in the two newspapers
through modal auxiliary verbs, ‗knowledge‘ verbs, certain reporting verbs,
modal adjectives and adverbs, and some modal nouns. From the findings, the
research also provided some suggestions in teaching and learning English.

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TABLE OF CONTENS

DECLARATION ................................................................................................ 1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...............................................................................vi
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES....................................................................vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................ 1
1.1. Justification ............................................................................................... 1
1.2. Aim and purposes of Research ................................................................. 4
1.3. Research questions .................................................................................... 3
1.4. Significance ............................................................................................... 4
1.5. Thesis outline................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................. 6
2.1. Definition of modality ............................................................................... 6
2.2. Types of modality...................................................................................... 7
2.3. Linguistic manifestations of modality ........................................................ 8
2.3.1. Modal verbs......................................................................................... 9
2.3.2. Modal adverbs ................................................................................... 11
2.3.3. Modal adjectives ............................................................................... 11
2.3.4. Modal nouns ...................................................................................... 11
2.4. Editorials and classification of newspaper editorials ................................ 12
2.4.1. Definition of editorials ...................................................................... 12
2.4.2. Classification of newspaper editorials ............................................... 14
2.4.3. Editorials of commendation ............................................................... 14
2.5. Previous studies ....................................................................................... 15
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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 18
3.1. Types of Research ................................................................................... 18
3.2. Data Sources ........................................................................................... 18

3.3. Data Analysis Instruments ....................................................................... 19
3.4. Data Analysis Procedure ......................................................................... 20
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................ 24
4.1. Modal verbs............................................................................................. 24
4.2. Modal adjectives and adverbs .................................................................. 31
4.3. Modal nouns ............................................................................................ 37
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 39
5.1. Summary ................................................................................................. 39
5.2. Pedagogical implications ......................................................................... 41
5.3. Limitations of the study ........................................................................... 44
REFERENCES.................................................................................................. 45
APPENDICES .................................................................................................... I
UT1.....................................................................................................................I
UT2..................................................................................................................III
UT3...................................................................................................................V
UT4..................................................................................................................VI
UT5.................................................................................................................VII
UT6................................................................................................................VIII
UT7....................................................................................................................X
UT8..................................................................................................................XI
UT9................................................................................................................XIII
v


UT10...............................................................................................................XV
VN1.............................................................................................................XVII
VN2............................................................................................................XVIII
VN3...............................................................................................................XXI
VN4............................................................................................................XXIII
VN5.............................................................................................................XXV

VN6...........................................................................................................XXVII
VN7.............................................................................................................XXX
VN8............................................................................................................XXXI
VN9...........................................................................................................XXXII
VN10.......................................................................................................XXXIV

vi


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

UT: the usatoday.com
VN: the vietnamnews.vn

vii


LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1. Modality through modal auxiliaries in UT & VN
Table 2. Number of quoted direct speech & indirect speech in two newspapers
Table 3. Comparative and superlative forms of evaluative adjectives and adverbs

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The chapter explained the reasons of choosing the research topic, clarified the
aim and purposes, raised the research questions, and provided the organization of

the study as well.
1.1. Justification
In this modern society, there are numerous mass media that bring the wide world
into each home. Social media are possibly divided into 2 types: spoken and
written. The former is always represented by television and radio. Then, the
latter is represented by newspapers, magazines and especially news websites.
Thanks to the development of high technology, human beings do not have to
spend much time in front of television or radio without moving out their homes.
They also do not need to go to news agency to buy newspapers or magazines
every morning. By only one click, all the needed information appears on the
screen even though they are sitting in a café or in a restaurant. Moreover, with
the help of a smart phone, people these days update news more quickly than ever
before. Each minute passes, an event can be received hundreds of comments. So,
there is no doubt that news websites play an important role in modern life. They
become a means for the writers and readers to share society‘s values and express
their opinions and attitudes about the social issues. That is the reason for
choosing news websites as objects to analyze.
Editorial is considered a part of news website contents where the editorial writers
and readers provide their personal comments on the happening events. To
convey these private assessments into the news, modality could be an effective
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means because of its nature. Saeed (2009, p.138) claimed that ―modality is a
cover term for devices which allow the speaker or writer to express varying
degrees of commitment to, or belief in, a proposition‖. It is possibly said that
with this type of mass media, modality is vigorously expressed. Because of that
reason, modality in newspaper editorials have attracted many attentions recently.
Biber (1998), Westin and Geisler (2002) and Morley (2004) were the huge
names in the area. Those researches provided sufficient guidance for the

language users to employ modality in their texts. Furthermore, those also became
the foundation for the next researchers who would conduct research in exploring
and assessing the phenomenon of what happens in newspapers or social media. It
was obvious that most of the researches on this subject were conducted in
foreign countries or they focused on criticism editorials only although editorials
were divided into different sub-genres. The researchers looked for the use of
modality in editorials of criticism because of its popularity amongst all the types.
Moreover, this also was a potential area in using modality since this type of
editorials aims at criticizing policies and decisions that are considered as
controversial by the newspaper staffs. In spite of the fact that the editorials of
commendation which commend people and organizations for something done
well are not as common as the others, it should be put in consideration because
our ancestors ever taught that ‗criticism is easy, and art is difficult‘. It seems
effortless for us to criticize someone for what they made, but to crown someone
from the bottom of our heart is not as easy as we suppose. Moreover, praise
plays an important role in motivating and engaging people in their work. The
more respected and appreciated people feel, the more motivated they are. They
will do better than those who think their efforts go unnoticed. They are more
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engaged in their work because they know they are making a real difference. An
interesting aspect about praise is the chemical reaction it causes in us. O′.AriasCarrion and Poppel (2007) showed that when we heard something we liked, a
burst of dopamine was released in our brains. Dopamine was a neurotransmitter,
and it was associated with feelings of joy, pride, satisfaction, and well-being,
giving a positive impact on the individual. In culture and sport areas, there are
many people who are ready to devote their lives for the development of their
own country in particular and the development of human beings in general, so
they deserve to be praised. An appropriate compliments will be the best present
to encourage people to get better results in their works. Mark Twain ever said ― I

can live for two months on a good compliments‖. However, giving praise
publicly and regularly might be frowned upon in some cultures. It means that
there are different ways to commend someone and each of newspapers has their
own ways to express their opinions and feelings. The thesis compared two
editorials: an American English and a Vietnamese English with the purpose of
demonstrating what English linguistic categories of modality the writers used in
complimenting athletes and celebrities in culture and sport areas because many
individuals got achievements in those fields. Moreover, the study was done with
the aim of comparing the similarities and differences in employing lexical
expressions of modality in the two newspapers. The results of the research could
be a guide in teaching and learning English reading, writing and translation
generally and in journalism particularly.
1.2. Aim and purposes of Research
The study aimed at finding out the similarities and differences in employing
lexical means of modality in two newspapers so that the results of the research
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could be a guide in teaching and learning English reading, writing and
translation generally and in journalism particularly.
Based on the above 2 research questions, the purposes of the research were:
1. to clarify kinds of lexical carriers of modality employed in cultural and
sport editorials of commendation in the two newspapers.
2. to analyze how similar and different in tendencies of using modality as
well as the functions of modality employed in commendation editorials
in the two newspapers.
1.3. Research questions
There were two research questions to guide this thesis:
1. What are the lexical means of modality commonly employed in culture
and sport editorials of commendation in the two online newspapers, the

American English newspaper, the usatoday.com, and the Vietnamese
English newspaper, the vietnamnews.vn?
2. What are the similarities and differences in the use of lexical means of
modality in these editorials of the two newspapers?
1.4. Significance
The significance of the study was to explain the similarities and differences in
employing lexical modal categories in two editorial newspapers, an American
English newspaper and a Vietnamese English newspaper, in complimenting the
athletes and celebrities. The achieved results could be applied in teaching and
learning English.

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1.5. Thesis Outline
This thesis consisted of five following chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction
The introduction chapter consisted of Justification, Aim and Purposes, Research
questions, and Thesis outline.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
The review of literature explained some theories which were related to the topic
as a guide to write this thesis. It included Definition of modality, Types of
modality, Lexical means of modality, Definition and Classification of newspaper
editorials, and Previous studies.
Chapter 3: Methodology
This chapter consisted of Types of research, Data sources, Data analysis
instruments and Data analysis procedure.
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion
The findings and discussion chapter provided the results of the analysis of the
collected data to answer the 2 research questions and discussion of the findings.

Chapter 5: Conclusion
In this chapter, the writer provided the conclusion of the research as well as some
teaching and learning implications based on what had been found.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provided an overview of theoretical background that guided the
researcher during conducting the thesis.
2.1. Definition of modality
Modality has been seen as one of the most complicated areas both in English and
in other languages. It is considered a semantic category. By means of modal
expressions, the speaker can evaluate a particular situation in terms of
possibility, probability, permission, volition, obligation and necessity. Lyons
(1977) pointed out that modality referred to people‘s opinions and attitudes
towards propositions expressed with language or circumstances described by
propositions while Quirk (1985) regarded it as the speaker‘s judgment on the
authenticity of propositions. Palmer (1986) considered modality as semantic
information associated with the speaker‘s attitude or opinion about what is said.
From his point of view, modality could also be analyzed as the validity of
relativity of a sentence meaning through a set of possible words, or it could be
said as the ways in which people could understand a different word. In other
words, modality gave the language a function to express what is happening, what
will happen, what might happen, and what they should do.
Generally, all of the authors had an agreement on the definition of modality and
they tried to explore the functions of modality in the proposition. It is possible to
define modality as a means that helps the speaker or writer show their attitudes
towards a certain piece of information.

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2.2. Types of modality
Despite the fact that there are numerous ways to classify modality into different
types, most of linguists such as Hoffman (1976), Jenkins (1972), Perkins (1982),
Sweetser (1982), Coates (1983), and Huddleston (1988) agreed to divide
modality into two basic subtypes: epistemic and deontic. Epistemic modality was
concerned with the speaker's relation to proposition, whereas deontic modality
was concerned with the speaker's relation to events and actions. Both types of
modality signaled a speaker's judgments. With epistemic, the judgment was
about the way the real world is; with deontic, it was about how people should
behave in the world. Deontic modality expressed future; meanwhile epistemic
modality was connected to the present. Epistemic modality showed the meanings
of possibility, necessity and prediction while deontic modality carried the
meanings of permission, obligation and volition.
von Wright (1951) and Quirk et al., (1985) had the other ideas in classifying
types of modality. The former classified modality into four types: Alethic,
Epistemic, Deontic and Existential while the latter distinguished between two
types: ‗intrinsic‟ which involve some kind of human control over events, and
„extrinsic‟ which involve human judgment of what is or is not likely to happen.
Rescher (1986), apart from these types, referred to one more type which he
called temporal.
Palmer, besides agreeing with the other researchers, he also added evidential and
dynamic as two more sorts of modality. Furthermore, he grouped four above
subtypes into two bigger ones: Propositional modality and Event modality.
Propositional modality included Epistemic and Evidential. Event Modality in
7

turn could be of two types, Deontic and Dynamic. ―Evidential modality, in
which, instead of making a judgment about the truth-value of the proposition, the
speaker offers evidence for it‖ (2003, p.7). If with deontic modality, the control
was external to the subject of proposition, dynamic one was in contrast with
internal control.
In the research, the researcher used Palmer‘s theory in clarifying the functions of
modality in the English culture and sport editorials of commendation between
two newspapers due to the several reasons. First of all, there was no doubt that
Palmer was an expert of this field. His achievements were the basic theory for
many studies. Moreover, apart from some common meanings that modality
expressed, the reseacher would like to find out whether the editors give the
evidence for what is said and evaluate the internal and external controls that
contribute to the people‘s achievements.
2.3. Lexical means of modality
Fowler (1985) gave a brief list to illustrate the lexical categories of modality.
Modality was manifested in a number of forms: mainly, the modal auxiliary
verbs may, shall, must, need, and others; sentence adverbs such as probably,
certainly, regrettably; adjectives such as necessary, unfortunate, certain. Some
verbs, and many nominalizations, were crucially modals: permit, predict, prove;
obligation, likelihood, desirability, authority.
Furthermore, Nuyts (2001, p.29) pointed out that modality could be expressed by
the use of modal adverbs, predicatively used modal adjectives, mental state
predicates and by modal auxiliaries. It was said that certain types of main verbs

8


as well as adjectives, adverbs, and certain nominalizations could be used to
express modality.

From two above authors, it was possible to conclude that modality could be
manifested through different linguistic categories such as modal auxiliaries,
lexcial modal verbs, modal adverbs, modal nouns and modal adjectives. The
following discussed the linguistic categories of modality in English.
2.3.1. Modal verbs
First and foremost, modality was not mentioned without modal verbs. Modal
verbs, called as modal auxiliaries or simply modals, created a relatively small
and closed group of verbs that significantly differed from other ‗ordinary‘ verbs.
Regarding the semantic, in contrast to lexical verbs, the meaning of modals
depended on context. Leech (1969, p.203-204) gave us a general look on the
meanings of modals as in the following table:
Modals
Can
Could
May
Might
Shall
Should
Ought to
Will / ´ll
Would / ´d
Must

Meaning
Possibility, ability/capability, permission
Possibility, permission
Speaker´s willingness,
speaker´s insistence
Weak volition/willingness, strong volition/insistence
Obligation, logical necessity

From the table above, it was seen that modal auxiliary verbs can, could, may,
might express permission, possibility and ability; modal auxiliary verbs must,
9


ought to, and should indicated obligation and necessity; will and shall as well as
would denoted volition and prediction.
Moreover, according to Biber et al. (1999, p.483), there were nine central modal
auxiliary verbs that were used to express modality: can, could, may, might, shall,
should, will, would, must. Besides, many authors also mentioned ought (to)
among the group of the modal auxiliaries and dare, need, used (to) were often
referred to as semi-modals.
Recently, according to Downing & Locke (2006), modality could be realized
through the following categories:
- modal verbs; semi-modals: need, dare, wish;
- lexical auxiliaries (chain-like structures with primary verbs be and
have): be able to, be apt to, be due to, be going to, be liable to, be likely
to, be certain to, be sure to, be to, be unlikely to, be supposed to, have
to, have got to, had better, would rather, would sooner;
- phased structures composed of a catenative verb, such as need, want,
regret, try, manage, hesitate, happen, chance, tend, seem, appear,
pretend, followed by a nonfinite verb form;
- lexical verbs such as allow, beg, command, forbid, guarantee, guess,
promise, suggest, warn.
The above list meant that apart from modal auxiliaries, modality could be
expressed through some other lexical verbs. These authors also provided other
lexcical means of modality such as adverbs and sentence modifiers, predicate
adjectives and nouns.

10


2.3.2. Modal adverbs
Although modal adverbs had not received much attention from the researchers,
they were still an important expression of modality. Matthews (1991) claimed
that together with other modal categories, modal adverbs ―may be taken to
represent, at least in part, the ‗natural‘ conceptualization of modality in English‖
and they constituted a part of ―a basic network of modality concept for English‖.
In Quirk et al.‘s work (1985, p.583), they also called these adverbs as ―common
emphasizes‖ and classified them into 2 small groups. The first one included
actually, certainly, clearly, definitely, indeed, obviously, plainly, really, surely,
for certain, for sure , of course suggesting what is being said is true. The second
one with the manifestation of the items as frankly, honestly, literally, simply,
fairly, just had the value that what the speaker says is unambiguously true.
2.3.3. Modal adjectives
DeLazero (2011) argued that modal adjectives not only combined with nouns
describing situations and participants in situations (entities in context) but also
expressed modality when they are combined with to + infinitive or a that clause.
They were also included in the generic phrases which were mentioned in
Alizera‘s paper (2011). According to him, the adjectives, frustrating, tragic,
unlikely, likely, certain, conceivable, clear, unclear, and hard, appeared
commonly in English editorials. Along with these, the other modal adjectives
could include possible, probable, absolute, complete, essential, definite, etc.
2.3.4. Modal nouns
As far as mentioned in the studies, modal nouns could additionally express
modality. Halliday (1976), Greenbaum (1996) and Palmer (2001) noted that
11

modality might be also marked by non-verbs such as possibility and perhaps.
They were often followed by a ‗that clause‘ or to + infinitive. It was hard for a
modal noun to operate on the level of the whole proposition they take part in.
However, combined with a ‗that clause‘, to verb, or verb (usually verbs with
more or less auxiliary function), these nouns could replace modal verbs.
Modality could be manifested with such modal nouns as chance, possibility,
probability, necessity, capacity, certainty, opportunity, obligation, etc.
2.4. Editorials and classification of newspaper editorials
2.4.1. Definition of editorials
Not as far as the history of human beings, newspaper seemingly appeared in the
17th century and developed widely with the invention of the printing press. The
first newspaper writers were not allowed to break the principles of journalism by
including their assessments into that piece of news. Since 19 th century, the
newspapers have been written with various communicative purposes so that the
language used in this type of media has also been changed.
Yaasa claimed that the editorial started around 1830 (cited in Ate, 2008).
Nowadays, when the word ―human rights‖ appears everywhere around the
world, it is easily acceptable for people to raise their voice and show their
thought about what they see and hear. It is also why the editorial becomes an
important part in any newspapers. It can be said that the editorial has a
significant role in any newspapers nowadays because it not only informs the
readers with news but also attaches the writer‘s attitudes and opinions on that
piece of news. There are numerous definitions of editorial. Each of them stands
out the contents and the duties of this type of newspapers.
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Okoro and Agbo (2003, p.125) defined editorial as ―a critical evaluation,
interpretation and presentation of significant, contemporary events in such a way
as to inform, educate, entertain and influence the reader.‖

Hoffman, M (2007, p.113) specified editorial as a ―statement of opinion from an
editor or publisher about you and your business. Media coverage generated by
news staff‖.
Simply, Ate (2008) described editorial writing of any newspaper as the voice,
reputation, ideology, public assessment channel to the audience and mouth piece
of the newspaper.
In general, editorial is a kind of news which conveys the writer‘s opinion on
discussed matter. He may hope to provide the news and deliver his comments
about that piece of news as well.
However, the writer‘s opinion might be delivered in different ways. Merrill
(1965, p.74) expressed that the most obvious kind of subjectivity is explicit
opinion and he provided a parallel between explicit opinion and Hayakawa‘s
term judgment, all the author‘s agreement and disagreement of the phenomena
being discussed (1978, p.37). Hayakawa named another way of delivering the
writer‘s assessment ―slanting‖. This made certain opinions unavoidable through
one-sided selection of details (1978, p.41-42). Slanting could be considered an
implicit opinion which might be manifested through the selection of topics, the
importance given to different topics and features of styles (Van Dijk, 1988a
&1988b). In addition, the writer‘s opinion was often hidden by employing some
means like the use of numbers to indicate precision, presenting opposite views
on a matter, eyewitness accounts of events and the use of quotation marks
13


especially (Tuchman, 1972 & van Dijk 1987a). It was concluded that the writers‘
assessments could be achieved through many different devices among which
quotations and reported speech seemed one of the effective one.
2.4.2. Classification of newspaper editorials
It was clear that ―for everything under the sun, there must be a purpose‖ (Ate,
2008, p.58) and this type of newspaper had to surely follow this rule. Editorial

could be written in the hope with persuading, amusing and amazing the readers.
In the thesis, the researcher used the classification suggested by Hall (2003).
Based on the suggested classification, it was possible to classify the newspaper
editorials into editorials of Criticism, Attack, Defense, Endorsement, Praise,
Appeal and Entertainment. He also provided the definition with vivid examples
for each type. It seemed that Hall‘s classification was clear and easily
understandable; therefore, this framework had basically been used in numerous
research papers.
2.4.3. Editorials of commendation
Amongst these types of editorials, praise or commendation editorials were
written with the aim of complimenting some individuals, groups of people or
even some organizations who have a lot of devotion in specific areas.
According to Hyland (2000, p.44), a commendation is defined as ―an act which
attributes credit to another for some characteristic, attribute, skill, etc., which is
positively valued by the writer‖. Such a positive evaluative act was clarified as a
positive remark on what that athlete or celebrity had done or achieved, their
professional skills, their personal characters, their efforts to overcome difficulties
or even their potential results.
14


Hall et al. (2015, p.120) claimed that the editorials of commendation ―obviously
points out the merits of an idea or the superior qualities of a person‖. They also
added ―papers should strive for a balance between praise ad criticism in
editorials‖. It meant that to find an editorial with a pure commendation was hard
and the writers might mix this type with the others.
In the research, the researcher compared similarities and differences in
employing the lexical means of modality in culture and sport editorials of
commendation between two newspapers, an American English and a Vietnamese
English.

2.5. Previous studies
There have not been many researches relating to modality in editorials. Most of
them paid much attention on modality in editorials of criticism and some others
were for modality in general editorials. Modality referred to attitudes and
judgments expressed in newspaper texts and is characterized by the use of modal
linguistic carriers. Modality had been categorized as a language argumentative
strategy. Analyzing modality in Arabic and English editorials, Biber (1998)
claimed that modals which expressed necessity such as „must‟, „should‟,
prediction such as „will‟ „would‟, and possibility such as „can‟, „may‟, „could‟
were often used in English editorials. Additionally, Westin and Geisler (2002)
also suggested prediction and necessity modals as argumentative strategies used
in editorials. Furthermore, Morley (2004) concluded that editorials employed
such argumentative strategies as necessity, probability and prediction.
Probability referred to modals like can, could, may and might while prediction
was manifested with shall, will and would. He also covered phrasal modals such
15