Modality in linguistics research articles a comparison of international and local english medium journals

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ DIỆU MINH MODALITY IN LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES: A COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL AND VIETNAMESE ENGLISH-MEDIUM JOURNALS MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH BINH DINH – 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ DIỆU MINH MODALITY IN LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES: A COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL AND VIETNAMESE ENGLISH-MEDIUM JOURNALS Field English Linguistics Code 8220201 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Tôn Nữ Mỹ Nhật STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the research entitled Modality in Linguistics Research Articles: A Comparison of International and Vietnamese Englishmedium Journals is my own work I further declare that this paper has not been submitted, either in part or in full, for the award of any other degree or diploma, and it contains no material previously published or written by other persons where due acknowledgement is not made in the paper Quy Nhon, 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this graduation thesis is the result of not only my own efforts but also other assistance of organizations and individuals to whom I would like to express my deepest gratitude First of all, I am sincerely grateful to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Ton Nu My Nhat, for the thoughtful guidance, critical comments and precious advice that she spared for me Without her endless patience and constant encouragement during the process of conducting this study, the work would never have been completed Secondly, my warmest thanks go to the Department of Foreign Languages for generously supporting me and giving me permission to embark on this project Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my beloved family and friends, who have always believed in me and given me strength to overcome all the troubles I encountered during the fulfillment of this research ABTRACT The present paper sets out to investigate the similarities and differences in the employment of modality in Linguistics research papers across two subsets, the internationally established journals and the non-scopus-indexed English-medium journals published in Vietnam To provide an in-depth description, a compilation of 30 Linguistics research papers over a three-year time span from 2017 to 2019 was selected from English for Specific Purposes and VNU Journal of Foreign Studies to form the data set The corpus was then closely investigated in terms of the frequency of modality tokens, the semantic and syntactic features of modality in the entire articles as well as the modality distribution across sections The findings indicate a small disproportion in the frequency between two groups of authors Comparatively, the Vietnamese researchers are found to use more deontic and dynamic modality markers whereas the international writers tend to opt for epistemic modality; the articles by the international authors also present a wider range of expressions though those by the Vietnamese reveal a predominance of modal verbs The examination of modality distribution across sections suggests the same sequence for both subsets, which starts from Conclusion to Results and Discussion, Literature review, Introduction and ends with Method, with Conclusion being the section with the highest frequency, and Method being the lowest Additionally, articles in the international subset have a higher number of modality tokens and normalized frequency in each section than those written by Vietnamese authors It is expected that issues unfolded from this study could theoretically contribute to a better understanding of modality in research papers in general and in those in the discipline of Linguistics in particular; practically, the thesis is also hoped to promote the Vietnamese researchers in their endeavor to join the international academic community TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABTRACT LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim and Objectives 1.2.1 Aim 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 Research Questions 1.4 Scope of the Study 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Organization of the Study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Modality 2.1.1 Definition of Modality 2.1.2 Classification of Modality 2.1.3 Modality Markers 17 2.2 Previous Studies 22 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 26 3.1 Research Methods 26 3.2 Data Collection 26 3.3 Data Analysis 32 3.3.1 Identification of Modality Markers 32 3.3.2 Calculation of Occurrence Frequencies 34 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 37 4.1 Results 37 4.1.1 The Use of Modality in the Entire RAs in Two Subsets 37 4.1.2 The Distribution of Modality across Sections in RAs in Two Subsets 55 4.2 Discussion 67 4.2.1 Modality Use in the Entire RAs 67 4.2.2 Modality Distribution across Sections 74 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 78 5.1 Conclusion 78 5.2 Implications 81 5.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 82 PERSONAL PUBLICATIONS 84 REFERENCES 85 APPENDICES APPENDIX A: List of RAs as data APPENDIX B: Modality distribution in the entire RAs APPENDIX C: Modality distribution across sections APPENDIX D: List of linguistic realization to denote modality in Linguistics RAs LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DeM Deontic Modality DyM Dynamic Modality EpM Epistemic Modality RA(s) Research Article(s) As for the codes of articles in the corpus:  I for articles by international writers;  V for articles by Vietnamese writers;  17, 18, 19 for the year of 2017, 2018, 2019 respectively;  01-05 for the number of article, in order of publication E.g.: - I1705: Article in the subset written by international authors, published in 2017, numbered 5; - V1901: Article in the subset written by Vietnamese authors, published in 2019, numbered LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 The possibility/ necessity notions of epistemic and deontic modality 13 Table 2.2 Lexical deontic markers 20 Table 2.3 Lexical epistemic markers 21 Table 3.1 Number of English-medium RAs from 2017 to June 2019 29 Table 3.2 Functions of sections in RAs 31 Table 3.3 Word count of two subsets 32 Table 3.4 Labels for section headings in the corpus 33 Table 4.1 Descriptive statistics of modality markers in the corpus 37 Table 4.2 Distribution of modality markers in the entire RAs 38 Table 4.3 Occurrence of semantic subtypes 39 Table 4.4 Occurrence of syntactic subtypes 48 Table 4.5 Occurrence of modality markers across sections 55 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 The English for Specific Purposes 27 Figure 3.2 The VNU Journal of Foreign Studies 27 Figure 4.1 Percentage of semantic subtypes 47 Figure 4.2 Percentage of syntactic subtypes 54 Figure 4.3 Normalized frequency of markers across sections (per 1,000 words) 56 90 27) New York: Cambridge University Press Hyland, K., & Milton, J (1997) Qualification and certainty in L1 and L2 students‟ writing Journal of Second Language Writing, 6(2), 183-205 Jespersen, O (1924) The philosophy of grammar London: Allen and Unwin Khosravi, M (2016) Epistemic modality in Iranian EFL learners‟ written performance Paper presented at the International Conference on Literature and Linguistics, Rome, Italy Kranich, S (2009) Epistemic modality in English popular scientific texts and their German translations Trans-kom, 2(1), 26-41 Kratzer, A (2013) Modals and conditionals Oxford: Oxford University Press Letica, S (2009) Use of epistemic modality by non-native speakers of English In R Lugossy, J Horváth, & M Nikolov (Eds), UPRT 2008: Empirical studies in English applied linguistics (pp.119-134) Pécs: Lingua Franca Csoport Lin, L., & Evans, S (2012) Structural patterns in empirical research articles: A cross-disciplinary study English for Specific Purposes, 31, 150-160 Lyons, J (1977) Semantics (Vol 2) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press McCarthy, M (1991) Discourse analysis for language teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press McEnery, T., & Hardie, A (2012) Corpus linguistics: Method, theory and practice Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Mifka-Profozic, N (2017) Processing epistemic modality in a second language: A self-paced reading study International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 55(3), 245-264 Milton, J., & Hyland, K (1999) Assertions in students‟ academic essays: A 91 comparison of L1 and L2 writers In R Berry, B Asker, K Hyland, & M Lam (Eds.), Language analysis, description and pedagogy (pp.147161) Hong Kong: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Press Myers, G (1989) The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles Applied Linguistics, 10(1), 1-35 Ngula, R.S (2015) Epistemic modality in social science research articles written by Ghanaian authors: A corpus-based study of disciplinary and native vs non-native variations (Unpublished doctoral dissertation) Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, United Kingdom Nuyts, J (2001) Epistemic modality, language, and conceptualization: A cognitive–pragmatic perspective (Vol 5) Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company Nuyts, J (2006) Modality: Overview and linguistic issues In W Frawley (ed.), The expression of modality (pp.1-26) Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter Olaniyan, K.K., & Adeniji, A (2015) Modality in statement of objectives in arts-based research article abstracts British Journal of English Linguistics, 3(1), 42-51 Orta, I.V (2010) A contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs in the expression of epistemic stance in Business Management research articles in English and Spanish Ibérica, 19, 77-96 Palmer, F R (2001) Mood and modality (2nd ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Palmer, F.R (2013) Modality and the English modals (2nd ed.) New York, USA: Routledge Parkinson, J (2017) The student laboratory report genre: A genre analysis 92 English for Specific Purposes, 45, 1-13 Pastor, M.L.C (2012) A contrastive analysis of epistemic modality in scientific English Revista de lenguas para Fines Específicos, 18, 115132 Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J (1985) A comprehensive grammar of the English language Harlow: Longman Rubin, V L (2010) Epistemic modality: From uncertainty to certainty in the context of information seeking as interactions with texts Information Processing and Management, 46, 533-540 doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2010.02.006 Salager-Meyer, F (1994) Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written discourse English for Specific Purposes, 13(2), 149-170 Simpson, P (1993) Language, ideology and point of view London: Routledge Šolienė, A (2013) Realizations of epistemic modality in English and Lithuanian: Parameters of equivalence Summary of doctoral dissertation, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania Stamatović, M.V (2016) Scaling deontic modality in parliamentary discourse Logos et Littera: Journal of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Text, 131-149 Suhadi, J (2011) Epistemic and deontic modality: Two sides of a coin JULISA, 11(2), 156-179 Suikkanen, J (2018) Deontic modality Analysis, 78(2), 354-363 https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/any015 Sweetser, E (1990) From etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure Cambridge: Cambridge 93 University Press Tôn Nữ Mỹ Nhật, & Nguyễn Thị Diệu Minh (2019) Epistemic modality in TED talks on education VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 35(4), 75-91 van der Auwera, J., & Plungian, V A (1998) Modality‟s semantic map Linguistic Typology, 2(1), 79-124 Van linden, A., & Verstraete, J.-C (2011) Revisiting deontic modality and related categories: A conceptual map based on the study of English modal adjectives Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 150-163 Varttala, T (1998) Remarks on the communicative functions of hedging in popular scientific and specialist research articles in medicine English for Specific Purposes, 18(2), 177-199 Vázquez, I., & Giner, D (2008) Beyond mood and modality: Epistemic modality markers as hedges in research articles A cross-disciplinary study Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 21, 171-190 Vičič, P., & Petek, K.J (2016) The role of modal verbs in research papers in the field of logistics Scripta Manent, 11, 21-41 Vold, E.T (2006) Epistemic modality markers in research articles: a crosslinguistic and crossdisciplinary study International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 16(1), 61-87 von Wright, G.H (1951) An essay in modal logic Amsterdam: NorthHolland Yamazaki, A.K (2001) The pragmatic function of modal verbs in scientific papers The Report of Tokyo University of Fisheries, 36, 17-29 Yang, A., Zheng, S & Ge, G (2015) Epistemic modality in English-medium medical research articles: A systemic functional perspective English for Specific Purposes, 38, 1-10 Yang, X (2018) A corpus-based study of modal verbs in Chinese learners‟ 94 academic writing English Language Teaching, 11(2), 122-130 Zupan, S (2016) Epistemic modality in translation: Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" AAA – Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 41(1), 5-24 Online resources The Grammar Lab: http://www.thegrammarlab.com/?p=160 VNU Journal of Foreign Studies: https://js.vnu.edu.vn/FS/ PL-1 APPENDICES APPENDIX A List of RAs as data Table A.1 RAs in the international subset Code Articles I1701 Parkinson, J (2017) The student laboratory report genre: A genre analysis English for Specific Purposes, 45, 1-13 I1702 Caplan, N A., & Stevens, S G (2017) “Step Out of the Cycle”: Needs, challenges, and successes of international undergraduates at a U.S University English for Specific Purposes, 46, 15-28 I1703 Cotos, E., Huffman, S., & Link, S (2017) A move/step model for methods sections: Demonstrating rigour and credibility English for Specific Purposes, 46, 90-106 I1704 Poole, R (2017) “New opportunities” and “Strong performance”: Evaluative adjectives in letters to shareholders and potential for pedagogically-downsized specialized corpora English for Specific Purposes, 47, 40-51 I1705 Rolls, H., & Rodgers, M P H (2017) Science-specific technical vocabulary in science fiction-fantasy texts: A case for „language through literature‟ English for Specific Purposes, 48, 44-56 I1801 Sheppard, C., Manalo, E., & Henning, M (2018) Is ability grouping beneficial or detrimental to Japanese ESP students‟ English language proficiency development? English for Specific Purposes, 49, 39-48 I1802 McLaughlin, E., & Parkinson, J (2018) „We learn as we go‟: How acquisition of a technical vocabulary is supported during vocational training English for Specific Purposes, 50, 14-27 PL-2 I1803 Fraiberg, S (2018) Multilingual and multimodal practices at a global startup: Toward a spatial approach to language and literacy in professional contexts English for Specific Purposes, 51, 55-68 I1804 Coxhead, A., & Demecheleer, M (2018) Investigating the technical vocabulary of plumbing English for Specific Purposes, 51, 84-97 I1805 Bremner, S., & Costley, T (2018) Bringing reality to the classroom: Exercises in intertextuality English for Specific Purposes, 52, 1-12 I1901 Green, C., & Lambert, J (2019) Position vectors, homologous chromosomes and gamma rays: Promoting disciplinary literacy through Secondary Phrase Lists English for Specific Purposes, 53, 1-12 I1902 Staples, S (2019) Using corpus-based discourse analysis for curriculum development: Creating and evaluating a pronunciation course for internationally educated nurses English for Specific Purposes, 53, 13-29 I1903 Trippe, J., & Baese-Berk, M (2019) A prosodic profile of American Aviation English English for Specific Purposes, 53, 3046 I1904 Cotos, E (2019) Articulating societal benefits in grant proposals: Move analysis of Broader Impacts English for Specific Purposes, 54, 15-34 I1905 McCambridge, L (2019) If you can defend your own point of view, you‟re good: Norms of voice construction in student writing on an international Master‟s programme English for Specific Purposes, 54, 110-126 PL-3 Table A.2 RAs in the Vietnamese subset Code Articles V1701 T T Hao, & N D Phuong (2017) World Englishes from a holistic view and considerations on English education in Vietnam VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 33(6), 41-55 V1702 P V Hoa, & H T Q Thu (2017) Poetic metaphors of love in English and Vietnamese VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 33(6), 56-64 V1703 H T My (2017) Verbal strategies used in opening a conversation in office settings by English and Vietnamese staff and managers VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 33(6), 65-77 V1704 N Q Ngoan, & N T N Dung (2017) Speech act types in conversations in the “New interchange” series VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 33(6), 78-92 V1705 T T A Tuyet (2017) The effectiveness of collaborative brainstorming training procedures at pre-writing stage in intermediate English classes VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 33(6), 123-141 V1801 L T N Anh (2018) EFL students‟ voices on learner autonomy at a university in the Mekong delta VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 34(2), 26-38 V1802 T T Hang (2018) Translating proper names in a literary text: A case of Harry Potter novel in Vietnam VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 34(2), 39-50 V1803 D T Mai (2018) The application of strategy-based instructions to teach writing to first-year English majored students VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 34(2), 51-61 PL-4 V1804 N H H Thuy, & T T T Nga (2018) An investigation into EFL teachers‟ perceptions of in-class English speaking assessment VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 34(2), 125-139 V1805 L Q Khuong, & T T M Giang (2018) Pragmatic features of the structure “I + cognitive non-factive verb and epistemic adverb collocations” VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 34(4), 59-70 V1901 C T H Hoa, & T Vien (2019) Integrating culture into EFL teaching behind classroom doors: A case study of upper secondary teachers in Vietnam VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 35(1), 5567 V1902 N T T Thom, & P T T Thuy (2019) Primary English language teachers‟ engagement in professional development VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 35(1), 131-142 V1903 D T T Ha, & N T T Linh (2019) The use of nominalization in EMI student writing - A longitudinal perspective VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 35(3), 73-82 V1904 D H Thuy (2019) A relevance-theoretic analysis of yeah as a discourse marker VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 35(3), 176186 V1905 H N T Trang (2019) Language learner autonomy and language learning opportunities inside and outside classroom VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 35(3), 187-200 PL-5 APPENDIX B Modality distribution in the entire RAs Table B.1 Modality distribution in the entire RAs in the international subset C Wc T EpM DeM DyM Ind M V I1701 7168 61 35 12 I1702 6911 125 74 24 I1703 8202 121 55 I1704 7294 96 I1705 7184 I1801 Adv Adj N 31 19 17 10 60 33 17 15 19 24 23 76 25 11 58 14 16 53 14 23 204 125 18 23 38 109 41 25 27 5551 97 67 13 11 44 27 15 I1802 9616 124 88 14 12 10 58 60 I1803 6826 71 40 11 16 41 18 I1804 7289 104 60 19 10 15 57 31 I1805 9525 227 125 61 26 15 123 72 11 14 I1901 7624 119 70 21 15 13 75 29 10 I1902 8661 111 55 18 30 69 25 I1903 8234 105 54 22 17 12 75 13 I1904 7406 90 50 19 13 62 17 I1905 10985 253 162 44 31 16 107 96 36 11 Note C = Code; Wc = Word count; T = Total number of modality markers; EpM = Epistemic Modality; DeM = Deontic Modality; DyM = Dynamic Modality; Ind = Indeterminate; M = Modal verbs; V = Verbs; Adv = Adverbs; Adj = Adjectives; N = Nouns PL-6 Table B.2 Modality distribution in the entire RAs in the Vietnamese subset C Wc T EpM DeM DyM Ind M V Adv Adj N V1701 6493 114 48 54 10 69 32 V1702 3884 39 18 14 28 V1703 6196 54 26 20 47 V1704 6628 116 43 29 39 77 19 13 V1705 7912 161 61 25 62 13 127 29 V1801 5872 80 27 26 27 43 23 V1802 4964 59 41 12 35 11 11 V1803 3747 27 12 20 V1804 4963 82 26 32 22 57 21 V1805 3866 111 78 12 18 51 44 12 V1901 4292 29 16 19 V1902 4960 65 23 18 21 41 21 V1903 2746 29 14 10 20 2 V1904 4884 110 61 18 24 75 25 V1905 4913 20 18 27 42 23 69 Note C = Code; Wc = Word count; T = Total number of modality markers; EpM = Epistemic Modality; DeM = Deontic Modality; DyM = Dynamic Modality; Ind = Indeterminate; M = Modal verbs; V = Verbs; Adv = Adverbs; Adj = Adjectives; N = Nouns PL-7 APPENDIX C Modality distribution across sections Table C.1 Modality distribution across sections in the international subset C T I1701 I LR M RD Cs Wc No Wc No Wc No Wc No Wc No 61 1185 10 887 530 3331 28 1235 17 I1702 125 461 599 671 4084 84 1096 24 I1703 121 1036 11 729 10 1281 10 4308 68 848 22 I1704 96 576 1236 1195 15 3310 37 977 31 I1705 204 478 10 1815 51 1536 17 3198 121 157 I1801 213 1467 41 1080 2316 34 475 15 I1802 124 1437 24 368 2021 11 4909 61 881 25 I1803 97 71 811 552 1630 16 2985 34 848 17 I1804 104 442 1954 35 1839 1955 21 1099 34 I1805 227 365 1430 32 2146 46 5136 137 448 I1901 119 611 1515 16 2891 63 2163 27 444 I1902 111 767 10 701 10 1788 16 4642 56 763 19 I1903 105 969 21 3092 40 1407 10 2638 33 128 I1904 90 672 986 1220 3783 54 745 23 I1905 253 325 1562 31 1417 17 6776 181 905 23 Note C = Code; T = Total number of modality markers; I = Introduction section; LR = Literature Review section; M = Method section; RD = Results and Discussion section; Cs = Conclusion section; Wc = Word count of each section; No = Number of occurrences of modality in each section PL-8 Table C.2 Modality distribution across sections in the Vietnamese subset C T I LR M RD Cs Wc No Wc No Wc No Wc No Wc No V1701 114 195 1847 13 462 3662 95 327 V1702 39 181 318 210 3020 33 155 V1703 54 152 626 471 4157 35 790 V1704 116 300 954 15 752 3736 71 886 24 V1705 161 378 1635 39 1155 13 4030 86 714 15 V1801 80 568 1129 19 621 3371 41 184 V1802 59 107 800 240 3694 51 123 V1803 27 111 1360 11 882 1061 333 V1804 82 236 721 799 2866 55 341 10 V1805 111 253 1709 30 219 1446 73 239 V1901 29 375 1371 11 520 1807 12 219 V1902 65 571 298 1022 2689 51 380 V1903 29 272 709 411 969 385 V1904 110 469 2365 56 464 1279 36 307 V1905 170 1181 14 468 2255 31 839 18 69 Note C = Code; T = Total number of modality markers; I = Introduction section; LR = Literature Review section; M = Method section; RD = Results and Discussion section; Cs = Conclusion section; Wc = Word count of each section; No = Number of occurrences of modality in each section PL-9 APPENDIX D List of linguistic realization to denote modality in Linguistics RAs A EpM  Modal verbs be going to can could  Lexical verbs appear argue assume believe claim consider deem  Adverbials apparently arguably certainly clearly conceivably definitely feasibly in all probability inevitably  Adjectives apparent bound clear conceivable evident  Nouns assumption chance claims may may might must will would expect feel find guess indicate look presume propose seem sound suggest tend think in my opinion likely maybe obviously of course ostensibly perhaps possibly potentially probably purportedly seemingly supposedly surely to be sure to our knowledge undoubtedly (un)likely obvious plausible (im)possible probable prone seeming suggestive true indication likelihood possibility potential sense tendency PL-10 B DeM  Modal verbs have to must  Lexical verbs advise allow ask  Adjectives critical crucial essential  Nouns requirement C DyM  Modal verbs can could  Adjectives able  Nouns ability ought to should expect need recommend require suggest suppose imperative important mandated necessary may might will capable ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ DIỆU MINH MODALITY IN LINGUISTICS RESEARCH ARTICLES: A COMPARISON OF INTERNATIONAL AND VIETNAMESE ENGLISH- MEDIUM JOURNALS. .. 3.2 Data Collection With the aim of comparing and contrasting the modality use in Linguistics RAs by international and Vietnamese writers, this research set out to examine a compilation of 30 English- medium. .. Modality in Linguistics Research Articles: A Comparison of International and Vietnamese English- medium Journals with the expectation of implementing long established theories of modality to RAs The