A corpus based study on gender related differences in deontic modality markers used in commencement remarks by american speakers

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ DUY AN A CORPUS-BASED STUDY ON GENDERRELATED DIFFERENCES IN DEONTIC MODALITY MARKERS USED IN COMMENCEMENT REMARKS BY AMERICAN SPEAKERS Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 60.22.02.01 MASTER THESIS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES (A SUMMARY) Da Nang, 2017 This thesis has been completed at University of Foreign Language Studies- The University of Danang Supervisor: Trần Hữu Phúc, Ph.D Examiner 1: Dr Lê Thị Giao Chi Examiner 2: Dr Nguyễn Tất Thắng The thesis will be orally defended at the Examining Committee Time : 9th, September 2017 Venue: University of Foreign Language Studies This thesis is available for the purpose of reference at: - Library of University of Foreign Language Studies, The University of Danang - The Information Resources Center, the University of Danang CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE Commencement remark makes up a substantial part of campus culture, distinguishes themselves as memorable and profoundly inspirational messages This type of public speaking is delivered at graduation ceremony and primely expected to celebrate the graduates’ past experience, present academic accomplishments and provoke future hopes with the motivation, encouragement and inspiration Commencement remarks are believed to be potently written; hence, among such factors as word choices, stylistic devices, sentence structures and other grammatical elements, the huge potential of semantic and pragmatic meanings of modality markers can effectively contribute to the conveyance of speakers’ ideas However, the frequency and meanings conveyed are evidently different in male and female speakers When stating obligation, for example, female guest speakers use more objective obligation with inclusive “We” or impersonal “It” or passive voice to imply an objective obligatory situation - I want you to take a breath and reflect so that attention must be paid (Jane Lynch, 2012) - So we must come together as competitors and carers (Anne-Marie Slaughter, 2016) In a sharp contrast, male speakers employ more subjective obligation with second person subject “You” to intensify the hearer’s responsibilities - You must continue to work You must continue to serve and empower others (Eric Holder, 2010) Deontic modality makers can be employed to serve various functions such as confirming ability and assurance, persuading, requesting, expressing hope, wish and fear, providing advice and encouragement, evoking responsibility and obligation as well as calling for action For the aforementioned reasons, I decided to conduct a study entitled: “A Corpus-Based Study on Gender- Related Differences in Deontic Modality Markers Used in Commencement Remarks By American Speakers” Through the research, it is hoped that readers and learners will be able to comprehend the employment of deontic modality markers and the speaker’s communication strategies as well as exploring the role of gender in differentiating various desired effects regarding the use of modality markers 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1 Aims - Investigate deontic modality markers used in commencement speeches by American speakers in terms of their popularity, frequency as well as syntactic structures, semantic features and pragmatic functions - Find out the similarities and the differences between the usage of male and female 1.2.2 Objectives - Examine some syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features of deontic modality markers used in commencement speeches by American speakers - Compare the employment of MM in the remarks made by male and female speakers, then analyze their differences in relation to syntactic, semantic and pragmatic properties - Propose some implications of the findings for the teaching and learning of English concerning deontic modality markers 1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY This paper concentrates on investigating on the examination of deontic modality markers regarding syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features in commencement remarks by American speakers Grammatical, lexical means of modal expressions are taken into consideration Such issues of pragmatics as illocutionary force of utterances are also analyzed 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS What are the types of deontic modality markers employed in commencement speeches by American speakers? What are syntactic structures, semantic features and pragmatic functions of deontic modality markers employed in commencement speeches by American speakers? What are the similarities and the differences in the use of deontic modality markers between male and female speakers? 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The findings of this study are expected to facilitate better understanding of the use of modality markers concerning semantic features and pragmatic functions Additionally, the findings are supposed to be a useful source of modality markers application for the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language in general and for students who are interested in practical application in writing public speeches in particular 1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical background Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES There have been various approaches to this domain; as a result, many aspects of modality markers have been dealt with in previous research works conducted by Lyons (1977), Searle (1979), Perkins (1983), Palmer (1986), Downing; Locke (2006), etc… Nuyts, J., Byloo, P., & Diepeveen, J (2010) tries to understand the nature of deontic modality, and its relationship with the imperative mood, through a corpus-based analysis of the Dutch modals mogen ‘may’ and moeten ‘must’ Jankowski, B (2004) analyzes the English modal verb Must and the periphrastic constructions have to, have got to and got to, focusing on the variability and ongoing change in the use of deontic modality to express obligation or necessity in British and American English Coates (2004) accessed an approach to a more nuanced idea of women and men performing gender in their everyday interactions Yeganeh, M T., & Ghoreyshi, S M (2015) investigated the gender differences in the use of discourse markers in Iranian academic research articles Trần Hữu Phúc (2017) examined the connection between the employment of modality expressions and politeness strategies in British and American ambassadorial speeches to identify some striking differences in the frequency use of modality expressions as politeness categories Phạm Khắc Thu (2010) studied modal expressions used in inaugural speeches of the US Presidents in terms of their grammatical lexical and some linguistic features means of modal expressions Trần Thị Như Quỳnh (2013), in her thesis, examined the lexical devices expressing modality meaning in lectures in English 2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.2.1 Definition of modality Lyons (1977: 452) states that “Modality is used by the speaker in order to express his opinion or attitudes towards the proposition that the sentence expresses or the situation that the proposition describes” Searle (1979) places the focus on the categories of illocutionary acts that covers the sense of epistemic and deontic modality According to Perkins (1983), there are three sets of principles regarding the meanings of modality responding respectively to epistemic, deontic and dynamic modality In the position of Palmer (1986), modality is concerned with mood (subjunctive etc.) and with modal markers such as English modal verbs (can, may, must etc.) and is treated as a single grammatical category found in most of the languages of the world 2.2.2 Types of modality Table 2.1: Theoretical framework of modality meanings (Adapted from Tran Huu Phuc (2017)) Other alternative divisions of modality Discourse oriented Subject oriented Intrinsic Extrinsic Theoretical The basic semantic categories of modality Epistemic Deontic Dynamic obligation, permission certainty, possibility, probability, likelihood, prediction certainty, possibility, probability, likelihood, prediction Practical ability, volition desirability obligation, permission, volition, desire, ability, intention, willingness ability Palmer (1986) Palmer (1974) Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech (1985) James (1986) wish, regret, obligation, permission, ability, desire, intention, willingness obligation, root possibility ability, desire Agentoriented Speakeroriented Authors imperatives, permissives, optatives Bybee and Fleischman (1995) Theory framework of Palmer will be studied in order to figure out their semantic characteristics in the discourse of commencement remarks 2.2.3 Deontic modality Deontic modality means more specifically that the speaker or writer ‘intervenes in the speech event by laying obligations or giving permission’ (Downing and Locke, 1992: 332) Halliday (1970: 335) claims that deontic modality can be regarded as “a form of participation of the speaker in the speech event.” Chung and Timberlake (1985), in the same vein, consider deontic modality as modality that connotes the speaker's degree of requirement of, desire for or commitment to the realization of the proposition expressed by the utterance Deontic modal category includes the following subcategories on which the analysis of the thesis’s data is based: a Commissive modality express the speaker's commitment to something, like a promise or threat b Directive modality are used in Imperative, Deliberative, Obligative, Prohibitive, Precative, Permissive moods for commands, requests, etc c Volitive modality include Desiderative and Optative moods for hopes, wishes, desires and fears 2.2.4 Linguistic realization of deontic modality markers 2.2.4.1 Modal nouns 2.2.4.2 Modal adjectives 2.1.4.3 Modal adverbs 2.2.4.4 Modal lexical verbs 2.2.4.5 Modal auxiliary verbs 2.2.4.6 Quasi modal auxiliary 2.2.4.7 If- clauses 2.2.4.8 The imperative forms 2.2.5 Speech act theory- Ilocutionary act According to Austin (1975), speech acts are divided into three types namely locutionary act, illocutionary act, and perlocutionary act Searle (1975) classifies illocutionary acts into five types according to their illocutionary force: Assertives, Assertives, Directives, Commisives, Expressives and Declarations In this thesis, the theories of illocutionary acts are applied as a means to analyze the semantic features in which deontic modality markers are used to convey feelings, attitudes, belief, or intention with respect to some events or state of affairs 2.2.6 Theory of politeness Under conversational maxim view, Grice (1975) proposed four maxims: Maxim of Quality (Be true), Maxim of Quantity (Be brief), Maxim of Relation (Be relevant), and Maxim of Manner (Be clear) Lakoff (1975) develops rules of politeness, consisting of three things which are “Don’t impose or Distance”, “Give option or Deference”, and lastly “Make audience feel good or Camaraderie” Leech (1983) proposes how to produce and understand language based on politeness including the Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim Brown and Levinson (1987) introduce notion of politeness including key concepts such as face (positive and negative), positive politeness, negative politeness, politeness strategies and face threatening acts (FTA) In this thesis, I will analyse the pragmatic functions of deontic modality markers on the principles of face-saving view of Brown and Levinson (1987) 2.2.7 Sociolinguistics 2.2.8 Language and Gender 2.2.9 Commencement speech CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN Quantitative approach enables the calculation of occurrence and the finding of language pattern instances The qualitative technique including descriptive and contrastive analysis support the explaining and exemplifying quantitative patterns as well as to generate a concrete description of the grammatical realizations, semantic and pragmatic features of deontic modality markers and to 10 syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features - Comparing to find out the similarities and differences in deontic modality markers regarding gender aspects 3.4 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 3.5 SUMMARY CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 TYPES OF DEONTIC MODALITY MARKERS IN COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES BY AMERICAN SPEAKERS 4.1.1 Modal Nouns 4.1.2 Modal Adjectives 4.1.3 Modal Adverbs 4.1.4 Modal Lexical Verbs 4.1.5 Modal Auxiliary Verbs 4.1.6 Quasi-Modal Verbs 4.1.7 If-Clause 4.1.8 Imperative Table 4.1: Summary of frequency of deontic MMs used in commencement speeches by American speakers Male Female Deontic MMs corpus corpus Mns MAdj 21 32 80 65 MAdv 48 51 a Mlex denoting acts of requesting 16 b Mlex denoting acts of suggesting 28 29 11 c.Mlex denoting acts of exercising 0 d Mlex denoting acts of committing 58 72 MAux 569 548 Quasi-Modal Verbs 252 116 If-Clause 96 140 Imperative 175 177 1,334 1,246 authority TOTAL Table 4.2: Syntactic position of deontic modality markers in commencement speeches by American speakers Category Position Initial Middle Final Mn - + - Madj - + - Madv + + - Maux + + + Mlex - + - Table 4.3: Typical grammatical patterns of deontic modality markers in commencement speeches by American speakers Modal marker Modal noun Modal adjective Syntactic patterns Examples of MM Particle / adjective + Mns This is/ It is/ That is + possessive adjectives + Mns +V to-inf It is + MAdj+ to inf V It is + MAdj+ that And so my final wish for you: May you have many, many more moments that sing [F-40] It is our obligation to nurture and educate talent to serve that trust — creating the people and the ideas that can change the world [F-63] It’s important to respect what they have done, and to be grateful for it [M-26] It is crucial that you to have a strong 12 Modal marker Syntactic patterns +P It is + Adj+ for SO + to inf V Modal adverb Madv + P Madv insert within P Modal Lexical Verbs Subject + Mlex + object+ V-to Inf Subject + Mlex + (that) + P Subject + Mlex + object+ Noun Modal auxiliary verb S + Maux +V-inf Maux + S + V-inf QuasiModal Verbs If clause S + M-quasi V +Vinf If clause, S + Mlex + P If clause, S +Maux Examples of MM psychological and cognitive foundation from which to navigate your life and to succeed in the modern world you are entering—a world that seems to get more complex every day [M-42] It’s important for you to give, as a way of saying thanks, but also to invest in future generations [M-32] And hopefully, in short order, less than two years after we received government support, we will repay every dollar that was lent to us by the American and Canadian governments, with interest [M-45] You shouldn’t necessarily feel that your next step is the most important one you’ll ever take [M-4] So today, I ask you to make tomorrow matter and then the day after that and the day after that.[M-39] I hope that you navigate the hard times and you come out with greater strength and resolve [M-39] I wish you joy I wish you health and happiness and success, I wish you a roof, four walls, a floor and someone in your life that you care about more than you care about yourself [M-2] You should be willing and able to accept whatever your fellow improviser throws at you [F-18) May you have many, many more moments that sing [F-40] You need to outwork everyone around you You need to arrive early, stay late, you need to make yourself indispensable [M-4] If you remember nothing else from today, I hope you remember this moment of human connection [M-47] If you mainly want to be famous, you have to 13 Modal marker Syntactic patterns + Vinf If clause, Vinf Imperatives V-inf+ V-inf Vinf+ NP +NP V+ Adj/ NP Examples of MM be okay with all that comes with it [F-7] If you are scared, look into your partner's eyes You will feel better [F-2] And then go it, that’s what it is [M-25] Make kindness a priority, not a blurred line [M-43] Be persistent: When someone says you’re thinking too big… be smart enough not to listen [M-19] 4.2 SEMANTIC FEATURES OF DEONTIC MODALITY MARKERS USED IN COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES IN MALE AND FEMALE CORPORA 4.2.1 Obligation And Responsibilities 4.2.1.1 Participant-oriented obligation a Subjective obligation The presence of these modal obliges the subject of the sentence to the action and that the speaker exercise his/her authority over the person/s mentioned in the clause (4 49) You have to be willing to fight for what you believe in You have to be willing to fight for what you want [F-14] b Exhortative obligation Exhortative obligation which is patently manifested through subject We accompanied by must and have to expresses obligation but mantain sense of togetherness (4 52) We must love freedom for the right reasons, and on occasion our love will need courage to survive [F-34] (4 54) We have to love our freedom not just for the autonomy it guarantees us, but for the goodness it makes possible [M-34] 14 4.2.1.2 Event-oriented obligation a Non-agentive obligation Unreal subject It or inanimate subjects can also be adopted to show the existence of some necessity without actually committing the speaker or listeners to it (4 56)…advice must be specific… [F-40] (4 58) Acquiring knowledge must be a lifelong pursuit; it will lead to wisdom and judgment [M-26] b Non-performative obligation Non-performative obligation aims at expressing the necessity or requirement that a proposition should be performed rather than an imposition on someone to something (4 61) It is our obligation to nurture and educate talent to serve that trust — creating the people and the ideas that can change the world [M-13] 4.2.2 Necessity And Encouragement 4.2.2.1 Necessity a Strong necessity Quasi-modal Need to and Madj such as important, crucial, essential, and necessary describe an obligation that originates with some party’s “internal compulsion” (Smith 2003, Leech 2003) (4 63) You need to put the right filter on your glasses when you look into the future and ask these questions You need to ask yourself what you can about it [M-8] (4 70) It's essential that we pay attention, a phrase that suggests both that a debt is owing somewhere and that we have precisely the resource we need in order to meet that debt… [F-43] 15 b Weak necessity Weak necessity modals is to afford a means of making such proposals and expressing suggestion, giving advice and showing necessity (4 71) You should take your life seriously The kind of seriousness I'm talking about isn't grim or narrow, clench-jawed or defensive or humorless [F-43] (4 72) And as you make those choices, you should what makes you happy -most people are happiest doing what they’re best at [M-8] 4.2.2.2 Encouragement a Adhortative The adhortative encourages or urges, signaling the speaker's encouragement toward the hearers to bringing about the proposition of an utterance (4.76) Be great Build great lives for yourselves Enjoy the liberties that you have in this great country Pursue your own version of happiness And please, please, always, always your part to help others the same [F-35] The pattern of You can also shows a great encouragement for the H to perform the act uttered (4.86) I truly believe you can change our national discourse for the better …Women: look at your toughness and your softness You can and should make room for both in your life The world needs both [F-30] b Cohortative Cohortative is used to promote their mutual encouragement, facilitating the possibilities of the hearers’ belief and faith and 16 enabling the creation of a common ground between the S and the H (4 83) Cadets, let’s give a shout-out for Nick and all the other warriors in Afghanistan! They’re incredible [M-29] (4 91) Now, let’s start with the real F-word, fear I implore you to never back away from fear, but instead, dive into it [F-7] c Dehortative Dehortative modality discourages or urges against the proposition of an utterance for the purpose of giving advice and warning (4 94) Don't work for fools It's not worth it Getting paid less to work for people you like and believe in is much better for you and your career in the long run [M-3] (4 98) Do not wait until the choice is upon you to establish and plan for your priorities You will still be a provider Providing care is every bit as important as providing cash [F-3] 4.2.3 Desirability And Commitment 4.2.3.1 Desirability It concerns with the notion ‘X hopes/ fears/ wishes/ wants/ desires that p’ and is used to express the speaker’s attitude of hope, wish, or fear concerning the proposition expressed by the utterance (4 100) I hope that as you develop your own definition of success, you will be able to so, if you wish, with a close companion on your journey [M-7] (4 101) Instead, I wish you a path filled with impediment and ambiguity and struggle and joy [F-21] Secondly, Mlex want is characterized by the subjective semantic to express personal wish, mood and desire (4 106) I want you to know how great it is to be here on this 17 happy occasion [M-15] Finally, Maux may is also an efficient device to convey the expression of wish as illustrated below: (4 108) May God Bless you and protect you and may God protect and bless all those who wear the uniform of the United States of America [M-29] 4.2.3.2 Commitment Commissives are expressed by Mlex promise, guarantee, vow, and swear (4 111) Fortune does favor the bold, and I promise that you will never know what you’re capable of unless you try … When tragedy or disappointment strikes, know that you have the ability to get through absolutely anything I promise you [F-17] Apart from the above modal lexical verbs, modal auxiliary verb will are also chosen to convey the meaning of personal commitment of the speakers towards the graduates (4 118) We will be there with you every step of the way So go out there and make it happen [F-35] Table 4.4: Summary of semantic features in commencement speeches by American speakers Participantoriented obligation Eventoriented obligation OBLIGATION AND RESPONSIBILITIES SEMANTIC FEATURES Specification a Subjective obligation b.Exhortative obligation You must/ have to Male corpus 71 Female corpus 45 We must/ have to 35 31 a.Non-agentive obligation St must be done 10 b.NonPerformative obligation S is the obligation… 119 93 18 SEMANTIC FEATURES Specification Necessity We need you to It is essential/crucial 33 25 b Weak necessity a Adhortative You/ we should V-inf… Let st Let’s Don’t 46 151 24 28 33 43 129 48 11 30 I hope/ wish/ want 340 84 305 87 May I promise/ guarantee/ swear 13 18 I will We will 17 20 28 12 142 184 b Cohortative c Dehortative Desi-rability Encourage -ment Female corpus 13 a Strong necessity Commitment DESIRABILITY AND COMMITMENT NECESSITY AND ENCOURAGEMENT You need to Male corpus 23 4.3 PRAGMATIC FEATURES OF DEONTIC MODALITY MARKERS USED IN COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES IN MALE AND FEMALE CORPORA 4.3.1 Politeness Strategies As Persuasive Tools 4.3.1.1 Bald on record Direct imperatives are clear examples of bald on record usage (4.122) Develop and protect a moral sensibility and demonstrate the character to apply it Dream big Work hard Think for yourself Love everything you love, everyone you love, with all your might [M-16] 4.3.1.2 Positive politeness strategy By showing their care, hope, wish, promise and congratulations towards the students, the guest S want to shorten the distance between them and the H: 19 (4 125) Class of 2016, the people you thought of are your anchors They stand with you and the world stands before you brimming with possibility I hope you always run toward that which you love I wish you many moments of diastole [M-49] (4 128) Fortune does favor the bold, and I promise that you will never know what you’re capable of unless you try [F-45] Exaggerating approval and encouragement are also methods to express positive politeness: (4 129) This is the power that you have if you choose not to surrender it You can transform reality with your very thoughts [M-14] Finally, inclusive “we” and pattern “let’s” are used to convey the solidarity message to H (4.131) We must continue to welcome the best and the brightest from around the world to our nation These are all serious issues but if we work together, we can fix them [M-26] (4 132) And let’s not forget today is Mother’s Day, so I also salute those of you who have nursed, nudged, nurtured and nervously watched these terrific young men and women grow up [M-22] 4.3.1.3 Negative politeness strategy Minimizing the imposition on the H so that they have freedom of action and freedom from imposition (4 135) And you don't have to be as good as the others if you're on time and it's always a pleasure to hear from you [M-41] The usage of pattern “let me” expresses the S’s humility 20 (4 136) Let me start by offering you a quote It’s not mine, but I think it goes to the heart of your time here, and your time to come: “I choose to live, not just exist.” [M-19] 4.3.2 Mitigation Markers 4.3.2.1 Inclusive We In order to trigger emotion in the audience as well as creating the sense of solidarity, the S rely their politeness strategy of involving the audience by using inclusive We (4 139) But in the long run, you—the next generation—must continue to conquer the challenges we face We must confront our health and education systems [M-26] 4.3.2.2 Marker Please The adoption of adverb please reveals that the speakers want to be more polite when using an imperative (4 140) “But, please, graduates: Don’t take that power for granted What you carry with you every day can change the world.” [M-19] 4.3.2.3 Conditional sentence The critical function of pseudoconditionals is a tool of persuasion to soften the content of the utterance (4 145) If you mainly want to be famous, you have to be okay with all that comes with it [F-7] 21 CHAPTER CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1 CONCLUSIONS Typologically, both genders adopt a wide range of categories of deontic MMs ranging from Mn, Madj, Madv, Mlex, Maux, Modal quasi to imperative mood and conditional clause In general, men tend to use more MMs than women in regarding Madj, Maux and quasi modal verbs whereas female opt for Mn, Mlex and If clause Syntactically, Mn, Maux and Quasi modal verbs enjoy quite inflexible positions while Madv experiences a larger diversity in different patterns and mobility in initial and middle and final positions Final position of these MM also appear in corpus with a very low frequency Semantically, deontic modality markers carry a wide range of meanings implied by American speakers in their commencement speeches The study focus on main aspects of the semantic features regarding, firstly, obligation and responsibilities The findings show that S lay participant and event oriented obligation by adopting different deontic MM such as Maux, Madj, Mn The S express different level of imposition in putting the hearers under some kinds of personal and social responsibilities In this aspect, male tend to impose more compulsiveness and express more participant oriented obligation than female Secondly, both genders adopt different means such as Mlex and Madj while male tend to favour the usage of Mlex than female counterparts to express necessity and evoke positive changes in students as well as give useful advice Finally, in relation to desirability and commitment, this shade of meaning is reflected in 22 the pledge that both speakers commit to the graduates In forms of promise, guarantee, the speakers want to emphasize the strong commitment of society and community towards the young graduates in building their belief in lives As far as commitment is concerned, in comparison to men, women show a stronger pledge toward students and the employment of Mn and Mlex is apparently shown in the female corpus Regarding pragmatic implications, politeness strategies are detected in the commencement speeches in terms of three main categories: bald-on, positive and negative politeness Of which, male and female show different preference for different strategies Male speakers tend to use more bald -on record with favour for more forms of imperatives In contrast, both genders adopt positive politeness strategy in an attempt to create a harmonious and friendly atmosphere towards the hearers Besides, negative politeness strategy is also employed by both male and female speakers to mitigate the potential threats created by FTAs That is due to the fact that in graduation remarks, speakers of both groups thrive to convince the H to perform some desired action and change their thoughts and belief Both positive and negative politeness can, therefore, soften the imposition and compulsory level that deontic modal markers produce Moreover, in terms of mitigation markers, the analysis reveals that both male and female adopt ‘please’ as politeness markers Being combined with imperative forms, this marker empowers the speakers to lessen the directness and constraint created by directive Another marker is 23 ‘inclusive We’ which is deployed more by female than male speakers This result indicates the truth that women incline towards the more polite and cooperative means of communication than men The last marker is clausal mitigator- conditional sentence which is much more preferred by female S This permits the availability of freedom for the H to perform the obligation; hence, soften the content of the utterance in a formal context where S and H meet for the first time 5.2 IMPLICATIONS To language learners, the findings of this thesis provide them with a deep insight into deontic modality which is less understood than its popular sister category of epistemic modality and traditionally is nearly always confined within the notions of permission and obligation Moreover, they can have better comprehension of deontic modal expressions and their various meanings and functions in communication The understanding of this variation can be reached thanks to the analysis and comparison of data between the two groups of speakers To language teachers, the research’s findings empower them to gain deeper insights into this domain which seems to be too narrow in some typical senses such as permission and obligation Teachers of English can also make use of this source of data when teaching modality or gender differences in sociolinguistic– related subjects The findings of this thesis not only enhance the understanding of deontic modality in a particular kind of discourse but also enable the thorough apprehension of communicative strategies In relation to politeness strategies, language teacher can 24 reach a closer comprehension on how deontic MMs are used to convey meanings of necessity, responsibility and request without affecting the communicative purpose The analysis of face-saving strategies is supposed to bring about some benefits for teachers when teaching pragmatic facets of language Finally, understanding the usage of mitigation markers enables teachers to soften any possible threats that can occur while using deontic MMs 5.3 LIMITATIONS Due to the limit of time, knowledge and reference materials along with the constraints encountered by the researcher, the thesis will incur certain restrictions To begin with, graduation remarks delivered from the year 2010 to 2016 are collected for the analysis, thus, the results can only reflect the tendency in using deontic modality in very recent years Secondly, the study involves the comparison between the language features of male and female American speakers only; therefore, it somehow cannot thoroughly manifest the distinctive features of English in general as there are other factors like age, profession or nationality such as British English, Australian, Canadian English, etc 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH Although the study has made great efforts to carefully examine their diverse meanings and communicative functions of these modal expressions, there are still other interesting aspects that need further research, such as: - A genre analysis of commencement speeches -An investigation into persuasive strategies in commencement speeches.- A corpus-based study on hedges in commencement speeches ... deontic modality markers regarding syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features in commencement remarks by American speakers Grammatical, lexical means of modal expressions are taken into consideration... implications of the findings for the teaching and learning of English concerning deontic modality markers 1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY This paper concentrates on investigating on the examination of deontic. .. well as calling for action For the aforementioned reasons, I decided to conduct a study entitled: ? ?A Corpus- Based Study on Gender- Related Differences in Deontic Modality Markers Used in Commencement