In Example (107), the writer uses one MV may, which is modified by three MSAs - just, maybe and even.This demonstrates a tone of tentativeness rather than that of definiteness.As is seen, the impacts of academic conventions on attitude communication are indeed considerable.Johnstone (2002: 119）argues that there are normally two types of role that discourse participants play in communication: social roles and discourse roles.Though the two types of roles are different from each other, they are quite related as well.People who find themselves in social roles that involve more or less predefined ways of interacting are not forced or inclined to act in other ways in discourse.The use of MSAs in AW may highlight such a relationship in construing discursive identities.
LR is a genre invoking debate and even negative responses.Bhatia (2004: 138-142）thinks that it is essential to consider some of the text-external factors, especially the participants and their institutional roles, and their shared background knowledge that make this genre possible.The participants in legal discourse are divided into writers and readers.The writers can be legislators, or government departments; the readers can be ordinary citizens, lawyers, judges, or members of the executive arms of the government.
These institutional relationships are binding in law and can hardly be changed.Such an intricate relation can be diagramed as below in Figure 3.9.
Figure 3.9 Participants and institutional conflicts in legal discourse (After Bhatia, 2004: 138-142)
Figure 3.9 shows that the tenor in laws and regulations can be very complex.As a result, the attitudes or judgments should be delivered with caution.Du (2004: 85）proposes that laws and regulations involve a balance between vagueness and determinacy in the use of words.This relationship can be sketched in Figure 3.10.
Figure 3.10 Vagueness and determinacy in the use of words in laws and regulations (After Du, 2004: 85)
Figure 3.10 displays a picture of tenor in LR different from that in PS, JI, and AW.In this genre, the addresser has to strike a balance between fact and dispute and to show it to a variety of addressees, such as those sketched in Figure 3.8.Gotti (2003: 267-300）studies the evolution of the modal meanings of shall, and finds that the binding sense that shall conveys in legal discourse is opposite to the grammaticalization this MV has undergone, diagramed as below (Goossens, 1987: 118, cited from Gotti, 2003: 295): Futurity > Epistemic > Deontic > Facultative (the left side is the present state, while the right side is the previous state).The process of gramma- ticalization indicates that the present-era modality that shall expresses should be epistemic rather than deontic.Nevertheless, legal discourse is a matter of liabilities and legal enforcement rather than that of prediction made by individuals.
This, however, does not mean that modality is excluded in this genre.Du (2004: 99-100）studies forensic linguistics, and argues that MVs and MAs in legal discourse tend to express such modal meanings as “necessity”, “forbiddance”, and “ban”, which in fact reflect the will and attitude of the legislature concerned.Thus, modality supplementing devices such as MSAs in laws and regulations contribute to strengthening the legislature’s facultative and deontic meanings of modality, and such modal devices mirror the generic nature of legal discourse.Also, the use of MSAs as a means of modality supplementing in LR contributes to the legitimacy of the laws involved.MSAs in this sense seem to indicate that the laws are justified for a number of reasons and defy challenge.Consider the following:
(108）Whereas, given the equivalent protection resulting from the approximation of national laws, the Member States will no longer be able to inhibit the free movement between them of personal data on grounds relating to protection of the rights and freedoms of individuals, and in particular the right to privacy…
In Example (108), the modality supplementing pattern will no longer appears to convince the addressees of the logicality and legitimacy of the liabilities imposed and hence prevents them from thinking otherwise, while the MSA in particular conveys the scope of the application of the law and indicates a binding sense.
3.3.2 The appraisal theory
Evaluation is an important factor for the use of modal devices.In Martin (1997, 2000, 2005）and White (2005, 2006), modality is an important lexicogrammatical resource for communicating power or solidarity, and hence constitutes a crucial part of the evaluative lexis.Wang (2001）introduces and studies the appraisal theory, and mentions that modality can contribute to the voicing of attitudes or judgments in discourse.
As far as evaluation is concerned, its composition, planes of evaluation, operating principles and underlying mechanisms should be explored.
3.3.2.1 Composition
In terms of evaluation, attitude is the main area for investigation.There are basically three sub-systems in the general framework of attitude, namely, affect, judgment, and appreciation.
In a general sense, affect, judgment, and appreciation all encode feelings.