The interpersonal meaning of value can be highlighted by the restrictions on the co-occurrences between MSAs and MVs.Two situations occur.
Type 1 is related to emphasizing.In the category of emphasizing there are five linguistic patterns.Type 2 is related to compromising.In this category there are two linguistic patterns.
The interpersonal meaning of stance is realized by the clausal positions of MSAs, ways of modality supplementing, and the types of MSA that are used.Foregrounding and backgrounding, seen in terms of the clausal positions of MSAs, are important lexicogrammatical means for stance.
MSAs can convey social distance (including solidarity, deference and hierarchy）based on the needs of social interactions.The three types of social distance are realized by different MSAs on some occasions, but on other occasions there are overlaps in lexicogrammatical patterns.Social distance as a system of ideology is delicate to deal with, and shows a dynamic and flexible feature.
Fourth, it was found that MSAs are rich in four genres, namely, PS, JI, AW, and LR.The cause lies in the characteristics that these genres show.
PS is a genre between written and spoken modes.For this genre the audience is both imagined and real; hence, the term of imagined-cum-real audience is used to describe the situation.Given that the audience is imagined-cum-real, modality supplementing through MSAs in PS should be quite common.The MSAs in this genre reflect the speakers’ care for the audience’s minds and expectations.
JI is related to the areas of social life.Since JI normally displays positive and sometimes negative politeness via hedges, this genre tends to have a big number of MSAs in some cases.
AW shows contacts between writers and imagined readers.There exist multiple voices in academic texts, which affect the writers’ attitudes as reporters of others’ views as well as their own.Therefore, the intricate nature of the writers’ identities may give birth to MSAs.
LR is a matter of liabilities and legal enforcement rather than that of prediction made by individuals.Thus, MSAs in LR contribute to strengthening the legislature’s facultative and deontic meanings of modality, and such modal devices mirror the generic nature of legal discourse.
Though MSAs are common in all the four genres, MSAs are distributed unevenly in them.This has much to do with the effects of contextual factors and the functions that MSAs perform.For instance, the MVs shall and must have the lowest percentages of MSAs in PS, JI and AW, whereas the MV shall has the highest percentage of MSAs in LR.The difference is significant.Must and shall are primarily used for strong obligations and hence serve the function of modulation in LR.Therefore, the MSAs co-occurring with shall, may, and must mainly supplement modulation in LR, but modalization in PS, JI and AW.
Also, for instance, the MSAs expressing confidence occur most often in JI.As is known, confidence is much related to casual talks, where discourse participants are not constrained by social status or power.Thus, JI, showing the close relationships between interviewers and interviewees, has the biggest number of this type of MSA.
Nine discourse features of MSAs were explored, such as:
A.the directions of value adaptation;
B.the clausal positions of MSAs serving as comment adjuncts;
C.the long-distance MSAs;
D.the clausal positions of MSAs functioning as comment adjuncts
E.the multiple-leveled modality
Fifth, a teaching experiment was implemented to show the pedagogical implications of MSAs as a means of modality supplementing.The experiment further proves the effects of genre and other factors on the use of MSAs in discourse.It complements the corpora investigations in endorsing the feasibility of approaching MSAs by the theoretical framework proposed.
A conclusion was drawn that on the whole MSAs play the roles of modality supplementing in highlighting interpersonal meanings (i.e.value, stance and social distance）and performing the functions of the disambiguation of modal vagueness, modal synergy, and the prominence of generic features.
7.3 Significance of the current study
The current study has achieved the seven objectives proposed in Chapter 1.It is significant in both theory and practice, which can be illustrated as follows:
(A）It focuses on the relationships between MSAs and modality supplementing, indicating that MSAs are a means of modality supplementing and the use of multiple modal devices is necessary in discourse under some circumstances.
(B）It maps out a general picture of how MSAs as a means of modality supplementing come into being and what functions MSAs possess.Thus, this linguistic phenomenon is tangible and manageable at both theoretical and practical levels in terms of discourse or text analysis.
(C）This dissertation reveals how MSAs are distributed in different argumentative contexts.The lexicogrammatical patterns for interpersonal meanings demonstrate how discourse participants in PS, JI, AW and LR negotiate their views.This, in turn, helps people to understand the dialogicality of various genres in a better way.