خلاصة:
Academic discourse has always been the focus of many linguists, especially
those who have been involved with English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and
discourse analysis. Persuasion, as part of rhetorical structure of academic writing,
is partly achieved by employing modality markers. Adopting a descriptive
design, the present study was carried out to compare the use of modality markers
in terms of frequency and their categorical distribution in two academic books,
written in English, in the field of Applied Linguistics by native English and nonnative
Iranian authors. Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik’s (1985) model
of modality was employed as an analytical framework to identify the type of
modal verbs. The frequency of different types of modal verbs was calculated per
100000 words and the significance of difference in their distribution was
checked through Chi-square nonparametric inferential statistics. The results of
the statistical analyses did not show any significant difference in the overall
distribution of modality (both epistemic and root) markers. However, significant
differences were observed in the categorical distributions of modal verbs in two
corpora. The results were attributed to the non-native writers’ lack of awareness
of the conventional rules of English rhetoric, and the lack of explicit instruction
in this field. The findings could offer pedagogical implications for those involved
in syllabus design and materials development in general and English writing
courses in particular.
ملخص الجهاز:
A Comparative Analysis of Epistemic and Root Modality in Two selected English Books in the Field of Applied Linguistics Written by English Native and Iranian Non-native Writers Minoo Shahmohammadi 1, Nasser Ghafoori 2* 1, 2.
Adopting a descriptive design, the present study was carried out to compare the use of modality markers in terms of frequency and their categorical distribution in two academic books,written in English, in the field of Applied Linguistics by native English and non-native Iranian authors.
Prompted by the fact that modality can be used to convey a message, create solidarity between the writer and the reader, and can be related to the authors' culture, the present research article is carried out to investigate the similarities and differences between native (English) and non- native (Iranian) academic authors in their use of modality resources (both epistemic and root) in two Applied Linguistics books written in English.
For this purpose the following five null hypotheses were formulated: The study specifically addressed the following research question: Are there any significant differences between the overall and categorical frequency and type of epistemic and root modality used by native English authors and nonnative Iranian authors in two selected books in the field of applied linguistics?
All quotations, linguistic examples, footnotes, bibliographies, tables, and figures were excluded Design The present study took a descriptive text-analytic design as the prime research design in the related fields to investigate whether native English writers and non-native Iranian authors differed in their use of modal auxiliaries.