An investigation into the use of modality as a rhetorical device in President Barack Obamas State of the Union address in 2016

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Trần Minh Đức AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF MODALITY AS A RHETORICAL DEVICE IN PRESIDENT

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Trần Minh Đức

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF MODALITY AS A RHETORICAL DEVICE IN PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S STATE OF

THE UNION ADDRESS IN 2016

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Trần Minh Đức

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF MODALITY AS A RHETORICAL DEVICE IN PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S STATE OF

THE UNION ADDRESS IN 2016

Field: English Language

Code: 8220201

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Hồ Ngọc Trung

HANOI, 2018

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DECLARATION BY AUTHOR

I hereby declare that this thesis, entitled “An Investigation into the Use

of Modality as a Rhetorical Device in President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address in 2016” has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other universities This paper is the result of my own original research and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text

Author’s Signature

Trần Minh Đức

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Hồ Ngọc Trung Date: 15/3/2018

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In completing this thesis, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Ho Ngoc Trung I thank him for his profound knowledge, encouragement, support and patience Without his whole-hearted guidance, insightful comments and recommendations, this thesis would not have been possible

My sincere thanks also go to my instructor, Dr Dang Nguyen Giang, Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, whose lectures have inspired me to the foundation of the thesis Moreover, I would like to thank all of the lecturers who gave me interesting lessons and dedication

Finally, I must express my gratitude to my family It is their endless love and expectations that have motivated me to complete this thesis

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION BY AUTHOR i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the Study 2

1.3 Research Questions 2

1.4 Scope of the Study 2

1.5 Significance of the Study 2

1.5.1 Theoretical Significance of the Study 2

1.5.2 Practical Significance of the Study 3

1.6 Methodology 3

1.6.1 Methods of the Study 3

1.6.2 Data Collection 4

1.6.3 Data Description and Analysis 4

1.7 Structure of the Study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Previous Studies 7

2.2 The Concept of Modality 9

2.2.1 Definitions of Modality 9

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2.2.2 Types of Modality 13

2.2.2.1 Epistemic Modality (Extrinsic) 13

2.2.2.2 Deontic Modality (Intrinsic) 14

2.2.2.3 Modal Expressions 15

2.3 Politics and Political Speeches 21

2.3.1 Politics 21

2.3.2 Political Speech as a Type of Discourse 22

2.3.3 Political Speech as a Type of Public Speaking 22

2.4 Rhetorical Devices in Political Speeches 23

2.4.1 Rhetoric 23

2.4.2 Rhetorical Devices 24

2.4.3 Modality as a Rhetorical Device 24

2.5 Barack Obama as the 44th US President 25

2.5.1 An Introduction of President Barack Obama 25

2.5.2 An Introduction of Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address in 2016 26

2.6 Summary 27

CHAPTER 3: TYPES OF MODALITY USED IN PRESIDENT OBAMA’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS IN 2016 30

3.1 Types of Modality Markers used in President Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address 30

3.1.1 Modal Auxiliaries 30

3.1.2 Modal Lexical Verbs 33

3.1.3 Modal Adverbs 33

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3.1.4 Modal Adjectives 33

3.2 Distribution of Modality Markers used in President Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address 34

3.3 Summary 37

CHAPTER 4: MODALITY AS A RHETORICAL DEVICE 38

4.1 Modal Auxiliaries as a Rhetorical Device 38

4.1.1 The Modal Auxiliary Will (not) 38

4.1.1.1 Volition (Intrinsic) 39

4.1.1.2 Prediction (Extrinsic) 40

4.1.2 Modal Auxiliary Can (not) 41

4.1.2.1 Possibility (Extrinsic) 42

4.1.2.2 Ability (Extrinsic) 43

4.1.3 The modal Auxiliary Might 44

4.1.4 The Modal Auxiliary Could 46

4.1.4.1 Possibility (Extrinsic) 46

4.1.4.2 Ability (Extrinsic) 47

4.1.5 The Modal Auxiliary Should 47

4.1.5.1 Obligation (Intrinsic) 48

4.1.5.2 Necessity (Extrinsic) 49

4.1.6 The Modal Auxiliary Need 50

4.1.6.1 Obligation (Intrinsic) 51

4.1.6.2 Necessity (Extrinsic) 52

4.1.7 The Modal Auxiliary Have to 53

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4.1.7.1 Obligation (Intrinsic) 53

4.1.7.2 Necessity (Extrinsic) 54

4.1.8 The Modal Auxiliary May 55

4.1.8.1 Possibility (Extrinsic) 55

4.1.9 The Modal Auxiliary Would 56

4.1.9.1 Volition (Intrinsic) 57

4.2 Modal Lexical Verbs as Rhetorical Device 57

4.2.1 The First-Person Epistemic Phrase I Know 58

4.2.2 The First-Person Epistemic Phrase I Believe (in) 58

4.2.3 The First-Person Epistemic Phrase I Think 60

4.2.4 The First-Person Epistemic Phrase I Understand 61

4.3 The Modal Adverb as a Rhetorical Device 62

4.4 The Modal Adjectives as a Rhetorical Device 62

4.5 Summary 64

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 65

5.1 Recapitulation 65

5.2 Concluding Remarks 66

5.3 Implications 68

5.4 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies 69

REFERENCES 71 APPENDIX: The President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address

in 2016 I

on the data It is carried out on the ground of the theories written by Quirk et

al (1985), Van Linden (2012) and Wierzbicka(2006) that help the author

mainly find out the use of modality as a rhetorical device in a political speech The State of the Union Address in 2016 delivered by the President Barack Obama is investigated Firstly, the study focuses on the analysis on the occurrence percentage of some types of modality markers Secondly, the paper mainly aims at analysing modality in the speech used as a rhetorical device Besides, some of the grammatical, syntactic and semantic features of modality are also referred to which make great contributions to illustrate that modality in the President Barack Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Addressis treated as a rhetorical device

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LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 2.1: The auxiliary verb-main verb scale - Quirk et al (1985) 16

Table 2.2: Potential expressions of modality by central modals – Quirk et al (1985) 17

Table 2.3: Meaning of the modals – Quirk et al (1985) 18

Table 2.4: Common epistemic adverbs in English 20

Table 3.1: Occurrences of types of modality markers in the address 34

Table 3.2: Distribution of modal auxiliaries in the address 36

Table 3.3: Distribution of modal lexical verbs in the address 36

Table 3.4: Distribution of modal adverbs in the address 37

Table 3.5: Distribution of modal adjectives in the address 37

Table 4.1: Categorization of will in the address 39

Table 4.2: Categorization of Can in the address 41

Table 4.3: Categorization of Might in the address 44

Table 4.4: Categorization of Could in the address 46

Table 4.5: Categorization of Should in the address 48

Table 4.6: Categorization of Need in the address 50

Table 4.7: Categorization of Have to in the address 53

Table 4.8: Categorization of May in the address 55

Table 4.9: Categorization of Would in the address 57

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Language which plays a crucial role in the development of beings and every society is defined as a means of exchanging and transferring information to readers or listeners in the most effective way Therefore, we cannot live without language because of its indispensable effects on every field of our lives

human-Providing information with the use of language depends on a wide range of factors, especially in written language How to express points of view or opinions most effectively is of great importance which may influence

or decide the effectiveness of the information given to the audience or readers That is the reason why language empowers men to control or manage the society In order to utilize the language in the best way, one of the factors which is usually applied is how to put rhetorical devices into language, especially political speeches delivered by politicians

Politicians are the ones who usually make use of verbal language as a political tool to get more power They often deliver their addresses in order to convince or persuade their audience to agree with their policies or decisions and so on Therefore, they always use a number of methods to gain their purposes And the use of rhetorical devices as a convincing tool is found in political speeches

Modality defined as a term of expressing possibility and necessity which is used in verbal language is also considered to be a tool to make clearer about the speaker’s points of view or thoughts In order to have more understanding of the effectiveness of the use of modality as a rhetorical device in political speeches, I would like to choose “An investigation into the use of modality as a rhetorical device in President Barack Obama’ State of the

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Union Address in 2016” as my study

1.2 Aims of the Study

This study aims to investigate and analyze the linguistic features of modality in the State of the Union address delivered by the US former President Barack Obama in 2016, and it also provides the readers with the knowledge of the use of modality as a rhetorical device in order to have more insights into political speeches when reading them The research is expected

to fulfill the following objectives:

(i) Exploring types of modality used in President Obama’s State of the Union Address in 2016;

(ii) Investigating how modality is used as a rhetorical device in President Obama’s State of the Union Address in 2016

1.3 Research Questions

The thesis is going to answer the following research questions:

1) What types of modality are used in President Obama’s State of the Union Address in 2016?

2) How is modality used as a rhetorical device in President Obama’s State of the Union Address in 2016?

1.4 Scope of the Study

This thesis has some investigation and analysis on only modal expressions used in Obama’s State of the Union address in 2016 The study also focuses on finding and dealing with grammatical and lexical means of modal expressions All the data on modality is collected from the address

1.5 Significance of the Study

1.5.1 Theoretical Significance of the Study

The study hopes to make a remarkable contribution to the investigation into the use of modality as a rhetorical device in political addresses in general

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Moreover, it also helps the readers know the contributions of the use of modality to the success of the State of the Union Address in 2016 by the US former President Obama in particular On the other hand, this paper wishes to contribute to providing important insights into linguistic features of modality utilized in the 2016 State of the Union Address as well as political speeches

1.5.2 Practical Significance of the Study

The study wishes:

- to provide the readers with the systematic description and

analysis on the effectiveness of the use of modality in President Barack Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address;

- to provide the readers in general, the students of English in

particular, with the knowledge of modality as a rhetorical device in political speeches;

- to assist writers, especially students of English, know how to

use modality in their writings in an effective way

- to provide the author with the overview of modality used in

political speeches delivered by Barack Obama which can help the author do more research on contrastive analysis on modality as a rhetorical device between English and Vietnamese later

1.6 Methodology

1.6.1 Methods of the Study

This is a descriptive study So, the aim of the study is to collect the data concerning modality in the speech, and then analyse it to find the effectiveness of the use of modality as a rhetorical device in a political address Therefore, the principal methods applied for the study are quantitative and qualitative methods The former is defined as the use of numbers as its basis for making generalizations about a phenomenon; and the

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latter is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations It provides insights into the problems or helps to develop ideas

or hypotheses for potential quantitative research

The data will serve as the basis for explaining the use of modality; therefore, it can be gathered through data collection The data will then be

analyzed using the theoretical framework built by Quirk et al (2005), Van

Linden (2012) and Wierzbicka’s theory (2006), to unravel significant relationships or differences between variables The output serves as the basis

for making the conclusions and generalizations of the study

1.6.2 Data Collection

The material for research is The President Barack Obama’s 2016 State

of the Union Address which is taken from the Internet Linguistic forms and modal characteristics given to denote the modality would take the main interests in the study All the data including modal auxiliaries, modal adverbs, modal adjectives, modal lexical verbs from Obama’s State of the Union speech in 2016 is collected to meet the criteria for the purpose of investigating modality in the speech And then, the data is put into tables categorized according to kinds of linguistic features of modality for analysis later

1.6.3 Data Description and Analysis

Quantitative method is the main tool to describe and synthesize the data To be more precise, the address will be counted as a collection of clauses containing modal features By examining all of the clauses in the speech, the number of modality expressions is measured, categorised and totalized Based on the findings, how modality is expressed and implied in the address will be revealed with the qualitative method In other words, the qualitative method is carried out in analysing the data in the research to find out or indicate the effectiveness of the use of modality as a rhetorical device

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in the speech delivered by Obama

In summary, in this paper, with the application of qualitative and quantitative methods, the types of modality, linguistic features of modality as well as the persuasive tool as a rhetorical device in the use of modality will be revealed and analyzed With the quantitative method, descriptive findings will

be pointed out while the corresponding discussions and assessments or

adjustments on those findings are made with the qualitative method

1.7 Structure of the Study

The study consists of 5 chapters including Introduction, Literature Review, Types of Modality used in President Obama State Address in 2016, Modality as a Rhetorical Device, and Conclusion

Chapter 1, with the title “Introduction”, introduces the theme of the study as well as its aim and scope It also presents the methods used for the data collection and analysis on the data In this chapter, the significance and the structure of the study are also mentioned in detail

Chapter 2, namely “Literature Review”, deals with the literature in modality studied by linguistic researchers all over the world concerning linguistic features of modality under the grammatical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic views Additionally, the chapter also has some discussion about modality in political speeches which has been researched by some Ph D and

MA students as well as some scholars in Linguistics In the chapter, the

theoretical framework built Quirk et al (1985), Wierzbicka (2006), and Van

Linden (2012), are chosen for the investigation on the use of modality in the address Finally, the chapter mentions rhetoric, rhetorical devices, politics, Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America as well as the main content of his 2016 State of the Union Address

Chapter 3 entitled “Types of Modality used in President Obama State

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Address in 2016” lists some examples of modality markers, and investigates the frequency and percentage of each of the modality markers each in the speech It also investigates the syntactic features of modality markers

Chapter 4 with the name “Modality as a Rhetorical Device” examines all the expressions containing modality markers, and analyse them as a rhetorical device including semantic and pragmatic features as well as brief study of word choices

Chapter 5, the “Conclusion”, gives a summary of the findings of the individual parts of the study and compares them with the aim to uncover patterns

of modality, it refers to a specific subtype of qualification meaning, which is commentary to the tense and aspect categories because its narrow sense can

be defined in coherent terms (Comrie, 1985)

In the MA study namely “English Epistemic markers in a contrastive analysis with Vietnamese”, Ngu Thien Hung (1996) discussed the similarities and differences of epistemic markers between English and Vietnamese in terms of their linguistic features and importance in social interactions The discussion also shows how English speakers and Vietnamese speakers make use of epistemic markers of various types in conversations

Ngo Thi Thanh Mai (2007) pointed out that there are some similarities and differences of some discourse features of political speeches in English and Vietnamese in her contrastive study of some discourse features of political speeches in English and Vietnamese

There is another study of modality named “What makes a politician persuasive? A study of ideology, rhetoric and modality in speeches by Tony Blair and George W Bush” by Stenbakkken (2007) In this thesis work, he investigates what makes a politician persuasive by examining what similarities and differences that can be found in the linguistic choices and rhetorical devices used by Tony Blair and George W Bush He also

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concludes that modality in general, modal auxiliaries in particular has been defined as a rhetorical device based on their ability to express the speaker’s points of view or thoughts as well as commitments to the audience Comparing the use of modal auxiliaries pointed out a variety of similarities and subtle differences

In his study “Modality in Political Discourses of Barack Obama and

Luther King”, Shayegh (2012) pointed out that the modality marker will was

most frequently used in Obama’s and King’s discourses which the researcher proved that both of the politicians tried to emphasize the validity of information in terms of probability and equality

There is another author namely Wang (2010) doing research on Obama’s speeches entitled “A Critical Discourses Analysis of Barack Obama’ Speeches” In this paper, three findings in Obama’ speeches were detected as follows: The distance between the 44th president Obama and his audience is shortened; the American people’s confidence in the presidency and government was highlighted by using material process in the most frequent way; The audience was persuaded by Obama’s speeches with the use of modal auxiliaries, tenses and first personal pronoun

Moreover, Pham Khac Thu (2010) who conducted an MA thesis with the title “An Investigation into Modality Markers Used in Political Speeches

by US Presidents” found out three features of modality markers In terms of syntax, modal auxiliaries were restricted to the fixed position while other kinds of modality including modal adverbs, modal adjectives and modal lexical verbs were more mobile Semantically, the addresser’s engagement levels can be regulated owning to the nature of the proposition content In terms of pragmatics, the speaker’s implication could be seen in a multi-facet interaction which can be achieved with the use of the subject actualization

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strategies

Additionally, Valipoir (2014), who carried out a study namely “An investigation of Metaphorical Modality in Barack Obama’s speeches from Systemic Functional Perspectives”, figured out that the subjective explicit

orientation with subject We usefully shortened the distance between the

speaker and the audience by analyzing the metaphoric modality in Obama’s inaugural speech in 2009

In her MA thesis “Modality in Barack Obama’s Remarks Announcing Candidacy for Presidents in 2008 and 2012”, with the application of qualitative and quantitative methods, Doan (2014) came to a conclusion with

some certain findings as follows: Firstly, modal auxiliary can is one of five

modality markers which was in the most frequent use These modality markers play an important role in empowering to express Obama’s points of view in running his country Secondly, probability defined as the most typical feature of modality in the two remarks helped the speaker highlight his future

plans Thirdly, subjectivity with the use of we as the first plural person

pronoun revealed the unity and collective spirits between Obama and his voters Finally, by using the low-value and the high-value modality which were seen in the two remarks, the speaker manifested his determination to carry out his policies and to reach his targets

2.2 The Concept of Modality

2.2.1 Definitions of Modality

In much of the review of literature, there are a wide range of notions of modality given by linguistic researchers Some of them will be considered for the study as follows:

According to Narrog (2005), “Modality is a linguistic category referring to the factual status of a state of affairs The expression of a state of

Modality can basically express two different kinds of modal meanings, which are in Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English referred to as intrinsic and extrinsic The former type of modality concerns actions and events directly controlled by humans or other agents These actions and events are results of permission, obligation, volition or intention Concerning the structural correlates identifies two typical structures, in which modal auxiliaries with intrinsic meaning usually occur:

a) the subject in one of the structural correlates is a human agent of the

main verb: permission: “We can safely leave out the medical details , Larry,”

b) or actions and events are controlled by the main verb, which is a

dynamic verb: permission: “You can open the door now.”

On the other hand, there is the other type of meaning labelled extrinsic,

which expresses a certain degree of likelihood in terms of possibility, necessity, or prediction It can be said that the logical status of events is observed by the extrinsic modality According to Downing and Locke (1992), this type of modality is mainly connected with the lack of knowledge of the speaker Regarding the typical occurrence of modality with extrinsic meaning,

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the subject is usually non-human and/or the main verb has a static meaning:

necessity: “…and telling herself that in the end the very strain of his position must wake him ”

According to Palmer (1986), modality solely functions as revealing the speaker’s or the writer’s state of mind or knowledge which illustrates that the speaker or the writer is not certain and is not committed to the true value of the propositions In his point of view, there are two main kinds of modality including epistemic and deontic modality The former one deals with issues in terms of the speaker/the writer’ knowledge, belief or opinions rather than the fact while the latter is related to matters in terms of the necessity or possibility

of acts performed by morally responsible agents Non-factuality and subjectivity are mentioned as two characteristics of epistemic modality, “the modes of knowing” (Palmer, 1986), including the subjective view of the speaker in natural language In contrast, deontic modality is non-factual, performative and often subjective or objective According to Palmer, while the epistemic and deontic modality is expressed by modal verbs as the core notions of modality, dynamic modality is also mentioned and mostly expressed with willingness (or volition) and ability

Ilse Depraetere and Susan Reed (2006) state that modality is known as

a cover term for a variety of semantic notions which include ability, possibility, hypotheticality, obligation and imperative meaning All modal expressions which have something in common is that they do not represent situations as straightforward facts However, much of literature on modality would seem to agree that modality is something semantically a lot richer than

“lack of factuality” We can have more understanding of the positive characteristics of modality if it is said that modal meaning solely contains the

definitions of necessity and possibility (Huddleston and Pullum et al., 2002),

elements, including adverbials like perhaps, in all probability, etc , and

“hedges” like I would think (that) (Krug, 2000) The principal means of

expressing modality in English is the set of modal auxiliary verbs

According to Quirk et al (1985), modality is defined as “the manner in

which the meaning of a clause is qualified so as to reflect the speaker’s judgment of the likehood of the proposition it expresses being true” There are two types of modality including intrinsic and extrinsic modality The former one deals with permission, obligation and volition; the latter relates possibility, necessity and prediction which do not involve human control over events , but rather involve judgment In spite of the fact that the meaning of modal verbs divided into two types, each modal verb can express both intrinsic and extrinsic meaning The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic modality will be referred to by other reseachers as deontic and epistemic

modality, or modulation and modalization Note that Quirk et al uses the

terminology epistemic and deontic modality, but merely as a subcategory of

extrinsic modality (Quirk et al., 1985)

Biber et al (1999) also points out that modality is categorized into two

types: intrinsic and extrinsic (also known as deontic/root and epistemic modality) Extrinsic modality in concerned with “the local status of states and

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events” and is based on the reality outside of the inner reality of the utterances The extrinsic meanings are usually dealt with to the subjective point of view of the speaker with regard to doubt or certainty of a proposition

which expresses likelihood, possibiity or prediction For example: “She may come” Meanwhile, intrinsic modality is related to agent-controlled actions

and events which refers to obligation, volition, permission, and ability (Biber

et al.,1999) For example: “I will do homework”, “You should study harder”,

“She can ride a bicycle” Most modal expressions can have either extrinsic or

intrinsic meanings, depending on the functions they are filled and the meanings they are related to These characteristic distinctions according to semantics provide a framework for analysis of the functions of modal expressions While frequency of occurences is one telling aspect of use, the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic use are also important

According to Mitchell (2009: 55), the core of modality consists of two key notions: potentiality and subjectivity In deontic modality, the volition, the authority and the reason are used by the speaker to seek to bring about the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of potential situations (events, acts, processes, states,etc.) In epistemic, the speaker uses inference or evidence from his existing knowledge to try and establish or assess the potential factuality of propositions Modality is related to potential acts and potential facts, as opposed to actual acts and facts

2.2.2 Types of Modality

2.2.2.1 Epistemic Modality (Extrinsic)

Epistemic modality which refers to “judgment about the factual status

of the proposition” (Palmer, 2001: 8) involves any modal system that

indicates the degree of commitment by the speaker to what he or she says – the extent to which the truth of a proposition is possible Epistemic modality

Though modal auxiliaries are considered the core notion of epistemic modality, a wide range of lexical verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs and multi-word units can be used to deal with epistemic meanings associated with a number of discourse funcions According to Hyland and Milton (1997), epistemic expressions on a continuum of probability are categorized into three degrees including certainty (highest probabiity), probability (medical probability), and possibility (low probability) In the other words, epistemic modality expresses the degree of probability including possibility, necessity,

prediction, certainty, doubt, etc As for ability, Quirk et al (1985) note “The ability meaning of can is considered extrinsic, even though ability typically

involves human control over an action” So the implication of ability is regarded as some sort of judgement about the likelihood of actualization of the situation, and it is the aspect of ability meaning that informs their categorization of ability as extrinsic

2.2.2.2 Deontic Modality (Intrinsic)

Traditionally, deontic modality has been defined in terms of the concepts of permission, volition and obligation According to Palmer (1986), the most important types of deontic modality in a grammatical study appear to

be directives and commisves Both of them are not only subjective, but also performative as they actually iniative action by others or by the speaker However, as Palmer (1986) said, there are problems with subjectivity in the

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analysis of deontic modality, in that some deontic uses of modals seem to have no elements of subjectivity whereas others seem to include various degrees of the speaker’s involvment

Deontic modality which involves attitudes towards “acts performed by morally responsible agents, e.g obligation, permission, volition” (Papafragou, 2000) consists of an element of “the future”; as such it is concerned with action rather than with belief, knowledge or truth, etc Deontic can be

characterized as volition-based or obligation-based

Deontic modality is to influence the action or event we talk about With

this type of modality we express ideas

According to Biber et al (1999), intrinsic (deontic) modality forms part

of the semantic content of the proposition It is pointed out that each modal has both intrinsic and extrinsic modality While “Intrinsic modality refers to actions and events that human (or other agents) directly control: meanings relating to permission, obligation, or volition” and is synonymous with deontic modality, “extrinsic modality refers to logical status of events or states”

Quirk et al (1985) states that deontic modality involves “some kind of

intrinsic human control over event’ Deontic modality and volition are categorized together as intrinsic modality Therefore, it is concluded that intrinsic (deontic) modality one deals with permission, obligation and volition

2.2.2.3 Modal Expressions

As discussed above, modality includes different types of modal expressions including modal auxiliaries, modal lexical verbs, modal nouns, modal adjectives, modal adverbs, etc But, to the extent of this study, modal auxiliaries, modal lexical verbs, modal adjectives and modal adverbs will be

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employed for the analysis in terms of combined theories of some authors

including Quirk et al (1985), Wierzbicka (2006), and Van Linden (2012) as

the theoretical framework

Modal Auxiliaries

According to Quirk et al (1985), modal auxiliaries can, could, may,

might, shall, should, will, would and must are considered to be central modals

The table below shows 6 types of modal components with the most common use of central modals

Table 2.1: The auxiliary verb-main verb scale - Quirk et al (1985)

2 Marginal modals dare, need, ought to, used to

3 Modal idioms had better, would rather/sooner,

be to, have got to, etc

4 Semi-auxiliaries

have to, be about to, be able to,

be bound to, be going to, be obliged to, be supposed to, be willing to, etc

5 Catentatives

appear to, happen to, seem to, get + -ed participle, keep + V- ing, etc

Central modals, marginal modals, modal idioms, semi-auxiliaries will

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be employed for the investigation of the study

Possible modal expressions on the ground of Quirk et al.’s theory

(1985) are displayed in table 2.2 below

Table 2.2: Potential expressions of modality by central modals – Quirk et

From Table 2.2, all of the central modals are both intrinsic and extrinsic

modality In the category “necessity”, must refers to “logical necessity” which

the speaker judges the proposition to have a high likelihood of being true

(Quirk et al., 1985) On the contrary, should in the category “necessity” deals

with “tentative inference” which the speaker does not know whether or not the statement is true, but tentatively infer it based on his knowledge

According to Quirk et al (1985), Table 2.3 shows the meanings of the

modals

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Table 2.3: Meaning of the modals – Quirk et al (1985)

MEANINGS OF THE MODALS

possibility ability

need

should ought to

committed

necessity Noncommitted Extrinsic

prediction

Looking at Table 2.3, the modals are categorized into three groups on

the ground of their similarity and meaning The modal auxiliaries can/could and may/might belong to Group 1 where can is regarded as a special case of possibility; and can is also classified as extrinsic modality In Group 2, must, have (got) to and need are categorized as committed meaning; and should,

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ought to express non-committed meaning The degree of commitment

depends on the speaker’s personal responsibility for the modality stated in his

discourse In group 3, will/would express volition and prediction Meanwhile, shall is considered to convey not only volition, prediction but also obligation,

which is rare and restricted

Modal Lexical Verbs

The lexical verbs such as know, think, guess, see, hope, etc , are regarded as the modals when they combine with the first singular pronoun I to

make epistemic phrases According to Wierzbicka (2006), this type of epistemic phrases clarifies the speaker’s attitude towards what is being said The main question which is made through such phrases is whether or to some

extent the speaker is claiming knowledge (“I know”) Wierzbicka (2006) also

states that “A declarative sentence is without any epistemic qualification can

be interpreted as implying knowledge For example, factual sentences like

“Bill is in Sydney now” imply an unqualified claim to knowledge: “I know”

By contrast, sentences with epistemic phrases like I think, I guess, I suppose (“I think Bill is in Sydney”, “I guess Bill is in Sydney”, “I suppose Bill is in Sydney”) do not imply any such claim

Modal Adverbs

In the literature on English, modal adverbs called epistemic ones have been discussed from syntactic point of view In terms of semantics, epistemic adverbs have been observed with two different opinions One considers them

to be “speaker-oriented” rather than “subject-oriented” (Jackendoff, 1972; Cinque, 1999; Lyon, 1977); and the other regards them as “a lack of confidence on the part of the speaker” (Cinque, 1999)

But, according to Wierzbicka (2006), from the speaker’s point of view, epistemic adverbs deal with thinking and knowledge (or lack of knowledge)

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rather than to truth The real key to the semantics of epistemic adverbs is related to the concept of “thinking” and “knowing”

Table 2.4 shows common epistemic adverbs in English

Table 2.4: Common epistemic adverbs in English

Epistemic adverbs in English

probably possibly clearly evidently obviously apparently supposedly seemingly conceivably undoubtedly allegedly reportedly arguably unquestionably likely certainly

Modal Adjectives

Most modal adjectives are defined as epistemic modality (extrinsic) which expresses possibility, probability, certainty and so on To some extent

of the study, the modal adjectives possible, probable and certain will be

analyzed for the investigation Van Linden (2012) states that modal adjectives are known as predicates over facts/events/ state of affairs within the proposition Thus, sentences with modal adjectives contain one proposition This is the reason why modal adjectives can be negative and take part in questions

For example: 1 Is it possible that Mary will come?

probable certain

The pronoun it in 1 refers to the event of Mary’ coming and the

question is about the possibility/probability/certainty of this event occurring

It does not mean to ask about the truth of a proposition and qualify this truth

at the same time

Nowadays, politics is defined as the process of making policy or principles applying to all members of a community or a country The use of power by one person to influence the attitudes of another one is a kind of politics In other words, politics refers to achieving and exercising positions

of governance – organizing control over a human community, particularly a state Moreover, politics is the study or practice of the distribution of power and resources within a community as well as the interrelationship between communities

A wide range of methods are employed in politics, which enhances or forces one’s own political viewpoints among people, negotiation with other political subject, making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries

Politics is said to be about power A political system is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a society There are two types of politics, formal and informal politics The former one deals with the operation of a constitutional system of government Political parties, public policy or discussions belong to the category of formal politics The latter one

is known as forming alliances, exercising power, protecting and advancing particular ideas or goals Generally, this includes anything affecting one’s

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daily life

According to Oxford Dictionary, the term “politics” refers to the activities associated with the governance of a country or an area, especially the debate between parties having power It includes four main points as follows: The activities of governments concerning the political relations between states, the academic study of government and the state, a particular set of political beliefs or principles, and the principles relating to or inherent

in a sphere or activity

2.3.2 Political Speech as a Type of Discourse

Originally, the term “discourse” has roots in the Latin language It assumes slightly different meanings in different contexts But, in literature, discourse means speech or writing normally longer than sentences which deals with a certain subject formally in the form of writing or speech In other words, discourse is the presentation of language in its entirety while performing an intellectual inquiry in a particular area or field

Political speech delivered by politicians includes verbal or nonverbal communication It involves not just speeches by the government or politicians for office, but also any discussion of social issues which aims at audience’s mind

According to Webster’s New Collection Collegiate Dictionary, Speech is defined as “a formal discourse, oration, address”

From the definitions above, political speech is known as a type of discourse

2.3.3 Political Speech as a Type of Public Speaking

Public speaking is the process and act of speaking or giving a lecture to

a group of people in a structured and deliberate manner intended to inform, influence or entertain the listening audience Public speaking is commonly

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understood as face-to-face speaking between individual and audience for the purpose of communication Most of the time, public speaking is to persuade the audience

In the context of public speaking, speech delivery refers to the presentation of speech you have researched, organized, outlined and practiced Speech delivery is important because it is what is immediate to the audience Delivery relies on verbal and nonverbal communication

From the definitions above, political speech is understood as a type of public speaking

2.4 Rhetorical Devices in Political Speeches

2.4.1 Rhetoric

Rhetoric is an old communication technique which was developed by the Greek in ancient times It is meant to be a useful instrument of persuasion Nowadays, rhetoric is understood as the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional technique Aristotle, who was an ancient Greek scholar, once

described rhetoric in The Art of Rhetoric as "instrument of exploring the

overall feasible ways to persuade the audience whatever the subject is in relation to" Winterowd (1965) states that "Rhetoric is the subject that is concerned with the employment of the discourse, whether spoken form or written form, to motivate the hearer, whether the hearer is just a single person or is composed of a group of people."

To conclude from the above definitions, rhetoric can be defined as the art of speaking in an elegant and forceful but hidden way to influence, impress and persuade the audience

According to Johansen (2002), there are five processes of classical rhetoric as follows: inventio (the process of finding the right argument),

Among politicians today, ethos may be the most crucial tool If a speaker does not have credibility, it does not matter how correct or well-spoken he is The audience will not be receptive to what the speaker is trying

to convey

2.4.2 Rhetorical Devices

In general, a rhetorical device is defined as the use of language that has

a literary effect on its audience In other words, rhetorical devices go beyond the meaning of words to create effects that are creative and imaginative, improving literary to writing

Rhetorical devices are regarded as artistic techniques With the use of language, human beings have been trying to persuade one another and evoke emotions Little by little, a huge variety of different techniques have been developed for achieving these effects, and all of such techniques are summed

up in the modern lists of rhetorical techniques Each rhetorical device has a different purpose, a different history, and a different effect

For the effectiveness of the rhetoric in the use of language, politicians utilize rhetorical devices in their political addresses to the public as a powerful tool to persuade the audience towards their political aims

2.4.3 Modality as a Rhetorical Device

In this thesis, modality will be analyzed as a rhetorical device because

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it can be utilized to express humility or conviction Modality can be classified

as expressions of attitude and the rhetorical process of persuasion through personality and stance The expression of attitude makes some contribution to the overall perception of the speaker If the speaker expresses himself with a huge variety of hedging in the form of using modality which makes him keep away from his statements, his credibility will disappear And that is the reason why he cannot persuade his audience In other words, if the speaker delivers a speech using modality with credibility, he will be able to persuade the listeners

2.5 Barack Obama as the 44 th US President

2.5.1 An Introduction of President Barack Obama

Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States of America as the first African-American president after being a senator representing Illinois State in a period of 2005 to 2008 He was born on the fourth of August, 1961, in Hawaii His mother was from Kansas, America, and his father was from Kenya

He studied at Columbia University and also graduated from Harvard University with a law degree He and his wife, Michelle Obama, who served

as a lawyer, have two daughters, Sasha and Malian

In 2008, Obama was nominated for the presidential candidate of Democracy Party after a campaign against Hillary Clinton, the former first lady He defeated Republican John McCain, and was inaugurated on January

20, 2009 Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Delivering famous political addresses in the twenty-first century, Barack Obama, as the first African-American President in the history of the United States, has made numerous speeches during his political career, and

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can be one of the most influential and noted spokesmen nowadays Obama

is very skillful at combining both talent and eloquence who is such an expert in wording and phrasing, therefore, his speeches are undoubtedly the research targets of many linguistic scholars in various fields

2.5.2 An Introduction of Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address in 2016

Barack Obama delivered his final State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 12, 2016, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives It is quite a long speech with over 6,100 words which has been considered to be one of his most successful State of the Union addresses When making the speech, Obama got 86 rounds of applause and 5 rounds of laughter from the audience in the chamber with 31.3 million viewers from all over the world watching on the White House website, as well as on the White House YouTube channel

After ruling the country for eight years as the presidency, Obama highlighted all the great achievements, progress America made under his leadership He focused on the change of America, economic progress, acting

on climate, engagement in the world or American leadership, healthcare reform, social progress and equality

In order to mention the presence and the future of America, Obama stated four big questions the country has to answer as follows:

 “First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and this new economy?

 Second, how do we make technology make work for us, and not against us – especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change?

 Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without

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becoming its policeman?

 And finally, how can we make our politics reflect what’s best in

us, and not what’s worst?”

President Barack Obama also painted a hopeful picture of America, noting that it remains the most powerful nation on Earth — “It's not even close,” he repeated — with the world's “strongest, most durable economy.” At the same time, he acknowledged both the effort it will take to tackle the world's biggest challenges, as well as the fears many Americans harbor about their economic security, terrorist attacks, and more

In his address, Obama dealt with 6 main global and national issues or problems which have concerned the Americans and many nations in the world including the threat of ISIS, the Landmark Paris climate change accord, bringing peace to Syria, tackling America's opioid epidemic, reforming the criminal justice system And of course, he gave some solutions to each issue

At the end of the address, he also mentioned one of the few his regrets

of his presidency about the rancor and suspicion between the parties and he offered some solutions

Generally speaking, throughout the speech, Barack Obama emphasized and listed all the success in every field America has achieved under his leadership He also mentioned the challenges and fears that Americans have

to overcome, all the solutions to the problems or issues he talked about, and the belief in the bright future of America by invoking ordinary citizens doing extraordinary and inspirational things and concluding with “Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America”

2.6 Summary

Chapter 2 “Literature Review” includes a huge number of previous studies concerning modality which points out general notions of modality in

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terms of syntactic or semantic views (Quirk et al., 1985; Coates, 1983;

Perkins, 1983; Lyon, 1977; Palmer, 1986; Givón, 1984; Nuyts, 2001;

Fillmore, 1968; Comrie, 1985; Biber et al., 1999; Wierzbicka, 2006; and Van

Linden, 2012)

To some extent of this study, for the deep analysis later and from the definitions of modality above, modality is defined as a linguistic category that modifies the speaker’s judgement to include ways to “influence” the event described Modality may mainly express possibility, probability, volition or necessity, likelihood or prediction, etc It also conveys the speaker’s certainty or doubt Modality is the non-propositional part of the sentence which concerns its factual status Modality which helps speakers to qualify their statements with respect to possibility or necessity is classified into two main types including epistemic and deontic modality Non-factuality and subjectivity are known as two main characteristics of modality

All the papers above have contributed much to the literature in modality in general and Barack Obama’s use of modality as a means of language in particular From the previous studies, there is a gap that modality has not been researched as a rhetorical device in Obama’s political discourses

in general and in his State of the Union Address in 2016 in particular For those reasons, this study will be carried out to find the effectiveness of the use

of modality in Barack Obama’s political discourses

The chapter discusses some theories on some modal expressions built

by Quirk et al (1985), Wierzbicka (2006), and Van Linden (2012) From the

discussion above, modal auxiliaries, modal lexical verbs, modal adjectives and modal adverbs will be employed for the analysis in terms of combined

theories of some authors including Quirk et al (1985), Wierzbicka (2006),

and Van Linden (2012) as the theoretical framework Besides, the Chapter

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also deals with some linguistic terms such as: rhetoric, rhetorical devices, and political speech, the content of the 2016 State of the Union Address, also the President Barack Obama’s bibliography

3.1 Types of Modality Markers used in President Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address

3.1.1 Modal Auxiliaries

While the modal auxiliaries will (not), can (not), might, could, should (not), need (not), have to, may, would are found in President Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address, must and shall are not identified in the speech

With 115 occurrences, the modal auxiliaries are considered to be the core modality marker in the speech Most examples of the modal auxiliaries are the positive form; quite a few of them are negative and interrogative

In the speech, the examples of will belong to both intrinsic and

extrinsic modality which express volition and prediction All of them show affirmation except for only one example of negation For example:

(i) Intrinsic

[1] I’ll be shaking hands afterwards if you want some tips (volition)

[2] And I will keep pushing for progress on the work that still needs to

be done (volition)

[3] And I won’t let up until they get done (volition)

(ii) Extrinsic

[4] And I understand that because it’s an election season, expectations

for what we will achieve this year is low (prediction)

[5] And whether we like it or not, the pace of this change will only