Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Fachbereich Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Hauptseminar „Critical Discourse Analysis“
WS 2004/2005

Modal structures of political commitment

by: Jonas Ole Langner

I. Introduction -3-

II. Mood -4-

III. Modality -7-

III.1 Extrinsic modality

III.1.1 Certainty -9-
III.1.2 Probability -11-
III.1.3 Possibility -12-

III.2 Intrinsic modality

III.2.1 Volition -13-
III.2.2 Obligation and necessity -14-
III.2.3 Intrinsic possibility, ability, permission -16-

IV. Realisation of modal meanings -17-

V. Text Study -17-

VI. Results -21-

VII. References -24-

I. Introduction

According to Downing and Locke “[m]odality is the category by which speakers express attitudes towards the event contained in the proposition” (Downing: 1992, 381). So when it comes to analysing political commitments concerning their modal structures, this will be a question of how far the speaker commits himself¹ to the content of his speech. “[M]odality is [also] said to express a relation to reality, whereas an unmodalised declarative treats the process as reality” (Downing: 1992, 382). Especially in the field of politics, that is often regarded as a ‘game of lies and intrigues’. It is interesting to find out whether a politician really believes what he says or how he hides his real opinion behind the tools modality gives him. Modality gives us the opportunity to make an utterance sound clear and certain at first glance and it is only revealed at a closer look that the speaker is not as convinced as it seems to be.

This term paper can be divided into two parts. The first part of it will be concerned with the theory of modality. As mood is closely linked to modality, it will start with giving a short introduction to this topic. This will also be helpful for the analysis at the end of this paper. Additionally, the topic of this paper is classified to the level of interpersonal meaning, which “[…] is expressed by choices from several different areas of the language which include modality, intonation and […] ‘moods’” (Downing: 1992, 164). This emphasizes the importance of dealing with mood in this paper. For obvious reasons it will not be possible though to analyse the text in the end concerning the speaker’s intonation. This chapter will be followed by explaining what modality is all about. The author of this term paper decided to orientate himself according to the division made by Downing and Locke, namely that of extrinsic modality on the one hand and that of instrinsic modality on the other (cf. Downing: 1992, 381-402). Most other concepts of modality by Lock, Quirk, Yule, and others can be adapted to this one, although some of them differ in their terms. Other differences will be pointed out when and where it is necessary and appropriate. It is important and essential to focus on theory in the beginning, otherwise it would be impossible to analyse the text afterwards. One cannot apply something in practice without knowing anything about its theory. The theory part will then be concluded by describing in which different ways and by which different means modality can be realised in language.

In the second part of this term paper the knowledge that has been acquired before will be applied to a speech by Tony Blair. The Prime Minister’s speech is concerned with the Hutton report that had been published shortly before this statement. It was given to the House of Commons on Wednesday 28 January 2004. Since the whole affair of the dossier about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and whether it had been sexed up or not and the death of the weapon expert Dr David Kelly was one that still remains, despite the investigation committee by Lord Hutton, doubtful and leaves room for speculation, is suitable for the aim of this paper. There is the report that is supposed to be concerned with facts only and there are the strange circumstances under which everything happened. However, this chapter will try to find out about how far Tony Blair is convinced of what he is saying and in what degree his statement is certain at all. This analysis will be added by giving diagrams of how often the Prime Minister used certain modal verbs and structures.

II. Mood

Opinions among grammarians differ on the question of how many different kinds of moods or clause types exist. Downing and Locke speak of three: declarative, interrogative and imperative (cf. Downing: 1992, 164). The Collins grammar confirms this view (cf. Sinclair: 1990, 196), whereas Lock adds a fourth one, the exclamative mood (cf. Lock: 1996, 176). According to Downing and Locke this mood is “[…] a variation of the declarative” (Downing: 1992, 164). Eastwood does not use the term mood at all; he refers to four different sentence types: statements, questions, imperative, exclamations (cf. Eastwood: 1994, 15), but which can be applied respectively to the moods mentioned above. Altogether, it is only a question of minor differences, so that they will not be looked at any further and it will be spoken of mood or mood types in general in the following. “These [mood types] are realised […] by the presence or absence of Subject together with the Finite element, and the order in which these occur” (Downing 1992: 164).² The following table (cf. Downing: 1992, 168 and Lock: 1996, 177, 179f.) gives an overview of the structure of the mood element of every single mood type, which is decisive for the mood that is intended to be expressed in contrast to the residue of the clause, which remains unchanged throughout all different mood types (cf. Downing: 1992, 167).

[...]

1 The author of this term paper is well aware of the fact that it is not politically correct to focus only on male persons; this is only done for reasons of shortness and not to make it too complicated. Therefore it must be pointed out that in the following female persons are always included, even if it is only referred to male ones.

2 The meaning of Subject and Finite is taken for granted by the author. For further information concerning these grammatical phenomena, have a look at Downing or Lock (for bibliographical details see chapter VII. References). This is valid for all following grammatical terms that are not directly related to the topic of this term paper and therefore not explained