This paper is an attempt to explore modality used by the Former U.S. President Donald Trump in his tweets to indicate his political and ideological intentions and goals during (2020), because it is the last year of Trump’s Presidency; and it is the year that the American elections held, and within this year Covid-19 swept the world. The critical stylistic analysis aims at uncovering Trump’s ideological outlook by identifying the extra layer of meaning in which the ideological evaluation is structured and exposing the way in which the resources of language are strategically deployed to influence and ideologically manipulate Trump’s followers’ experience of reality.
One of Jeffries’s (2010) tools which is "hypothesizing" used in analyzing modality in critical stylistics, and she also proposes some constructions that give modal meaning such as (lexical verbs, modal adjectives, modal adverbs and conditional structure), in addition to Simpson’s (1993) four categories (deontic, boulomaic, epistemic and perception).
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Critical Stylistics
3. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
4. Modality
5. A (meta)functional Approach to Language
6. Hypothesizing and Modality
7. Ideology and Politics
8. Donald Trump and Social Media
9. Methodology and Data Collection
10. Analysis and Results
11. Conclusions
Objectives & Themes
This study explores the linguistic use of modality in Donald Trump’s Twitter discourse during the year 2020. The primary research goal is to uncover how modal resources are strategically deployed to convey political intentions, construct ideologically charged hypothetical realities, and influence the audience's perception of political events.
- Critical analysis of modality as a tool for ideological manipulation.
- Application of Simpson’s (1993) modal systems and Jeffries’s (2010) “hypothesizing” framework.
- Examination of the relationship between language, power, and political discourse.
- Investigation of social media’s role in modern political communication and campaigning.
Excerpt from the Book
4. Modality
Modality refers broadly to a speaker’s attitude towards, or opinion about, the truth of a proposition expressed by a sentence. It also extends to their attitude towards the situation or event described by a sentence. Modality is therefore a major exponent of the interpersonal function of language. Modality has been used rather loosely to refer to ‘attitudinal’ features of language. In his own account Fowler quite properly identifies a variety of grammatical means for conveying modal commitment, amongst which are included modal auxiliaries, modal adverbs (or sentence adverbs), evaluative adjectives and adverbs, generic sentences and verbs of knowledge, prediction and evaluation (Simpson, 1993: 43).
According to (Nørgaard, 2014: 473), In interpersonal meta-function, Hallidayan stylisticians are likely to examine how characters are construed interpersonally through the distribution of speech roles, mood choices, modality, vocatives and naming. As regards the distribution of speech roles and mood choices, analysis of these elements will reveal who is speaking and for how long, who is ‘giving’ and ‘taking’ in conversation and whether this is done straightforwardly through congruent mood choices, or in grammatically incongruent ways as a means of politeness. An analysis of modality will throw light on the aspect of characterisation that concerns speakers’ commitment to what is being said. While some characters like people in reality are likely to confidently state things as absolute (positive or negative) facts, others may tend to modalise as a result of uncertainty (‘maybe she thinks you’ll marry her, (Joyce, 1992: 45)); for emphasis and/or to seem more certain than is actually the case (‘that emphatically takes the biscuit’, (ibid)); or as markers of politeness (‘if I may so call it’, (ibid. : 44)).
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Outlines the development of Critical Discourse Analysis and the evolution of critical stylistics as a response to the need for text-centric analytical approaches.
2. Critical Stylistics: Discusses the theoretical foundations of critical stylistics and its attempt to integrate ideological analysis into stylistic studies.
3. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA): Defines CDA as a problem-oriented approach used to study power, dominance, and social inequality within linguistic interactions.
4. Modality: Explains the grammatical systems of modality—deontic, boulomaic, epistemic, and perception—and their roles in expressing speaker attitude and commitment.
5. A (meta)functional Approach to Language: Explores Halliday’s systemic-functional linguistics and how experiential, interpersonal, and textual meanings govern social interaction.
6. Hypothesizing and Modality: Introduces the “hypothesizing” tool within critical stylistics, examining how modal language constructs alternative versions of reality.
7. Ideology and Politics: Analyzes how modality is utilized to promote ideological points of view and maintain dominant socio-political power structures.
8. Donald Trump and Social Media: Examines the role of Twitter as a tool for political communication and its influence on modern campaigning and public accountability.
9. Methodology and Data Collection: Details the qualitative-quantitative approach and the selection criteria for the ten tweets analyzed in the study.
10. Analysis and Results: Presents the findings regarding Trump’s usage of modality in his tweets and the resulting impacts on his followers.
11. Conclusions: Synthesizes the study results, confirming that Trump uses diversified modality systems to advance his political goals and ideological agenda.
Keywords
Critical Stylistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Modality, Hypothesizing, Ideology, Politics, Donald Trump, Twitter, Social Media, Interpersonal Meta-function, Deontic, Boulomaic, Epistemic, Perception, Political Communication.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research?
The research focuses on the critical stylistic analysis of modality used in Donald Trump's tweets during the year 2020 to understand how linguistic choices shape and express political ideology.
What are the main thematic areas covered?
The work covers theoretical frameworks of critical stylistics and CDA, the linguistic categorization of modality, the function of language in political communication, and the specific use of digital platforms like Twitter by political figures.
What is the core research objective?
The core objective is to identify how Donald Trump employs modal expressions to influence his followers' perceptions, manipulate experience, and advance his political and ideological goals.
Which methodology is applied in this study?
The study uses a quantitative-qualitative method, relying specifically on Simpson’s (1993) model of modal systems and Jeffries’s (2010) “hypothesizing” tool for textual analysis.
What topics are discussed in the main body?
The main body treats the foundational theory of modality systems, the relationship between ideology and politics, the communicative power of social media, and the detailed analysis of specific presidential tweets from 2020.
What define the keywords of this work?
The keywords relate to the linguistic framework (Critical Stylistics, Modality, Meta-functions), the political context (Ideology, Politics, Donald Trump), and the media environment (Social Media, Twitter).
How does the author define "hypothesizing" within this context?
Hypothesizing refers to the categorization of various modal linguistic structures (such as lexical verbs, conditional structures, and modal adverbs) that enable a communicator to present alternative or imagined versions of reality to manipulate an audience's viewpoint.
What role does the “reflector mode” play in the analysis of the tweets?
The "reflector mode" is used to analyze how modality is narrated or presented within the context of the tweets to express the speaker's degree of commitment—or lack thereof—to subjective truths in a way that resonates with or influences target readers.
How do the findings characterize the effectiveness of Trump's political communication?
The findings conclude that Trump strategically employs a combination of positive and negative modal assertions to influence voter evaluation and behavior, effectively using modality to project confidence and authority.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Mohanned Jassim Dakhil Al-Ghizzy (Autor:in), 2023, A Critical Stylistic Study of Modality in Selected Tweets of the Former American President Donald Trump, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/1357540
