A comparative study of the lexical means of modality employed in culture and sport editorials of commendation on the USAtoday.com and the Vietnamnews.vn from 2010 to 2015.pdf

1. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
LÊ THỊ THÙY
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE LEXICAL MEANS OF
MODALITY EMPLOYED IN CULTURE AND SPORT EDITORIALS
OF COMMENDATION ON THE USATODAY.COM AND
THE VIETNAMNEWS.VN FROM 2012 TO 2015
NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH NHỮNG PHƢƠNG TIỆN TỪ VỰNG CỦA
TÍNH TÌNH THÁI TRONG CÁC BÀI XÃ LUẬN KHEN NGỢI VỀ
LĨNH VỰC VĂN HÓA VÀ THỂ THAO TRÊN BÁO USATODAY.COM
VÀ VIETNAMNEWS.VN TỪ NĂM 2012 ĐẾN 2015
M.A. Minor Thesis
Field: English linguistics
Code: 60220201
HANOI – 2016

2. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
LÊ THỊ THÙY
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE LEXICAL MEANS OF
MODALITY EMPLOYED IN CULTURE AND SPORT EDITORIALS
OF COMMENDATION ON THE USATODAY.COM AND
THE VIETNAMNEWS.VN FROM 2012 TO 2015
NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH NHỮNG PHƢƠNG TIỆN TỪ VỰNG CỦA
TÍNH TÌNH THÁI TRONG CÁC BÀI XÃ LUẬN KHEN NGỢI VỀ
LĨNH VỰC VĂN HÓA VÀ THỂ THAO TRÊN BÁO USATODAY.COM
VÀ VIETNAMNEWS.VN TỪ NĂM 2012 ĐẾN 2015
M.A. Minor Thesis
Field: English linguistics
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Tô Thị Thu Hƣơng, Ph.D
HANOI – 2016

3. i
DECLARATION
I certify that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my own
research, and this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other
university or institution.
Hanoi, October 2016
Signature
Lê Thị Thùy

4. ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the following people who
have offered support and encouragement in all their different ways throughout
this study.
I am indeed thankful to my supervisor, Dr. Tô Thị Thu Hương, whose
sympathetic guidance has been the source of inspiration and knowledge for my
research. I am also grateful to other teachers of the Department of Post-Graduate
Studies for their encouragement and valuable advice.
My great thanks are also given to my family and my friends who have
encouraged me a lot during the process of my study.

5. iii
ABSTRACT
The thesis analyzed the selected editorials of commendation on cultural and
sporty fields chosen from the American English newspaper, the usatoday.com,
and the Vietnamese English newspaper, the vietnamnews.vn, to identify the
lexical means of modality employed in the two newspapers. The study aimed at
analyzing how similar and different in tendencies of using modality as well as
the functions of modality employed in commendation editorials in the two
newspapers. The data showed that modality was realized in the two newspapers
through modal auxiliary verbs, ‗knowledge‘ verbs, certain reporting verbs,
modal adjectives and adverbs, and some modal nouns. From the findings, the
research also provided some suggestions in teaching and learning English.

6. iv
TABLE OF CONTENS
DECLARATION ................................................................................................1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...............................................................................vi
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES....................................................................vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................1
1.1. Justification...............................................................................................1
1.2. Aim and purposes of Research .................................................................4
1.3. Research questions ....................................................................................3
1.4. Significance...............................................................................................4
1.5. Thesis outline................................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................6
2.1. Definition of modality ...............................................................................6
2.2. Types of modality......................................................................................7
2.3. Linguistic manifestations of modality........................................................8
2.3.1. Modal verbs.........................................................................................9
2.3.2. Modal adverbs...................................................................................11
2.3.3. Modal adjectives ...............................................................................11
2.3.4. Modal nouns......................................................................................11
2.4. Editorials and classification of newspaper editorials................................12
2.4.1. Definition of editorials ......................................................................12
2.4.2. Classification of newspaper editorials...............................................14
2.4.3. Editorials of commendation...............................................................14
2.5. Previous studies.......................................................................................15

7. v
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .....................................................................18
3.1. Types of Research ...................................................................................18
3.2. Data Sources ...........................................................................................18
3.3. Data Analysis Instruments.......................................................................19
3.4. Data Analysis Procedure .........................................................................20
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION................................................24
4.1. Modal verbs.............................................................................................24
4.2. Modal adjectives and adverbs..................................................................31
4.3. Modal nouns............................................................................................37
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ..........................................................................39
5.1. Summary.................................................................................................39
5.2. Pedagogical implications.........................................................................41
5.3. Limitations of the study...........................................................................44
REFERENCES..................................................................................................45
APPENDICES .................................................................................................... I
UT1.....................................................................................................................I
UT2..................................................................................................................III
UT3...................................................................................................................V
UT4..................................................................................................................VI
UT5.................................................................................................................VII
UT6................................................................................................................VIII
UT7....................................................................................................................X
UT8..................................................................................................................XI
UT9................................................................................................................XIII

8. vi
UT10...............................................................................................................XV
VN1.............................................................................................................XVII
VN2............................................................................................................XVIII
VN3...............................................................................................................XXI
VN4............................................................................................................XXIII
VN5.............................................................................................................XXV
VN6...........................................................................................................XXVII
VN7.............................................................................................................XXX
VN8............................................................................................................XXXI
VN9...........................................................................................................XXXII
VN10.......................................................................................................XXXIV

9. vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
UT: the usatoday.com
VN: the vietnamnews.vn

10. viii
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Table 1. Modality through modal auxiliaries in UT & VN
Table 2. Number of quoted direct speech & indirect speech in two newspapers
Table 3. Comparative and superlative forms of evaluative adjectives and adverbs

11. 1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The chapter explained the reasons of choosing the research topic, clarified the
aim and purposes, raised the research questions, and provided the organization of
the study as well.
1.1. Justification
In this modern society, there are numerous mass media that bring the wide world
into each home. Social media are possibly divided into 2 types: spoken and
written. The former is always represented by television and radio. Then, the
latter is represented by newspapers, magazines and especially news websites.
Thanks to the development of high technology, human beings do not have to
spend much time in front of television or radio without moving out their homes.
They also do not need to go to news agency to buy newspapers or magazines
every morning. By only one click, all the needed information appears on the
screen even though they are sitting in a café or in a restaurant. Moreover, with
the help of a smart phone, people these days update news more quickly than ever
before. Each minute passes, an event can be received hundreds of comments. So,
there is no doubt that news websites play an important role in modern life. They
become a means for the writers and readers to share society‘s values and express
their opinions and attitudes about the social issues. That is the reason for
choosing news websites as objects to analyze.
Editorial is considered a part of news website contents where the editorial writers
and readers provide their personal comments on the happening events. To
convey these private assessments into the news, modality could be an effective

12. 2
means because of its nature. Saeed (2009, p.138) claimed that ―modality is a
cover term for devices which allow the speaker or writer to express varying
degrees of commitment to, or belief in, a proposition‖. It is possibly said that
with this type of mass media, modality is vigorously expressed. Because of that
reason, modality in newspaper editorials have attracted many attentions recently.
Biber (1998), Westin and Geisler (2002) and Morley (2004) were the huge
names in the area. Those researches provided sufficient guidance for the
language users to employ modality in their texts. Furthermore, those also became
the foundation for the next researchers who would conduct research in exploring
and assessing the phenomenon of what happens in newspapers or social media. It
was obvious that most of the researches on this subject were conducted in
foreign countries or they focused on criticism editorials only although editorials
were divided into different sub-genres. The researchers looked for the use of
modality in editorials of criticism because of its popularity amongst all the types.
Moreover, this also was a potential area in using modality since this type of
editorials aims at criticizing policies and decisions that are considered as
controversial by the newspaper staffs. In spite of the fact that the editorials of
commendation which commend people and organizations for something done
well are not as common as the others, it should be put in consideration because
our ancestors ever taught that ‗criticism is easy, and art is difficult‘. It seems
effortless for us to criticize someone for what they made, but to crown someone
from the bottom of our heart is not as easy as we suppose. Moreover, praise
plays an important role in motivating and engaging people in their work. The
more respected and appreciated people feel, the more motivated they are. They
will do better than those who think their efforts go unnoticed. They are more

13. 3
engaged in their work because they know they are making a real difference. An
interesting aspect about praise is the chemical reaction it causes in us. O′.Arias-
Carrion and Poppel (2007) showed that when we heard something we liked, a
burst of dopamine was released in our brains. Dopamine was a neurotransmitter,
and it was associated with feelings of joy, pride, satisfaction, and well-being,
giving a positive impact on the individual. In culture and sport areas, there are
many people who are ready to devote their lives for the development of their
own country in particular and the development of human beings in general, so
they deserve to be praised. An appropriate compliments will be the best present
to encourage people to get better results in their works. Mark Twain ever said ― I
can live for two months on a good compliments‖. However, giving praise
publicly and regularly might be frowned upon in some cultures. It means that
there are different ways to commend someone and each of newspapers has their
own ways to express their opinions and feelings. The thesis compared two
editorials: an American English and a Vietnamese English with the purpose of
demonstrating what English linguistic categories of modality the writers used in
complimenting athletes and celebrities in culture and sport areas because many
individuals got achievements in those fields. Moreover, the study was done with
the aim of comparing the similarities and differences in employing lexical
expressions of modality in the two newspapers. The results of the research could
be a guide in teaching and learning English reading, writing and translation
generally and in journalism particularly.
1.2. Aim and purposes of Research
The study aimed at finding out the similarities and differences in employing
lexical means of modality in two newspapers so that the results of the research

14. 4
could be a guide in teaching and learning English reading, writing and
translation generally and in journalism particularly.
Based on the above 2 research questions, the purposes of the research were:
1. to clarify kinds of lexical carriers of modality employed in cultural and
sport editorials of commendation in the two newspapers.
2. to analyze how similar and different in tendencies of using modality as
well as the functions of modality employed in commendation editorials
in the two newspapers.
1.3. Research questions
There were two research questions to guide this thesis:
1. What are the lexical means of modality commonly employed in culture
and sport editorials of commendation in the two online newspapers, the
American English newspaper, the usatoday.com, and the Vietnamese
English newspaper, the vietnamnews.vn?
2. What are the similarities and differences in the use of lexical means of
modality in these editorials of the two newspapers?
1.4. Significance
The significance of the study was to explain the similarities and differences in
employing lexical modal categories in two editorial newspapers, an American
English newspaper and a Vietnamese English newspaper, in complimenting the
athletes and celebrities. The achieved results could be applied in teaching and
learning English.

15. 5
1.5. Thesis Outline
This thesis consisted of five following chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction
The introduction chapter consisted of Justification, Aim and Purposes, Research
questions, and Thesis outline.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
The review of literature explained some theories which were related to the topic
as a guide to write this thesis. It included Definition of modality, Types of
modality, Lexical means of modality, Definition and Classification of newspaper
editorials, and Previous studies.
Chapter 3: Methodology
This chapter consisted of Types of research, Data sources, Data analysis
instruments and Data analysis procedure.
Chapter 4: Findings and discussion
The findings and discussion chapter provided the results of the analysis of the
collected data to answer the 2 research questions and discussion of the findings.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
In this chapter, the writer provided the conclusion of the research as well as some
teaching and learning implications based on what had been found.

16. 6
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provided an overview of theoretical background that guided the
researcher during conducting the thesis.
2.1. Definition of modality
Modality has been seen as one of the most complicated areas both in English and
in other languages. It is considered a semantic category. By means of modal
expressions, the speaker can evaluate a particular situation in terms of
possibility, probability, permission, volition, obligation and necessity. Lyons
(1977) pointed out that modality referred to people‘s opinions and attitudes
towards propositions expressed with language or circumstances described by
propositions while Quirk (1985) regarded it as the speaker‘s judgment on the
authenticity of propositions. Palmer (1986) considered modality as semantic
information associated with the speaker‘s attitude or opinion about what is said.
From his point of view, modality could also be analyzed as the validity of
relativity of a sentence meaning through a set of possible words, or it could be
said as the ways in which people could understand a different word. In other
words, modality gave the language a function to express what is happening, what
will happen, what might happen, and what they should do.
Generally, all of the authors had an agreement on the definition of modality and
they tried to explore the functions of modality in the proposition. It is possible to
define modality as a means that helps the speaker or writer show their attitudes
towards a certain piece of information.

17. 7
2.2. Types of modality
Despite the fact that there are numerous ways to classify modality into different
types, most of linguists such as Hoffman (1976), Jenkins (1972), Perkins (1982),
Sweetser (1982), Coates (1983), and Huddleston (1988) agreed to divide
modality into two basic subtypes: epistemic and deontic. Epistemic modality was
concerned with the speaker's relation to proposition, whereas deontic modality
was concerned with the speaker's relation to events and actions. Both types of
modality signaled a speaker's judgments. With epistemic, the judgment was
about the way the real world is; with deontic, it was about how people should
behave in the world. Deontic modality expressed future; meanwhile epistemic
modality was connected to the present. Epistemic modality showed the meanings
of possibility, necessity and prediction while deontic modality carried the
meanings of permission, obligation and volition.
von Wright (1951) and Quirk et al., (1985) had the other ideas in classifying
types of modality. The former classified modality into four types: Alethic,
Epistemic, Deontic and Existential while the latter distinguished between two
types: ‗intrinsic‟ which involve some kind of human control over events, and
„extrinsic‟ which involve human judgment of what is or is not likely to happen.
Rescher (1986), apart from these types, referred to one more type which he
called temporal.
Palmer, besides agreeing with the other researchers, he also added evidential and
dynamic as two more sorts of modality. Furthermore, he grouped four above
subtypes into two bigger ones: Propositional modality and Event modality.
Propositional modality included Epistemic and Evidential. Event Modality in

18. 8
turn could be of two types, Deontic and Dynamic. ―Evidential modality, in
which, instead of making a judgment about the truth-value of the proposition, the
speaker offers evidence for it‖ (2003, p.7). If with deontic modality, the control
was external to the subject of proposition, dynamic one was in contrast with
internal control.
In the research, the researcher used Palmer‘s theory in clarifying the functions of
modality in the English culture and sport editorials of commendation between
two newspapers due to the several reasons. First of all, there was no doubt that
Palmer was an expert of this field. His achievements were the basic theory for
many studies. Moreover, apart from some common meanings that modality
expressed, the reseacher would like to find out whether the editors give the
evidence for what is said and evaluate the internal and external controls that
contribute to the people‘s achievements.
2.3. Lexical means of modality
Fowler (1985) gave a brief list to illustrate the lexical categories of modality.
Modality was manifested in a number of forms: mainly, the modal auxiliary
verbs may, shall, must, need, and others; sentence adverbs such as probably,
certainly, regrettably; adjectives such as necessary, unfortunate, certain. Some
verbs, and many nominalizations, were crucially modals: permit, predict, prove;
obligation, likelihood, desirability, authority.
Furthermore, Nuyts (2001, p.29) pointed out that modality could be expressed by
the use of modal adverbs, predicatively used modal adjectives, mental state
predicates and by modal auxiliaries. It was said that certain types of main verbs

19. 9
as well as adjectives, adverbs, and certain nominalizations could be used to
express modality.
From two above authors, it was possible to conclude that modality could be
manifested through different linguistic categories such as modal auxiliaries,
lexcial modal verbs, modal adverbs, modal nouns and modal adjectives. The
following discussed the linguistic categories of modality in English.
2.3.1. Modal verbs
First and foremost, modality was not mentioned without modal verbs. Modal
verbs, called as modal auxiliaries or simply modals, created a relatively small
and closed group of verbs that significantly differed from other ‗ordinary‘ verbs.
Regarding the semantic, in contrast to lexical verbs, the meaning of modals
depended on context. Leech (1969, p.203-204) gave us a general look on the
meanings of modals as in the following table:
Modals Meaning
Can Possibility, ability/capability, permission
Could
May Possibility, permission
Might
Shall Speaker´s willingness,
speaker´s insistence
Should
Ought to
Will / ´ll Weak volition/willingness, strong volition/insistence
Would / ´d
Must Obligation, logical necessity
From the table above, it was seen that modal auxiliary verbs can, could, may,
might express permission, possibility and ability; modal auxiliary verbs must,

20. 10
ought to, and should indicated obligation and necessity; will and shall as well as
would denoted volition and prediction.
Moreover, according to Biber et al. (1999, p.483), there were nine central modal
auxiliary verbs that were used to express modality: can, could, may, might, shall,
should, will, would, must. Besides, many authors also mentioned ought (to)
among the group of the modal auxiliaries and dare, need, used (to) were often
referred to as semi-modals.
Recently, according to Downing & Locke (2006), modality could be realized
through the following categories:
- modal verbs; semi-modals: need, dare, wish;
- lexical auxiliaries (chain-like structures with primary verbs be and
have): be able to, be apt to, be due to, be going to, be liable to, be likely
to, be certain to, be sure to, be to, be unlikely to, be supposed to, have
to, have got to, had better, would rather, would sooner;
- phased structures composed of a catenative verb, such as need, want,
regret, try, manage, hesitate, happen, chance, tend, seem, appear,
pretend, followed by a nonfinite verb form;
- lexical verbs such as allow, beg, command, forbid, guarantee, guess,
promise, suggest, warn.
The above list meant that apart from modal auxiliaries, modality could be
expressed through some other lexical verbs. These authors also provided other
lexcical means of modality such as adverbs and sentence modifiers, predicate
adjectives and nouns.

21. 11
2.3.2. Modal adverbs
Although modal adverbs had not received much attention from the researchers,
they were still an important expression of modality. Matthews (1991) claimed
that together with other modal categories, modal adverbs ―may be taken to
represent, at least in part, the ‗natural‘ conceptualization of modality in English‖
and they constituted a part of ―a basic network of modality concept for English‖.
In Quirk et al.‘s work (1985, p.583), they also called these adverbs as ―common
emphasizes‖ and classified them into 2 small groups. The first one included
actually, certainly, clearly, definitely, indeed, obviously, plainly, really, surely,
for certain, for sure , of course suggesting what is being said is true. The second
one with the manifestation of the items as frankly, honestly, literally, simply,
fairly, just had the value that what the speaker says is unambiguously true.
2.3.3. Modal adjectives
DeLazero (2011) argued that modal adjectives not only combined with nouns
describing situations and participants in situations (entities in context) but also
expressed modality when they are combined with to + infinitive or a that clause.
They were also included in the generic phrases which were mentioned in
Alizera‘s paper (2011). According to him, the adjectives, frustrating, tragic,
unlikely, likely, certain, conceivable, clear, unclear, and hard, appeared
commonly in English editorials. Along with these, the other modal adjectives
could include possible, probable, absolute, complete, essential, definite, etc.
2.3.4. Modal nouns
As far as mentioned in the studies, modal nouns could additionally express
modality. Halliday (1976), Greenbaum (1996) and Palmer (2001) noted that

22. 12
modality might be also marked by non-verbs such as possibility and perhaps.
They were often followed by a ‗that clause‘ or to + infinitive. It was hard for a
modal noun to operate on the level of the whole proposition they take part in.
However, combined with a ‗that clause‘, to verb, or verb (usually verbs with
more or less auxiliary function), these nouns could replace modal verbs.
Modality could be manifested with such modal nouns as chance, possibility,
probability, necessity, capacity, certainty, opportunity, obligation, etc.
2.4. Editorials and classification of newspaper editorials
2.4.1. Definition of editorials
Not as far as the history of human beings, newspaper seemingly appeared in the
17th
century and developed widely with the invention of the printing press. The
first newspaper writers were not allowed to break the principles of journalism by
including their assessments into that piece of news. Since 19th
century, the
newspapers have been written with various communicative purposes so that the
language used in this type of media has also been changed.
Yaasa claimed that the editorial started around 1830 (cited in Ate, 2008).
Nowadays, when the word ―human rights‖ appears everywhere around the
world, it is easily acceptable for people to raise their voice and show their
thought about what they see and hear. It is also why the editorial becomes an
important part in any newspapers. It can be said that the editorial has a
significant role in any newspapers nowadays because it not only informs the
readers with news but also attaches the writer‘s attitudes and opinions on that
piece of news. There are numerous definitions of editorial. Each of them stands
out the contents and the duties of this type of newspapers.

23. 13
Okoro and Agbo (2003, p.125) defined editorial as ―a critical evaluation,
interpretation and presentation of significant, contemporary events in such a way
as to inform, educate, entertain and influence the reader.‖
Hoffman, M (2007, p.113) specified editorial as a ―statement of opinion from an
editor or publisher about you and your business. Media coverage generated by
news staff‖.
Simply, Ate (2008) described editorial writing of any newspaper as the voice,
reputation, ideology, public assessment channel to the audience and mouth piece
of the newspaper.
In general, editorial is a kind of news which conveys the writer‘s opinion on
discussed matter. He may hope to provide the news and deliver his comments
about that piece of news as well.
However, the writer‘s opinion might be delivered in different ways. Merrill
(1965, p.74) expressed that the most obvious kind of subjectivity is explicit
opinion and he provided a parallel between explicit opinion and Hayakawa‘s
term judgment, all the author‘s agreement and disagreement of the phenomena
being discussed (1978, p.37). Hayakawa named another way of delivering the
writer‘s assessment ―slanting‖. This made certain opinions unavoidable through
one-sided selection of details (1978, p.41-42). Slanting could be considered an
implicit opinion which might be manifested through the selection of topics, the
importance given to different topics and features of styles (Van Dijk, 1988a
&1988b). In addition, the writer‘s opinion was often hidden by employing some
means like the use of numbers to indicate precision, presenting opposite views
on a matter, eyewitness accounts of events and the use of quotation marks

24. 14
especially (Tuchman, 1972 & van Dijk 1987a). It was concluded that the writers‘
assessments could be achieved through many different devices among which
quotations and reported speech seemed one of the effective one.
2.4.2. Classification of newspaper editorials
It was clear that ―for everything under the sun, there must be a purpose‖ (Ate,
2008, p.58) and this type of newspaper had to surely follow this rule. Editorial
could be written in the hope with persuading, amusing and amazing the readers.
In the thesis, the researcher used the classification suggested by Hall (2003).
Based on the suggested classification, it was possible to classify the newspaper
editorials into editorials of Criticism, Attack, Defense, Endorsement, Praise,
Appeal and Entertainment. He also provided the definition with vivid examples
for each type. It seemed that Hall‘s classification was clear and easily
understandable; therefore, this framework had basically been used in numerous
research papers.
2.4.3. Editorials of commendation
Amongst these types of editorials, praise or commendation editorials were
written with the aim of complimenting some individuals, groups of people or
even some organizations who have a lot of devotion in specific areas.
According to Hyland (2000, p.44), a commendation is defined as ―an act which
attributes credit to another for some characteristic, attribute, skill, etc., which is
positively valued by the writer‖. Such a positive evaluative act was clarified as a
positive remark on what that athlete or celebrity had done or achieved, their
professional skills, their personal characters, their efforts to overcome difficulties
or even their potential results.

25. 15
Hall et al. (2015, p.120) claimed that the editorials of commendation ―obviously
points out the merits of an idea or the superior qualities of a person‖. They also
added ―papers should strive for a balance between praise ad criticism in
editorials‖. It meant that to find an editorial with a pure commendation was hard
and the writers might mix this type with the others.
In the research, the researcher compared similarities and differences in
employing the lexical means of modality in culture and sport editorials of
commendation between two newspapers, an American English and a Vietnamese
English.
2.5. Previous studies
There have not been many researches relating to modality in editorials. Most of
them paid much attention on modality in editorials of criticism and some others
were for modality in general editorials. Modality referred to attitudes and
judgments expressed in newspaper texts and is characterized by the use of modal
linguistic carriers. Modality had been categorized as a language argumentative
strategy. Analyzing modality in Arabic and English editorials, Biber (1998)
claimed that modals which expressed necessity such as „must‟, „should‟,
prediction such as „will‟ „would‟, and possibility such as „can‟, „may‟, „could‟
were often used in English editorials. Additionally, Westin and Geisler (2002)
also suggested prediction and necessity modals as argumentative strategies used
in editorials. Furthermore, Morley (2004) concluded that editorials employed
such argumentative strategies as necessity, probability and prediction.
Probability referred to modals like can, could, may and might while prediction
was manifested with shall, will and would. He also covered phrasal modals such

26. 16
as: be able to, had better, be going to, have to, ought to, used to, etc. The results
from Qun‘s study showed that should and could were the outstanding features in
editorials. Contrasting to scientific papers‘ tendency of using „may‟, editorial
writers preferred to use „perhaps‟ to present a fussy semantic stance to shun
possible criticism (Qun, 2010, p.40-51).
Alireza‘s paper entitled “Linguistic manifestations of modality in newspaper
editorials” (2011) revealed some specific results of using modality in this media
discourse. The comparison of the two editorials, The New York Times, an
American English editorials, and The Tehran Times, a Persian English one, in
terms of employing auxiliary modal verbs showed that both of the papers
preferred mostly predictive auxiliary modals such as will or would to the other
kinds of modals. On the one hand, the predictive modals were used with higher
number to identify what would happen in the future. On the other hand, the
modals of necessity were preferred by editorial writers in Tehran Times with the
main concern about what should be done. This research was done with modality
in criticism editorials. The findings showed the similarities and differences in
applying modal carriers of the writers of two newspapers such as modal verbs,
adverbs, adjectives, nouns and generic phrases.
Hien et al‘s research (2014) contrasting English editorials and Vietnamese ones
showed that modality instances were commonly used for a persuasive purpose in
both editorials. Nevertheless, the number of modality instances in English
editorials was higher than those in Vietnamese ones. She also claimed that the
finding agreed with the previous study, revealing that the prediction and
possibility modals appeared more often than the other modals in editorials.

27. 17
In conclusion, the above researches provided fundamental information for the
researcher before and during conducting the study reported in this thesis. In this
thesis, the researcher shed light on the English lexical categories of modality in
commendation editorials in spite of its less popularity. The findings could be
useful with some pedagogical applications to master English skills for learners of
English.

28. 18
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
This chapter was written with the purposes of clarifying the types of the
research, the data analysis instruments and the data analysis procedure.
3.1. Types of Research
In this part, the researcher specified the types of the research.
First of all, based on the theory that was used, this research belonged to
semantics. In the research, the researcher analyzed the written texts to find out
the lexical means of modality employed in the commendation editorials and then
compared the similarities and differences in using modality to show the attitudes
and opinions of two newspapers.
Secondly, regarding the purpose of research, this thesis was included in the
descriptive research. It was because in this thesis, the researcher described the
data based on the theory to find out the result of the research.
3.2. Data Sources
The USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by Gannett
Company in 1982. It is delivered in all 50 states, the District of Colombia,
Guam, Puerto Rico, Canada and the United Kingdom and the paper is free
online. There are various parts in this paper and it is known for synthesizing
news downs to easy – to – read and comprehend stories. The number of the
culture and sport articles are large enough for the writer to find the data.
The Vietnam news is a daily English-language newspaper, published in Hanoi by
the Vietnam News Agency, the news service of the government of Vietnam. The

29. 19
newspaper was first published in 1991. It is published seven days a week and is
the main English newspaper in Vietnam. The paper is a member of the Asia
News Network. An Internet edition exists with simplified typography. Similarly
to the USA today, all the articles in culture and sport areas provide the readers
with various points of view on the daily outstanding people and events in the
country and around the world.
The two newspapers are among the top broadsheets in terms of readership as
stated by the official websites of the papers. The data were taken from the news
which were published from 2012 to 2015. From the range of time, there were a
large number of editorials. However, as mentioned before, finding editorials of
commendation took time because this type of editorials is not as popular as
others. Moreover, the researcher also seeked the big culture and sport events
which are often be held every two or four years.
3.3. Data Analysis Instruments
According to Lincoln and Guba (1985, p.224-228), the research method was a
way to plan for carrying out research activities to achieve goals by answering the
research questions. To find the result of the analysis, the reseacher used
qualitative and quantitative perspective. Quantitative method was applied in
reporting the result of data analysis into statistic form. Qualitative method was
used for displaying and interpreting data analysis into narrative text. The
researcher used mainly qualitative method because this research focused on
meaning and understanding of the texts produced by the reporters. The main
strength of the qualitative approach to cultural assessment was the ability to
probe for underlying values, beliefs, and assumptions. To gain a full appreciation

30. 20
of an organization, it was necessary to understand what is driving their behavior
(Yauch and Steudel, 2003, p.472). The other reason of using this method in the
analysis process of this thesis was because the researcher did the exploring,
describing, explaining and comparing the data. Qualitative methods that allowed
researchers to explore the views of homogeneous as well as diverse groups of
people help unpack these differing perspectives (Dudwick, Kuehnast, Jones and
Woolcock, 2006, p.3).
3.4. Data Analysis Procedure
It is possibly said that the process of collecting and analyzing data is an
extremely important step of research method. In this step, all the information is
gathered and measured on targeted variables in an established system, which
then enables the researcher to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes.
There were numerous steps to collect and analyze data that the researcher used:
1. Identifying and classifying the lexical categories of modality in each
editorial of 2 newspapers.
2. Comparing the number of those categories in editorials of 2
newspapers.
3. Explaining the use of those lexical modal categories in two newspapers
with examples taken from the data.
In the research „Linguistic manifestation of modality in Newspaper editorial‟
published by Alireza (2011), the author used a purposeful sampling for
collecting data with 20 editorials from each newspaper for all topics which
belong to editorials of criticism. Furthermore, in the paper entitled “an
expansion resources analysis of English and Vietnamese political editorials in
the light of appraisal theory” (2014), Hien at al. selected 20 articles from each

31. 21
newspaper for all kinds of editorials with the same topic about North Korea to
put in comparison. These were basic information that was useful and
fundamental for the researcher in choosing the samples.
Considering the limitations of the study carefully, this thesis also employed a
purposeful sampling because of the following reasons. First of all, the present
study only focused on the editorials of commendation. Moreover, the topics of
editorials were narrowed into two fields, culture and sports. The purposeful
sampling method was used to select editorials likely to be able to provide
relevant information. Those editorials had to belong to culture and sport
editorials of commendation and they were published from 2012 to 2015. To
make sure that all editorials in Vietnam news were written by Vietnamese, it was
necessary to identify the author of each news. In the thesis, there were 10 culture
and sport editorials of commendation culled from the electronic version of the
American English daily newspaper, usatoday.com and 10 culture and sport
editorials of commendation retrieved from the electronic version of the
Vietnamese English newspaper, vietnamnews.vn published daily over a specific
span of time (from 2012 to 2015). The number of editorials (20) could be
considered large enough to enable the researcher to determine with a certain
degree of reliability.
The researcher read carefully each culture and sport article of two newspapers to
determine whether it included the content of commendation by identifying the
positive evaluative acts contained in the corpus. It meant that the researcher
identifies the evaluative language used for expressing a positive opinion on what
that athlete or celebrity had achieved or made, their professional skills, personal
characters, potential future results or even their efforts to overcome difficulties.

32. 22
After investigating two newspapers carefully, the researcher realized that it was
nearly impossible to find out the common athletes and celebrities because the
Vietnam news was mostly interested in homeland people and organizations. If
there were some articles about foreigners or international events, they were often
extracted from various sources, especially from a foreign newspaper. The
researcher decided to choose native people for each newspaper to see how they
compliment their countrymen.
In the research, the researcher took out both the writer‘s compliments and all the
commendation quotations and reported speech because of the following reason.
Quotations and reported speech are common parts integrated in the news articles.
They made a news article more vivid, lively and authentic. The writer includes
his assessments into the news with the use of quotations and reported speech.
This not only helps his news be still objectivity but also he can claim that he just
reports what other people said without committing to the truth of the proposition
in any way. Discussing this issue, Tuchman (1972, p.668) stated that with the
help of quotations the reporter could remove his own opinion from the article by
using other people‘s ideas to represent what he himself thought. Jukanen (1995,
p.44) had the same opinion when he argued that ―Presenting opinions in the form
of quotations from important people is more effective and seemingly objective
than presenting the writer‘s own opinions‖. Generally, the use of quotation and
reported speech represented the reporter‘s opinions. This only served the
reporter‘s ideological aims (van Dijk 1988a, p.56 & Caldas-Coulthard 1994,
p.298-303). Caldas-Coulthard said ―No speech representation is objective or
simply neutral… Saying are transformed through the perspective of a teller, who
is an agent in a discursive practice‖ (p.137). From the above points of views, the

33. 23
researcher could claim that taking out the quotations and reported speech to put
in consideration are reasonable and reliable.
After collecting the articles, the researcher read them carefully again to highlight
the contents of praise. Then, the linguistic categories of modality in these parts of
the articles were found and marked. In this stage of the thesis, the qualitative
method was applied first to seek the suitable contents and quantitative method
was used then to count the number of each modality categories in the
newspapers.
From the data, the reseacher clarified kinds of linguistic carriers of modality
employed in cultural and sport editorials of commendation in the two
newspapers. Then, the researcher analyzed how similar and different in
tendencies of using modality as well as the functions of modality employed in
commendation editorials in the two newspapers.

34. 24
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter discussed the data analysis and findings from 20 selected culture
and sport editorials of commendation from two newspapers, the usatoday.com
(UT) and the vietnamnews.vn (VN). From the analysis, modality was apparently
manifested through using various textual strategies such as modal verbs
including auxiliaries, lexical verbs and reporting verbs, modal adjectives and
adverbs, and some modal nouns.
4.1. Modal verbs
The finding showed that a number of modal verbs in UT are greater than those in
VN. The modals of prediction and possibility were outstanding features in these
editorials. The finding presented the same opinion with the studies which had
been done before, indicating that the other modals couldn‘t be used as frequently
as the predictive and possible modals.
Table 1. Modality through modal auxiliaries in UT & VN
Modal auxiliaries UT VN
N % N %
Prediction will, would, tobe going to 21 39.62 10 37.04
Possibility can, could, may, might 25 47.17 12 44.44
Necessity/obligation
have to, ought to, should 7 13.21 5 18.52
As Table 1 suggested, 39.62 % and 47.17% of the modals were used to express
the prediction and possibility, respectively, of the events by editorial writers in
UT and the rest expressed necessity and obligation. The modal verbs of

35. 25
prediction, will and would, occupied with the high percentage aiming at guessing
the future results of the athletes and celebrities.The data signified the idea that
possibility of the discussed issues could be regarded as an important feature of
this genre in UT which was textually realized through modal auxiliaries namely
can, could, may, and might.
The following excerpts included modality expressed through modal verbs of
prediction:
1. ―... She is chasing records and no doubt will break many records
before she's finished," WTA Chairman Stacey Allaster said. (UT1)
2. With seven world titles already and several chances to pick up more
this week, she will likely leave The SSE Hydro with more gold medals
than any other female gymnast. (UT10)
3. ... there‘s no reason to think Phelps‘ comeback will be anything but
success. (UT4)
4. Now everyone will be watching to see what he’ll do next. (UT7)
5. Phelps is bold and daring, as evidenced by his successful quest to win
eight gold medals in a single Olympics, something many thought
would never be done. (UT4)
With the use of this kind of modal auxiliaries, the writers predicted the future
achievements of the characters mentioned in the articles. In (1) and (2), the
writers used the modal will combining with the adverb of evidentiality no doubt
and of possibility likely to make a strong belief that what the athlete could do in
the future was definite and the better results from other athletes were not
possible. In (3) and (4) the authors would like to claim that Phelps‘success would
happen if he came back to Olympic 2016, and the interesting things that the

36. 26
singer Ocean could do in the future was likely to happen. The excerpt (5) refered
to the past event and the modal would showed the prediction for that event.
Besides using the above modals to express the future prediction, the writers also
used might and may to show possibility. They wished to display that all the
professional characters which the athletes had possibly made them huge names
as in (6) and (7).
6. Wambach‘s physical abilities and skill might have made her the
Americans‘ focal point. (UT8)
7. ... Put those together, and you have what just may be the perfect
gymnast. (UT10)
In (8), the modal have to was used to indicate the obligation of the situation. The
writer refered to the fact that from what we had eyewitnessed, it was forced to
give those comments on her steel will. Ought to was used in (9) as the writer‘s
insistence and it was necessary to say that the all the gymnastics championships
should be renamed „The Simone Show‟ because of her incredible achievements.
8. ―I have to say she has nerves of steel. You can do all the preparation
and strong training and skill position, all of that. Finally it comes down
to the mental strength, and she definitely has a combination of the
physical and mental.‖ (UT2)
9. The world gymnastics championships ought to be renamed The
Simone Show after the way the 18-year-old hijacked it. Again. (UT2)
The table also denoted that the UT and VN editorials were not comparable in the
term of modal auxiliaries, they both used this category to express modality but
the number of modal auxiliaries in UT is greater than that of VN, 53 in
comparison with 27.

37. 27
As Table 1 indicated, 37.04 % of the modal auxiliaries were used to imply
prediction of the future news events and 44.44 % were used for possibility. Only
18.52% had been used as indication of necessity and obligation.
10. ―... If she has the chance to compete in big competitions such as the
Olympics, I am sure she would pocket gold medals in the coming SEA
Games [in Myanmar],‖ (VN1)
11. ―...There was no doubt that she was going to be a huge name‖. (VN6)
12. ―Thanh surprised me with his performance today. He was really
confident and excellent. I believe he will be much better in the future,‖
said Sang. (VN4)
It was shown from the above examples that the use of prediction modals in VN
was also the same. The writers employed these modal auxiliaries to predict the
results which the mentioned athletes could get in the future.
Similarly, might was also used as an alike strategy to express the probability as
in (13) and (14). It was seen that in (14), the VN writer also used the adverb of
evidentality indeed to make a clear sense of what actually changes from Anh
Vien‘s victory. The modal could in (15) was used for the context involve future
meaning and the writer wanted to show certainty about the guessed result.
13. ―Vien might not have competed against world-level swimmers in the
American tournament, but she definitely is a star in Southeast Asia,‖
(VN5)
14. ―For years only male swimmers achieved high results at the SEA
Games. Things might indeed be about to change however,‖ (VN1)

38. 28
15. ―We are on the right track and, believe me, Vien is a rare talent. She
could be a world champion,‖ Tuan, who has put all his hopes on Vien,
said. (VN6)
Moreover, the analysis revealed that seem, feel, think and believe namely
―knowledge verbs‖ (Fowler, 1986) were preferred by the VN writers while this
kind of verbs appeared uncommonly in the writings of the UT authors. The
researcher found only one proposition which contained the verb believe as in
(16). However, this verb was used with the combination of modal auxiliary may
to show the possibility of the information.
16. Hard as it may be to believe, these American have the potential to be
even better than Fierce Five. They‘re bring so much bling home from
worlds it‘ll be a wonder if the metal detectors don‘t start smoking.
(UT2)
17. They believe that the insanely talented athlete can also vie for gold in
200m butterfly as her result is close to the top three. (VN5)
18. Many feel the target of 10 gold is believable as Viet Nam is home to
some best swimmers, including Olympian Nguyen Thi Anh Vien.
(VN5)
19. ―Many people think she is just a ‗hot girl‘ but she actually has talent‖.
(VN8)
20. Binh's success also came at the right time to end the country's drought
of gold medals, which seemed to linger, as some favourtites events,
such as the women's 400m and the men's pole vault, failed to produce
gold medals. (VN2)
The use of such ‗knowledge‘ verbs was also important in editorials as they were
often ―associated with some (often indirect) expression of how accountable a

39. 29
writer is for knowledge content‖ (Malmström, 2007, p.36). With the use of the
verbs believe and feel, the writers wanted to stress their reliance on the better
results which the characters would get in the future.
Both two newspapers included the cases of quotative reported evidentiality.
Linguistically, both editorials employed either quoted direct speech or reported
speech. The default way of doing this was to use verbs of speaking such as say in
UT and say, note and add in VN. It was seeming that the articles were really
objective because there were various points of view about the discussed issues.
However, from inside light, the writers‘ opinions and attitudes were clearly
manifested. The examples like the following abounded in both newspapers.
21. ―Simone is a special talent‖ said U.S national team coordinator
Marths Karolyi, who coached both Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou
Retton. (UT2)
22. ―She just continues to be an inspiration to American tennis,‖ said
Gordon Smith, the executive director of the U.S. Tennis Association,
which runs the U.S. Open. (UT1)
23. ―I can't even say. Every day she can surprise me,‖ said Aimee
Boorman, Biles' longtime coach. (UT6)
24. ―They are like tiny ones and nobody believes they are taekwondo
athletes. However, do not look down at them, they can make
everybody take their hats off,‖ said coach Le Minh Khuong. (VN3)
25. ―Binh showed her brilliance today and exceeded expectations,‖ Duong
Duc Thuy, head of the National Sports Administration's Athletics
Department, said in discussing Binh's victory. (VN2)

40. 30
26. The male lead actor in the film, Nhan Phuc Vinh, said, ― At first I
thought working with a ‗hot girl‘ would be difficult. But Chi Pu
cancelled this thought in my minds‖. (VN8)
The verbs in almost all of these examples were in the past tense, which was to be
expected as news stories refered to past events. The examples (21), (22) and (23)
in UT were the dominant mechanisms of expressing quotative evidentiality, with
the verbs say being the most frequent. The situation was similar in VN, the
neutral verbs of speaking as say, note and add are frequently delivered. The
above excerpts (24), (26), (27) and the excerpts (36) and (42) would appear after
in the other discussions clarified that point. The reason for this was that these
verbs were heavily used in journalistic discourse. While the writer used the
other‘s words, he communicated with the addressers by expressing his own
assessments about the value of the cited text. Simultaneously, the writer also
communicated with the readers, because he showed the readers that he conveyed
their views of different ideas. In these circumstances, the writers demonstrated
that they had the similar viewpoints on the discussed issues. The writer of each
text interacted with his readers and also with other authors cited in his text. He
expressed his attitudes towards what was written in the text and what was
presented to the readers. This way, the writer created social relations and
observed given norms (Hyland, 2004, p.13). According to Coulthard (1994, p.6)
while citing other authors, the writer did not lose responsibility for what was
cited. In this case, his responsibility was shown as an evaluator of the cited text.
This proved that these verbs were not unintentionally but consciously employed
by a writer.

41. 31
Both the UT and VN writers showed their preference in using quoted direct
speech and reported speech when the numbers of these kinds in two newspapers
were nearly equal. Most of the quoted direct speech and indirect speech were
from the famous people, that made the evaluations become more reliable.
Table 2. Number of quoted direct speech & indirect speech in two newspapers
UT editorials VN editorials
Number of quoted direct speech 21 19
Number of indrect speech 00 04
4.2. Modal adjectives and adverbs
Besides using the modal auxiliaries to express prediction and possibility,
editorial writers employed some highly evaluative adjectives and adverbs as
another textual strategy to manifest their own attitude towards the achievements
of the characters written in the text. The phrases such as surprising grace,
explosive power, the biggest margin of victory, dizzyingly high, equally
imposing, unforgettable, unbeatable, remarkable job, great competitor, big
skills, dominant gymnast, significant contributions, etc. were used to present
the writer‘s compliments on the victories or contributions of the athletes and
celebrities. It was quite understandable since these linguistic categories of
modality were endemic in Press, particularly in editorials (Fowler, 1991). As the
newspaper also seeked to sway the readers‘ opinions on various issues, its
language often included vocabulary with evaluative connotation.

42. 32
27. In her 2015, Serena Williams showed both the domination and
vulnerabilities that come with being one of the greatest athletes in the
world and the greatest female athlete who ever lived. (UT1)
28. Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer who ever lived. (UT4)
29. Berra was perhaps the greatest catcher who ever lived, winning 10
World Series Championships with the New York Yankees before
entering the Hall of Fame. (UT5)
30. Billboard‘s Woman of the Year has always represented the finest in
music, and the anointing of a key influential figure who drove the
conversation for that year. No one embodies that more than Lady Gaga
in 2015 (UT3)
31. ... Biles is the most dynamic gymnast the sport has seen in years,
perhaps decades. (UT6)
From the above excerpts, it was claimed that the American writers did not
hesitate to employ the positive evaluative adjectives and adverbs to highlight the
achievements of people who devoted their all efforts in the certain areas which
they were taking part in.
Compared to the VN editorials, this kind of adjectives and adverbs were also
used as a means to reveal the admirations from the writers to people who were
mentioned in the texts. The following excerpts presented the point.
32. ―Her speed is incredible, much better than what she did in training‖
(VN3)
33. Nhat successfully finished his race with a time of 15:39.44, leaving
behind his nearest rival Kevin Yeap of Malaysia for a five-second gap.
His victory was a strong boost for Viet Nam. (VN5)

43. 33
34. Meanwhile, Thanh's title in the men's all-round event marked the
historic win for Viet Nam. (VN4)
35. ―Thanh surprised me with his performance today. He was really
confident and excellent. I believe he will be much better in the
future,‖ said Sang, a former SEA Games winner. (VN4)
36. ―She has a deep passion and love for film. She is very serious and
professional in her work‖ Vinh added. (VN8)
Furthermore, the phrases such as big status, strong and impressive moves,
magical moves, rare talent, big strides, incredible progress, good performance,
brilliant performance, outstanding performance, extremely convincing victory
and insanely talented athlete also supported the appreciation of the authors
towards the people mentioned.
The above examples showed that apart from praising the achievements which the
athletes gained, the Vietnamese writers also reminded the readers of the national
spirit. This was because the Vietnamese nation was formed early in the history
and often had to fight against foreign invaders, which created an outstanding
cultural feature: a patriotism which entered and appeared every aspect of life.
Community factors with prehistoric origin were combined early and became the
foundations for the development of patriotism and national consciousness. That
spirit was explicitly reflected when the writers marked these achievemnts as the
victories of the whole country. It was not incidental when Ánh Viên was
commented as “Vien is now Viet Nam‟s pride”, Thanh‘s best result was
called“historic win for Viet Nam” or Nhat‘s success was considered “strong
boost for Viet Nam”.

44. 34
It was obvious that the evaluative adjectives were often used in superlative forms
in UT while they were used mostly in comparative forms in VN. The excerpts
(27), (28), (29), (30), and (31) clarified this point. To praise Micheal Phelp,
Serena Williams, Simone Biles or Berra, the writers employed this kind of
comparison. Differently, Vietnamese authors liked comparing the characters to
themselves before. Huyen‘s results were put in consideration with her own
previous ones as (32) while Thanh‘s present job was compared to what he could
do in the future in (35). Although the proposition “they have been better than
any of her rivals in ASEAN states”(VN5) refered to the best position in the field
which the athlete was taking part in, the writer still put it in the comparative
form. However, this way of comparison was also quite uncommon in the VN
editorials. There is this distinction because of their cultures in communication.
―Individualistic cultures encourage people to speak up and express themselves
openly; collectivist cultures teach people to control their feelings and express
them in a subtle way‖ (Yuan, 2006, p. 6). Individualism which concentrated on
individual productivity, independence, competence, and achievement was highly
valued in American society. The slogan of ―be the best YOU can be‖ actually
illustrated its features. In contrast, ―Vietnamese people share the same cultural
characteristics of high collectivism as the other South East Asia society‖ (cited in
To, 2010). Beamer and Varner (2009) pointed that the overall harmony was the
most valued in collective society. The group objectives were always more
important than personal matters. The harmony of community was higher than the
particular need of individuals. As other countries which originated from
Confucianism, Vietnamese always thought that they were a small part of a
whole community. As a member of that community, they always followed the

45. 35
rules of the group, trying to avoid being obtrusive. This perhaps was the key to
success in the society of collectivism. This thus explained why they always kept
modest while communicating and never put themselves on the first position.
Their victories were not only their prides but also the whole community‘s ones.
This difference could be shown in the following table:
UT VN
- the greatest
- the best
- the finiest
- the most dynamic
- most special
- much further
- better than
- much better
- greater than
- harder than
Table 3. Comparative and superlative forms of evaluative adjectives and adverbs
Modality in some cases was also revealed through other modal adverbs.
Thanks to this linguistic category of modality, the UT editorials writers not only
presented some factual information on the victories of people in the texts but also
unfolded their own evaluations of these triumphs. This kind of modal
manifestations could be listed as maybe, never, perhaps, even, really, rarely,
truly, exactly, probably, absolutely, liekly, always, and just.
The following excerpts represented the point.
37. ― … She is chasing records and no doubt will break many records
before she's finished,‖ WTA Chairman Stacey Allaster said. ―That
obviously just brings a lot more attention to our sport.‖ (UT1)
38. ―She definitely has a combination of the physical and mental‖. (UT2)

46. 36
39. No one does it better then Simone Biles. Certainly not now. Maybe
not ever. (UT2)
The degree of evidentiality had been indicated through certain adverbs such as
no doubt, obviously, definitely or certainly in the above mentioned excerpts. The
writer‘s previous knowledge about those athletes and his expectations enabled
him to deduce information from his own logical reasoning while evaluating that
the chances of the proposition were high enough to expect an actualisation of the
event. In the example (37), no doubt was used with the function of a modal
adverb; whereas, it was employed as a modal noun in VN which would be
discussed in the next part.
Vietnamnews writers had an equivalent tendency in using modal adverbs.
However, the frequency of using those in VN was not as much and flexible as in
UT. There were fewer modal adverbs appearing between the lines of VN
editorials. Those adverbs included possibly, never, always, actually, and just.
40. ―For years only male swimmers achieved high results at the SEA
Games. Things might indeed be about to change however,‖ (VN1)
41. ―People think she is just a hot girl but she actually has talent‖. (VN8)
42. ―Vien might not have competed against world-level swimmers in the
American tournament, but she definitely is a star in Southeast Asia,‖
Nguyen Hong Minh, former head of the Elite Sports of the national
Sports Administration, noted, adding that Vien can easily manage to
perform in six to seven events at the SEA Games (VN5)
From the data, it came to a conclusion that modality of possibility and
evidentiality were also applied in VN. In (40), the writer gave the evidence that

47. 37
all the high achievements of male athletes only at the SEA Games had changed
since Anh Vien‘s victory. In (41), before giving the confirmation, the author
illustrated some professional characters which proved the point that she was
obviously a star in Vietnam sports. The example (42) demonstrated the strategy
―good news - bad news‖ (Belcher 1995, p.145) or ―polar comments in praise -
criticism pairs‖ (Hyland, 2000, p.55) in complimenting Anh Vien, swimming
athlete. Clearly that comparing to other swimmers at world levels, Anh Vien
was not as good as they were; however, in Southeast Asian arena, she had to be
a star because of her incredible achievments.
4.3. Modal nouns
There were some signals of modal nouns used in UT while they also seemed
meager in VN. A few below examples illustrated this point:
43. ―there was no doubt that she was going to be a huge name.‖ (VN6)
44. It was an opportunity to see her in a leadership position. (UT1)
45. What a force! (UT3)
46. Not a chance! (UT4)
In (43), the modal noun no doubt connected to the evidence that the speaker had
provided before and it showed his commitment towards the proposition as well.
The noun opportunity in (41) was an indication of deontic modality. We could
see her in the first position because what she had done are external circumstances
which allowed her to be at the top position. To discuss about Gaga‘s award in
(42), the author mentioned a lot of her worthy characters which, from his point
of view, were an compulsion for that Gaga deserves to be a winner. Therefore,
he used force as a noun of obligation. In (43), the writer implied the unlikelihood
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48. 38
of the failure that blew away all Phelps‘ victories before by using chance as
modality of probability combining with the negative word not.
In general, both the usatoday and vietnamnews editorial writers employed
several linguistic strategies to realize modality throughout the selected editorials
of commendation in culture and sport areas. The results of the thesis agreed with
the researches which had been done before. In Hien et al.‘s work (2014), they
indicated that a number of modal instances in Vietnamese editorials are less than
those in English ones. The findings might support the idea that Vietnamese
writers brought their tendency of employing Vietnamese linguistic modal
categories into English writings. To some extent, they might just stop at the
description of the facts rather than evaluate them because of the consciously and
intentionally way they judged something. This might match with their culture in
communication when Vietnamese strongly believed that it was important that
before one speaks they had to carefully think about what they would say.
Therefore, they might be cautious and deliberate before writing something as in
the proverbs ―Fold your tongue seven times before you speak‖ or ―To eat one
must chew, to speak one must think‖. That proved why the number of modality
carriers in Vietnamese English editorials were not as many as in American
English ones.

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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
In this chapter, first, a summary of the whole study was presented. Then, some
English teaching and learning suggestions and implications were discussed. The
last part was the limitations of the present study.
5.1. Summary
The analysis of the selected editorials in both UT and VN indicated that editorial
writers not only aimed at reporting and giving information on news events but
also tried to provide the readers with their own assessments and comments
through mainly Modality. Modality was realized in the two papers through
modal auxiliary verbs, ‗knowledge‘ verbs, certain reporting verbs, modal
adjectives and adverbs, and some modal nouns.
First, a comparison of the two papers in employing auxiliary modal verbs
suggested that both of the newspapers preferred mainly predictive and possible
auxiliary modals to the necessary ones (Tables 1,2). But the modal auxiliaries of
UT (N = 53) outnumbered them of VN (N = 27). The data also suggested the
idea that identifying what would happen in the future and expressing the
possibility of the discussed issues were the main concern of the editorial writers
in both newspapers. On the other hand, comparing the modals of necessity and
obligation in the two papers (UT 13.21%, VN 18.52%) revealed that editorial
writers in VN occupied with what should and had to be done.
Furthermore, the predominant reporting verb in the editorials was found to be the
verb say; however, in only some cases of VN, the editorial writers‘ attitudes
were revealed through the two other reporting verbs such as note and add. The
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50. 40
numbers of quoted direct speech and indirect speech in two newspapers were
nearly equal. The study also found out that some ‗knowledge‘ verbs such as
believe, think, feel and seem were preferred by the VN editors.
In addition, evaluative adjectives and adverbs were abundant in both
newspapers. By using this type of modality, the writers only informed the
readers with vivid descriptions of the issues but also provided the readers their
own opinions. However, the way of applying these types in UT was slightly
different from it in VN. While the UT editors enjoyed the superlative forms of
adjectives, the VN writers favored the comparative ones. There was that
difference because of their distinct communication styles.
Apart from those, the writers in two newspapers also employed the kinds of
certain, possible and evidential modal adverbs, for example, no doubt, definitely,
obviously, maybe, never, perhaps, even, really, rarely, truly, exactly, probably,
absolutely, likely, and always. Nevertheless, the thesis also revealed that the
frequency of using this type in UT outbalanced it in VN.
Finally, the study indicated that despite the fact that the signals of using modal
nouns were vague in both editorials, the UT writers still employed this carrier to
express modality in the propositions.
Generally, it was possible to conclude that both newspapers employed various
lexical categories to express modality. Although the similarity was presented, the
large part of the finding showed the difference between two editorials in the
ways they employed those categories to express modality.
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