MODALITY IN STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES IN ARTS-BASED RESEARCH ARTICLE ABSTRACTS

Abstract

This article explores the discourse functions of modality in statement of objectives in arts-based research article abstracts. For data, objective statements segments of three hundred abstracts of research articles obtained from the internet and purposively selected were analysed using insights from the linguistic tool of modality. Four categories of modal auxiliaries namely; possibility, necessity, prediction and permission modals characterised the data. Possibility modals are used in stating analytical scope and research goal in the abstracts; necessity modals are employed in stating analytical scope, presenting argument, seeking permission and/or making polite request; and prediction models are used in stating the researchers’ research missions in predictive form. Apart from complimenting the existing works in research discourse in general and research article abstracts in particular, our analysis has no doubt provided useful insights into the roles of modal auxiliary verbs in Statement of Objectives (SO) segment of the arts-based research article abstracts.