A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF MODALITY IN THE COVID-19 ADDRESSES BY PRESIDENT AKUFFO ADDO

Authors

  • Hamidu Alhassan Department of English, Saint Monica’s College of Education, Mampong, Ashanti, Ghana
  • Aikins Addae Department of Basic Education, University of Education, Winneba, Winneba, Ghana
  • Millicent Akosua Quarcoo Department of English Education, University of Education, Winneba, Winneba, Ghana
  • Godwin Kusi Danquah Department of Communications, University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v6i2.457

Keywords:

AntConc, corpus, COVID-19, epistemic, non-epistemic, modality, root

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the most used modal verbs and their semantic implications on the COVID-19 addresses delivered by Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, the president of the Republic of Ghana. In all, 96,784 running words were culled from thirty (30) presidential addresses to build a specialised corpus for the study. Using the Antconc corpus software, 3.5.9 version, five (5) modal auxiliaries, that is, epistemic and non-epistemic (root) modal verbs were found to constitute the most frequently occurring modals in the presidential COVID-19 addresses. The analysis revealed five (5) thematic areas which these modal verbs covered - willingness, possibility, prediction, ability, and probability. These thematic areas give an indication that the president showed more commitment to dealing with the pandemic. This was evidenced by the number of times the president used non epistemic modal verbs which demonstrate ability, willingness, and possibility in handling the coronavirus pandemic. Again, the corpus revealed that the president’s measures were on the back of some form of his existing knowledge in dealing with the pandemic.

 

Author Biographies

  • Hamidu Alhassan, Department of English, Saint Monica’s College of Education, Mampong, Ashanti, Ghana

    Hamidu Alhassan is a PhD Candidate at the Department of English Education, University of Education, Winneba. He is a lecturer and heads the Department of English at St. Monica’s College of Education, Asante Mampong. He also lectures at the College of Distance Education and E-learning, University of Education, Winneba. His research focus is on Corpus linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and English Pedagogy. He has so far published in the International Journal of Basic Education Research and Policy, and in a conference proceeding journal by Uhamka International Conference on English Language Teaching and Computer Assisted Language Learning (UICELL) Jakarta, Indonesia. He participated and presented a paper at the Uhamka International Conference on English Language Teaching and Computer-Assisted Language Learning (UICELL), Jakarta, Indonesia.

  • Aikins Addae, Department of Basic Education, University of Education, Winneba, Winneba, Ghana

    Aikins Addae teaches and researches English language at the Department of Basic Education, University of Education, Winneba. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English, an M.Phil. in English, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi and the University of Education, Winneba. Aikins is currently a candidate for PhD in English at the Department of English Education, University of Education, Winneba. His research interests are (Critical) Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics, Corpus Linguistics, Literacy, English language pedagogy, and Grammar of English. Aikins has published and also collaborated with colleagues to publish in many reputable international journals, e.g. Contemporary Journal of African Studies (CJAS), European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies, European Journal of English Language Teaching, etc.

  • Millicent Akosua Quarcoo, Department of English Education, University of Education, Winneba, Winneba, Ghana

    Millicent Akosua Bosompemaa Quarcoo is a Senior lecturer at the Department of English Education, University of Education, Winneba. Her areas of interest are Sociolinguistics, Grammar, and Discourse Analysis. She teaches Sociolinguistics, Grammar, Corpus Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics. She has published and also collaborated with colleagues to publish in many reputable international journals, e.g., Journal of West African Languages (JWAL), Language Matters, Contemporary Journal of African Studies (CJAS), Legon Journal of the Humanities, etc. She has also presented papers at international conferences, e.g., International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), West African Languages Congress/ Linguistics Association of Ghana (WALC/LAG), Association of Contemporary African Linguistics (ACAL), etc. Her current project is examining English as a first language and its effect on academic performance by students in some selected schools in Tema.

  • Godwin Kusi Danquah, Department of Communications, University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana

    Godwin Kusi Danquah is a lecturer at the Department of Communications, University of Professional Studies, Accra. His research interest is in the areas of Communication, Public Relations, and Research. He teaches Principles of Public Relations Research Methods and Scholarly writing. He has attended conferences and has published in some international journals. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Education and an MPhil in Communication and Media Studies from the University of Education, Winneba. Godwin is currently a PhD candidate at Department of communications, University of Liberty USA, where he is pursuing a Strategic Communications Programme.

References

Abidin, C., Lee, J., Barbetta, T., & Miao, W. S. (2020). Influencers and COVID-19: Reviewing key issues in press coverage across Australia, China, Japan, and South Korea. Media. International. Australia. Advanced Publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X20959838

Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. and Finegan, E. (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, London: Longman.

Baker, P. (2014). Using Corpora to Analyze Gender, London: Bloomsbury.

Chen, M., & Xie, Q. (2020). Hedges in news reports on the COVID-19: Taking People’s Daily as an example. Journal of Hubei University of Economics (Humanities and Social Sciences), 17(9), 100−103.

Chen, X., & Hu, J. (2021). Going global: The successful link of IELTS and Aptis to China’s Standards of English language ability (CSE). International Journal of English Linguistics, 11(1), 1−9. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v11n1p1

Chen, X., & Hu, J. (2019). Evolution of U.S. presidential discourse over 230 years: A psycholinguistic perspective. International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(4), 28. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v9n4p28

Chen, X., Yan, Y., & Hu, J. (2019). A corpus-based study of Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s linguistic styles. International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(3), 13−22. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v9n3p13

Chaplin, Steve (2020). “COVID-19: a brief history and treatments in development”. Prescriber 31/5: 23–28

Coates, J. and Leech, G. (1980). The meanings of the modals in modern British and American English, York Papers in Linguistics, 8: 23–34.

Coates, J. (1983). The Semantics of the Modal Auxiliaries, London: Croom Helm.

Downing, A. and Locke, P. (1992). A University Course in English Grammar, New York: Prentice Hall.

Debnath, R., & Bardhan, R. (2020). India nudges to contain COVID-19 pandemic: A reactive public policy analysis using machine-learning based topic modelling. Plos One, 15(9). Advanced Publication. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238972

Ding, J., & Liao, Y. (2001). Review on the critical discourse analysis. Contemporary Linguistics, 4, 305−310. https://10.3969/j.issn.1007-8274.2001.04.006

Essam, B. A., & Abdo, M. S. (2020). How do Arab tweeters perceive the COVID-19 pandemic? Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. Advanced Publication. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-020-9715-6

Flowerdew, J. (2013). Discourse in English Language Education, New York: Routledge.

Goniewicz, Krzysztof, Amir Khorram-Manesh, Attila J. Hertelendy, Mariusz Goniewicz, Katarzyna Naylor, Frederick M. Burkle Jr. (2020). Current response and management decisions of the European Union to the COVID-19 outbreak: A review. Sustainability 12/9, 3838. Available at https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3838/htm. Accessed 09.09.2020.

Hu, J. (2014). An analysis of the design process of a language learning management system. Control and Intelligent Systems, 42(1), 80−86. https://doi.org/10.2316/Journal.201.2014.1.201-2534

Kennedy, G. (1998). An introduction to corpus linguistics. Harlow: Longman

Kjellmer, G. (1994). A dictionary of English Collocations: Based on the Brown Corpus. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Language Teaching (pp. 25-43). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jing, Y., Li, B., Chen, N., Li, X., & Hu, J. (2015). The discrimination of learning styles by bayes-based statistics: An extended study on ILS system. Control and Intelligent Systems, 43(2), 68−75. https://doi.org/10.2316/Journal.201.2015.2.201-2666

Joharry, S. A., & Turiman, S. (2020). Examining Malaysian public letters to editor on COVID-19 pandemic: A corpus-assisted discourse analysis. Gema Online Journal of Language Studies, 20(3), 242−260. https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2020-2003-14

Lawrence, A. (2013). AntConc: Design and Development of a Freeware Corpus: International Conference on Corpus Linguistics, 27-33. Lancaster University, UK.

Li, F. (2017). Critical discourse analysis of Sino-US climate change news report: A corpus-based analysis. Journal of News Research, 8(12), 59−61. https://CNKI:SUN:XWDK.0.2017-12-035ijel.ccsenet.org International Journal of English Linguistics Vol. 11, No. 2; 2021

Matthiessen, C. M. I. M., Teruya, K. and Lam, M. (2010). Key Terms in Systemic Functional Linguistics, London: Continuum.

Ngoc, P. N. H., Hai, N. M., & Tuan, L. A. (2020). Effect of the social distancing measures on the spread of COVID-19 in 10 highly infected countries. Science of the Total Environment, 742. Advanced Publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140430

Ngula, R. S. (2017). ‘Corpus Methods in Language Studies’ in D. D. Kuupole (ed.) Perspectives on conducting and reporting research in the Humanities, pp 205 – 223, Cape Coast: University of Cape Coast Press

Ngula, R. S. (2018). A Corpus-Based study of the phraseological pattern It + V-link + ADJ + That Clause in L1 and L2 Expert Academic Writing. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, vol7, No.5

Odlum, M., Cho, H., Broadwell, P., Davis, N., Patrao, M., Schauer, D., … Yoon, S. (2020). Application of topic modeling to tweets as the foundation for health disparity research for COVID-19. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 272, 24−27. https://doi.org/10.3233/SHTI200484

Palmer, F. (1990). Modality and the English Modals, (2nd edn.) London: Longman.

Prieto-Ramos, F., Pei, J., & Cheng, L. (2020). Institutional and news media denominations of COVID-19 and its causative virus: Between naming policies and naming politics. Discourse & Communication, 14(6), 635−652. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481320938467 Thu, T. P. B.,

Piller, Ingrid, Jie Zhang, Jia Li (2020). Linguistic diversity in a time of crisis: Language challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multilingua 39/5: 503–515.

Sweetser, E. E. (1982). ‘Root and epistemic modality: causality in two worlds’, Berkeley Linguistic Society Papers, 8: 484–507.

Van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Politics, Ideology, and Discourse, in Brown, K. (ed), The Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford, New York: Pergamon Press, pp. 728-740.

Wei, Y., Yang, Q., Chen, J., & Hu, J. (2018). The exploration of a machine learning approach for the assessment of learning styles changes. Mechatronic Systems and Control, 46(3), 121−126. https://doi.org/10.2316/Journal.201.2018.3.201-2979

Xiao, Y., Li, Y., & Hu, J. (2019). Construction of the Belt and Road Initiative in Chinese and American media: A critical discourse analysis based on self-built corpora. International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(3), 68−77. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v9n3p68

Xiao, Y., Liu, Y., & Hu, J. (2019). Regression analysis of ICT impact factors on early adolescents’ reading proficiency in five high-performing countries. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 1646. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01646

Yang, C. W., Sha, D. X., Liu, Q., Li, Y., Lan, H., Guan, W. W., … Ding, A. (2020). Taking the pulse of COVID-19: A spatiotemporal perspective. International Journal of Digital Earth, 13(10), 1186−1211. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2020.1809723

Yang, Y. F., & Chen, X. C. (2020). Globalism or nationalism? The paradox of Chinese official discourse in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of Chinese Political Science, Advanced Publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-020-09697-1

Zeng, Y., & Xie, T. (2020). Comparative study on news reports of COVID-19 between China and the United States. Journal of Mudanjiang University, 29(09), 77−80. https://doi.org/10.15907/j.cnki.23-1450.2

Downloads

Published

2023-08-14

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2023)

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).