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Title Evidentiality and Episiemic Modality in Political Discourse: Analyzing Speakers' Stance and Ideology Through Appraisal Theory

Author(s) Wagma Kamran

Abstract This research study has attempted to investigate the comparison between the frequency and distribution of resources, types of evidentiality and values of epistemic modality; further, it investigates the function of evidential markers and epistemic modals as stance makers and ideology construction. Although, evidentiality and epistemic modality are the main subjects in wide range of studies, the two domains have not been discussed in Pakistani political context. Therefore, corpora containing 5 speeches of Pakistan‟s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and 5 speeches of American President Joe Biden have been compiled for the analysis. The study has adopted mixed-method approach. The data has been analyzed first via corpus-based methodology, where Antconc software has been used to locate the frequency and distribution of evidential markers and epistemic modals, while Appraisal Theory of Martin and White (2005) has been applied to analyze the pragmatic function of the linguistic markers through its resources of „attitude‟ and „engagement‟. The findings indicate that both the speakers have made use of personal knowledge (PK) evidentials from inside source more frequently among the other categories. Imran Khan in his speeches has used „I think‟ „I believe‟ and „unfortunately‟, whereas Biden has used „I know‟ „in my view‟ and „it is clear‟ more frequently. In terms of epistemic values, both the speakers have used „will‟ and „must‟ of high epistemic value more frequently followed by other epistemic values. The study has suggested that while making claims the speakers have often taken personal responsibility and have shown their strong confidence towards the truth of proposition. Secondly, the uses of high epistemic values have often presented subjective stance and speaker‟s positive self-representation. Overall, there have been no significant differences in the results. This research study contributes to the field of corpus-linguistics and to the practice of discourse community with the analysis of linguistic expressions in the speeches. Keywords: Evidentiality, Epistemic Modality, Appraisal Theory, Political Discourse Analysis, Corpus Linguistics

Type Thesis/Dissertation

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2024-05-17

Subject Linguistics

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