A Research On The Choosing And Using Of Modal Verbs In Daily Communication Based On Adaptation Theory

Modality is one of the categories of language and thought. There are many research areas in relation with philosophy, logic and linguistics. Each area makes a research from different perspectives, among which the studies on linguistics are more concrete and detail. At the linguistic perspective, linguists study modality from various perspectives such as linguistic grammar, semantics, context and pragmatics. Although researchers make efforts to investigate modality with different methodologies, there is not a comprehensive and systematic theoretical framework. Therefore, the investigation of the nature of modality is not detail and there is still a long way to further research modality.Verschueren first proposed the linguistic adaptation theory. It is regarded as the theoretical basis of English modality. Linguistic adaptation theory points out that the use of modality in language is actually a dynamic process of choice-making in agreement with certain communicative needs. Under the pragmatic perspective, communicators try to adapt to linguistic forms, society, culture and mental factors to promote successful communication.The present thesis makes a research on modality based on the linguistic adaptation theory. First of all, it describes the three properties of language including variability, negotiability and adaptability. Then it concludes that the use of modality is continuously making choices. And they make choices with the guide of highly flexible principles and strategies to meet certain communicative needs. They use modality to express their attitude and opinions. The thesis explains modality and linguistic adaptation theory and the adaptation to language forms, social, cultural factors and cognitive elements. From the linguistic perspective, it studies the adaptation of modality negation. From the social and cultural aspects, the process that communicators choose modality to express attitude and opinions is the adaptation to context. At last, from the mental perspective, communicators are motivated to use modality to express their feeling. As stated in the previous studies, it makes a conclusion that modality use in language communication and writing is a dynamic process of choice-making under highly flexible rules. The adaptation theory makes a study from a new perspective and in a creative way. It is based on the theory that language use is a process of dynamic choice-making. It may be consciously or unconsciously when making the choice and it is determined by both the internal structure of the sentence and the outer factors. This choice-making occurs at any level of the language form. In addition, the language and its context adapt to each other when necessary and they are inseparable. By making choices, the language adaptation is realized. People can make choices when using language is mainly because of the three properties of it: Variability, Negotiability and Adaptability.The thesis explains modality based on linguistic adaptation and it enriches the contents of modality. Furthermore, it proposed a theoretical framework for the study of modality, which offers a theoretical basis of the modality and adaptation studies. And also the thesis influences the research of other areas.