The Employment of Modal Verbs in Expressing Empathy and Solidarity in Messages of Condolence

Abstract

The study of modal verbs and their employment in everyday speech, is a topic that has attracted a great deal of attention in the area of different speech acts. However, investigations of these auxiliary verbs in the speech act of condolence have been limited. In other words, explorations of their use in the context of condolence have not received much attention. Therefore, the present study aims to highlight the use and function of modal verbs in English messages of condolence. Furthermore, the distinction between different modes of modal verbs can be an issue as their use can be considered to be rather foggy. Both qualitative and quantitate methods were used in this investigation to address this problem. The findings reveal two types of modality; epistemic (echoes the probability or possibility of acts) and deontic (denotes necessity, obligation and volition) which serve to convey empathy and respect in utterances of condolence. The results also show that using particular forms of modal verbs in such utterances is a matter of convention to reflect courtesy and solidarity for the bereaved family. The findings suggest that distinguishing meaning of modal verbs from grammatical perspective (i.e. aspect and voice) would contribute to achieve a better understanding and interpretation of these verbs.