Article

Use of Modals as Asia Pacific Media Educator

30(1) 108–125, 2020
Stance Markers: A © 2020 University of
Wollongong, Australia
Corpus-Based Study Reprints and permissions:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
on Pakistani English DOI: 10.1177/1326365X20945424
journals.sagepub.com/home/ame
Newspaper Editorials

Muhammad Ahmad1 ,
Muhammad Asim Mahmood2
and Ammara Farukh3

Abstract
This study analyses the use of modals as stance markers in newspaper editorials.
Corpora of the study comprised of 500 editorials published in Pakistani English
newspapers, that is, The Daily Dawn and The Daily News (250 editorials from each
newspaper) which were analysed with the help of AntConc 3.4.4.0. Results show
Pakistani editorial writers use all types of modals (i.e., prediction, possibility,
necessity, modal adverbs, reporting verbs, knowledge verbs and generic phrases).
The editorial writers use these modals to mark personal stance while commenting,
reporting or informing about the state of affairs. Among these modals the use
of prediction markers is the most frequent which indicates that prediction is a
characteristic feature as well as function in the said newspaper editorials. Results
also reveal that there is a difference in the use of modal adverbs in the editorials
of both newspapers. In addition, the results reveal that the editorial writers of
The Daily Dawn make less use of prediction markers as compared to the editorial
writers of The Daily News. The study creates awareness of the stance of editorial
writers’ and how it might affect readers’ opinions.

Keywords
Editorials, modal verbs, modality, stance, Pakistani English newspapers

1
Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
2
Faculty of Social Sciences, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
3
University of Education, Lahore, Pakistan.

Corresponding author:
Muhammad Ahmad, PhD Candidate, Department of Applied Linguistics, Government College
University, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.
E-mail: ahmad453@yandex.com
Ahmad et al. 109

Introduction
Stance means something which the speakers take towards different concepts,
ideas, objects and people depending on their personal beliefs, knowledge state,
socio-cultural norms and identity (Iwasaki & Yap, 2015; Orta, 2010). Major drive
for the researche on stance as a prominent linguistic category traces back to a
number of studies on subjectivity and modality in language (Benveniste, 1971;
Biber et al., 1999; Biber & Finegan, 1988; Du Bois & Kärkkäinen, 2012;
Englebretson, 2007; Halliday, 1994; Hunston & Thompson, 2000; Hyland, 2005;
Iwasaki & Yap, 2015; Kärkkäinen, 2006; Lyons & John, 1995; Traugott, 2012;
White, 2001). The stance depicts evaluation which is considered as attitude,
feeling or viewpoint about the propositions or entities the speakers or writers talk
about (Hunston & Thompson, 2000). According to Du Bois (2007), stance is a
matter of private attitude or opinion which, in the view of Molina (2012), creates
an identity in the texts. Stance may be categorized into attitudinal and epistemic
(Conrad & Biber, 2000). The focus of this study is epistemic stance. Epistemic
stance can further be categorized into epistemic modality and evidential modality
(Palmer, 2001). Epistemic modality refers to a speaker’s assessment of the validity
status of a proposition or a situation. Similarly, evidential modality also refers to
the evaluation of the validity of the information by the speaker or the writer (Biber
& Finegan, 1989; Conrad & Biber, 2000; Hyland, 2000).
The notion of stance is very broad. Therefore, different researchers have attrib-
uted different terms to it. Jaffe (2009) has listed a number of terms related with
stance, that is, affect, attitude, commitment, epistemic state, evaluation, evidential-
ity, feeling, inter-subjectivity, judgment, perspective, point-of-view, subjectivity
and voice (p. 6). Similarly, some other researchers have also contributed to the ter-
minology of stance, for example, speaker’s point of view (Stubbs, 1986), modality
(Halliday, 1994), evaluation (Bednarek, 2006; Hunston, 1994; Hunston, 2011;
Hunston & Thompson, 2000), appraisal (Martin, 2000; Martin & White, 2005;
White, 2001), and attitude or opinion (Du Bois, 2007). Similarly, Biber et al. (1999)
combined a number of terms to define stance as ‘personal feelings, attitudes, value
judgements, or assessments’ (p. 966). All of these terms are inseparable from one
another and provide useful entry points into the complex system of stance marking
(Iwasaki & Yap, 2015).
In the view of Du Bois (2007):

One of the most important things we do with words is take a stance. Stance has the
power to assign value to objects of interest, to position social actors with respect to
those objects, to calibrate alignment between stance takers, and to invoke presupposed
systems of sociocultural value. (p. 139)

Stance taking or marking, in fact, is a fundamental human activity which is carried

out using language devices. Human beings express their beliefs, desires and
feelings, assess the world around them, and agree or disagree with other humans in
social interactions (Orta, 2010). Actually, stance is a significant feature of human
language (Hunston & Thompson, 2000) and human expressions (spoken or written)
110 Asia Pacific Media Educator 30(1)

reflect a certain point of view (Stubbs, 1986). Thus, stance appears to be a public
act which is realised dialogically utilising communicative means (Du Bois, 2007),
that is, grammatical as well as lexical expressions of feelings, attitudes, and
judgements related with the propositional content (Biber & Finegan, 1989).
Relying on the lexico-grammatical frameworks of stance by Biber et al. (1999)
and Biber (2006), different people use different grammatical and lexical devices
(e.g. stance complement clauses; stance adverbials; value-laden words i.e. nouns,
evaluative adjectives, main verbs etc. and modal verbs) to express stance
(Al-Shunnag, 2014). The focus of this study is the use of modal verbs as stance
markers. The reason is that people use modal verbs most commonly to express
their stance (Biber et al., 1999) conveying either the degree of certainty of
propositions (epistemic modality), or meanings such as obligation, permission or
necessity (deontic modality). Most of the times, stance markers precede the
structure presenting the propositions. Modal verbs also come before the main
lexical verbs and in this way present new information in the clauses. This
arrangement of the constituents depicts the chief function of stance markers as
frames (Fillmore, 2003) for the interpretation of the propositional information. In
most of the cases, the writers, first of all, establish their personal viewpoints and
then encourage the readers to process the following information from the same
perspective (Orta, 2010).
Stance marking by the writers with the help of modal verbs is very common.
Different researchers have observed the use of modals as personal stance marking
devices in different types of writing. Such as Hyland (1996) found its use in
scientific writing; Holmes (1988) and Hyland (1994) observed its use in textbooks;
He and Wang (2012) and Mirahayuni (2002) noted its use in non-native speakers’
(NNSs) academic writing and Tenuta et al. (2015) investigated the use of modal
verbs in English essays written by Brazilian native speakers. Similarly, Moskowich
and Crespo (2019), Ngula (2017) and Orta (2010) discovered its use in research
articles; Bista (2009) investigated its use in political discourse; Molina (2012)
explored the use of modal verbs in maritime talk and text; and Nartey and Yankson
(2014) discovered the use of modal verbs in political manifestos; and Siddique et
al. (2019) studied the use of modals in an autobiography. This study aims to
present an analysis of stance in the texts of Pakistani newspaper editorials
involving the principles of stance marking with the help of modals.
An editorial is, in fact, an argumentative text which is published in the
newspapers with a stable physical position (Van Dijk, 1992). It is written to
express the editors’ or publishers’ opinion on the events of general interest (Van
Dijk, 1992; 1998). The opinion in an editorial is supported by a series of arguments
which make it persuasive in nature (Van Dijk, 1992). Editorial performs four
major functions: (a) interactional function, that is, it establishes a relationship
between the writers and readers utilizing persuasiveness; (b) cognitive function,
that is, it influences the reader’s mind; (c) socio-cultural function, that is, it
addresses community members, evaluates their actions and suggests alternate
course of actions and (d) political function, that is, it tries to justify as well as
legitimize the certain aspect of power relations (Van Dijk, 1992).
Modality is a linguistic category of meaning which involves the expressions of
necessity, obligation, permission, possibility, probability, and volition (Von Fintel,
Ahmad et al. 111

2006; Sadia & Ghani, 2019; Tenuta et al., 2015)) and entails ‘the speaker’s
judgement of the probabilities, or the obligations involved in what he is saying’
(Halliday, 1985, p. 356). In short, modality means an angle of telling, angle of
vision or point of view of a writer which lends a particular colour or feel to a story
which reflects ‘an attitude towards, or opinion about the truth of a proposition
expressed by a sentence’ (Simpson, 1993, p. 47). Modality is a significant feature
of newspaper editorials. A number of studies (e.g., Bonyadi, 2011; Fowler, 2013;
Halliday, 1994; Hayat & Juliana, 2016; Khalid, 2013; Lawal, 2015; Le, 2004;
Ntsane, 2015; Qun, 2010; Sadia & Ghani, 2019; Siddique et al., 2018; Trajkova,
2011) have already highlighted stance in world famous newspaper editorials and
it is possible that Pakistani editorial writers might also be presenting stance.
Therefore, the study aims to find the answers to the following questions:

1. Do Pakistani newspaper editorial writers use modals? if yes, then

2. Which modals do Pakistani newspaper editorial writers use most
frequently? And,
3. Which functions do the Pakistani newspaper editorial writers achieve
through the most frequently used modals?

Previous Studies
Different studies have been conducted around the world to examine the presence
of personal stance in newspaper editorials. One of those studies was conducted by
Le (2004) who analysed newspaper editorials as written varieties of language and
observed that, compared to academic texts, the editorial texts were ‘much shorter
in length, have a content that can be exposed with less complexity and they benefit
from a much larger and less specialized audience’. Moreover, the editorial texts
contained such opinions as conveyed in much more personal ways. She added
further that for that reason they might naturally contain some textual markers and
be more inter-personal. Therefore, she suggests since knowledge is more personal
in editorials, it requires to be diminished in order to be acceptable for a wider
group of readers.
Qun (2010) conducted a research based on corpus analysis techniques to study
the features of modality in scientific papers as well as newspaper editorials. The
results of his research indicated that the authors of academic papers evaded such
epistemic modals as ‘surely’ and ‘I think’ because of their focus to present unbi-
ased views about different news events. Apart from being unbiased, the authors of
scientific papers presented their findings in reasonable, consistent and forceful
ways. Therefore, the occurrence frequency of ‘often’ was higher than ‘sometimes’
and ‘usually’. So, as newspaper editorials were concerned, ‘could’ and ‘should’
were found as the most distinguished features of the editorials. A reason behind
this preference, according to Qun (2010), might be that the majority of the edito-
rialists try to remark on the previously happened events. Hence, the past tense has
been preferred. Whereas the editorialists have been reported to mark stance in
112 Asia Pacific Media Educator 30(1)

unclear ways. It might be due to the reason, in view of the researcher, that they do
not intend to offend their readers. Thus, they preferably used mitigating modals,
that is, ‘might’ and ‘could’.
Trajkova (2011) examined linguistic functions and forms of hedges in
Macedonian and English newspaper editorials. He observed that hedges wor-
ked as interpersonal meta-discourse markers and helped editorialists tone their
statements down and present uncertainty in their factuality thus making them
acceptable for the readers. On the basis of these observations, he made the editorial
readers aware of the editorialists’ persuasive power and style.
Ntsane (2015) investigated the management of contact between editorial
writers and their readers with an aim to explore how an editorialist involves the
readers as participants in his discourse while maintaining his persona as an author.
Still another aim of his study was to know about how the reader of an editorial is
aligned or dis-aligned with the views of an editorial writer. Thus, applying
Engagement System of the Appraisal Framework, he explored that contractive
means were used slightly more than the expansive means. The slight differentiation
means that the writer of an editorial tries to maintain a balance between
maintenance of his authority as an author and bringing in his readers in the
communicative events. The results of his study also indicated that different
newspapers used engagement means in the same way. In addition, he found the
tones to be conversational and the arguments to be somewhat subjective.
Hayat and Juliana (2016) analysed the depiction of Malala Yousafzai after her
assassination attempt by the Talibans in the editorials of four Pakistani English
newspapers to investigate how the newspapers framed the Taliban after their
murder attack on Malala. A comparative analysis of 29 editorials based on framing
theory resulted that Malala was depicted as a brave girl to oppose the Talibans and
their typical outlook against female education in Swat. The results also indicated
that the Talibans had a negative image in Pakistani English newspapers after their
murderous attack on Malala.
Considering modality as a vital grammatical expression in newspaper editorials,
Sadia and Ghani (2019) analysed the function and nature of modal verbs. For this
purpose, they developed a corpus from the editorials published in famous Pakistani
newspapers, that is, The Daily Dawn and The Daily News and analysed through a
concordance tool to know about the commonly used modal verbs by the editorial
writers to manipulate the reader’s opinions about certain issues. The results
showed that the prediction modals (i.e., will and would) were in common use of
the editorial writers of the said newspapers. In addition, the results of comparative
analysis showed that the editorial writers in The Daily Dawn focused on the
obligation, for example, ‘what should be done’ whereas the editorial writers in
The Daily News were observed to focus on predictions, that is, ‘what will/would
happen’. Moreover, the editorial writers were reported to utilize modal verbs to
present their own outlook towards the events. On the basis of these results, the
authors concluded that the editorial writers utilize modality to steer the readers
towards a specific bent of mind while presenting and reporting information on
different news events.
Ahmad et al. 113

Thus, realizing the significance of modal verbs to manipulate social reality,

this study aims to spotlight linguistic manifestation of the idea in the editorials of
The Daily Dawn and The Daily News as representatives of Pakistani English
newspapers. It is important to mention here that both of these newspapers are
highly esteemed among the readers from all walks of life. Particularly, these
newspapers are read by government officers, politicians, policymakers and other
highly educated persons. Therefore, these newspapers are called ‘elite’ newspapers
and have a significant influence on policy making in Pakistan. The rationale for
this study has been based on the arguments given by eminent researchers. Like
Fowler (2013) says that what is true about newspaper editorials is that they make
use of textual strategies which foreground speech acts presenting beliefs and
values. Actually, it is through these textual strategies that the editorial writers
present their stance.

Methodology

Corpus of the Study

This is a corpus-driven study which employs purposeful sampling technique to
drive the corpora from the large sample of a previous research by Siddique (2017)
with an aim to assist to a new research on the investigation of stance in newspaper
editorials. The driven corpora comprise of 500 editorials published in famous
Pakistani English newspapers—The Daily Dawn and The Daily News (250
editorials from each newspaper). The said editorials have been published during
the months of March and April 2016. These newspapers are published online and
are ranked among top broadsheets. They publish editorials on different news
events three times a day. However, the number of editorial publications per day
may increase based on the number of significant news events. Characteristic
features of the editorials include: (a) they are relative to the different networks of
newspapers, that is, politics, economy, current affairs, sports, education, and so
on; (b) they are published more than three times a day. However, the frequency
increases with the new happening on the same day; (c) the chosen editorials are
partially signed and partially unsigned, and are written by the editorialists in order
to represent the editorial board and to some extent individuals; (d) the language of
editorials is argumentative as well as critical in nature; (e) they are published in
English language and (f) they are available on online.

Editorial Classifications
According to Hall (2003), newspaper editorials can be classified into the editorials
of attack, of criticism, of defence, of entertainment and of praise. This study
involves all of these classes of editorials. The reason behind is that the corpus
included all editorials published from March–April 2016.
114 Asia Pacific Media Educator 30(1)

Criteria for Corpus Driving/Selection

The corpus was selected on the basis of following parameters: relativity with
different newspaper networks, daily/weekly issues, signed/unsigned manuscripts
written by editorial writers representing an editorial board, online availability,
written/published in English (Siddique, 2017; Siddique et al., 2018).

Corpus Analysis
To analyse the corpus of the study following procedure was adopted:
First of all, the corpus was obtained from the researcher of a previous study,
that is, Siddique (2017), in an electronic form to support to a new research on
stance in Pakistani newspaper editorials. After that the corpus was recorded in
a Microsoft Excel file which was saved separately by marking editorial
publication dates, sources, file numbers, and word and token types. Then another
file was prepared in a notepad form which excluded publication dates, author
names, sources and editorial titles. The said notepad file was processed in
an AntConc 3.4.4.0 processor which provided the results into one folder, that is,
‘compiled up files 1 to 500’ which was saved after renaming as ‘All Editorials
(1–500)’.

Corpus Distribution and Length

The corpus of this study comprises of 250 editorials from The Daily Dawn and
250 editorials from The Daily News (500 editorials in total). For more details see
Table 1.

Tuning Procedure
A tuning procedure (see Table 2) for modal expressions has been devised to find
the frequencies of different modal expressions (see Table 2) in the corpus using
AntConc 3.4.4.0.

Table 1.  Corpus Distribution and Length

Newspapers The Daily Dawn The Daily News Total

Number of Editorials 250 250 500
Word Types 10,053 9,633 19986
Word Tokens 103,596 103,860 207456
Source: The authors.
Ahmad et al. 115

Table 2. Tuning Procedure

Function Word level Modal Verb

Prediction will | would
Possibility can | could | may | might
Necessity must | should
Modal Adverbs One word accurately | apparently | clearly | genuinely | grandly
| surely | truly | unacceptably | undeniably | unlikely
Two word less likely
Evaluative Adverbs One word badly | chiefly | cynically | deadly | efficiently |
frighteningly | painfully | rapidly | ruthlessly |
sadly | seriously | substantially | uncritically |
understandably | woefully
Two word not surprisingly
Reporting Verbs One word admit | announce | charge | claim | concede |
declare | doubt | hope | predict | speculate |
voice | warn
Knowledge Verbs appear | believe | seem
Generic Phrases Three word it seems that
Four word it is clear that | it makes us wonder | it is never
acceptable | it is obvious that
Five word doubts have now arisen that | there is no doubt
that
Source: Biber et al. (1999), Dury (2018), and Siddique (2017).

Results

Modals in The Daily News

The results in Table 3 showed that the editorial writers used modals in editorials
published in The Daily News. So far as the frequencies of different modals are
concerned, the editorial writers have been observed to use: evaluative adverbs 22
times; generic phrases 5 times; knowledge verbs 25 times; modal adverbs only
once; necessity modals 182 times; possibility modals 363 times; prediction
modals 695 times; and reporting verbs 64 times. Thus, the total frequency of the
modal verbs in the editorials published in The Daily News is 1,357 out of which
the frequency of modal adverbs is minimum whereas the frequency of prediction
markers is maximum. Some of the examples are given below:

1. Assuring full support to the business group, the minister said government
shall move further ahead in increasing exports and soliciting resources
until exports fraternity come forward and take initiatives and mobilize
their resources (Prediction: The Daily News, file no. 244).
2. Federal Reserve might soon raise interest rates (Possibility: The Daily
News, file no. 204)
116 Asia Pacific Media Educator 30(1)

Table 3.  Modal Expressions in The News

Sr. No. Modals Frequency

1 Evaluative Verbs 22
2 Generic Phrases 5
3 Knowledge Verbs 25
4 Modal Adverbs 1
5 Necessity 182
6 Possibility 363
7 Prediction 695
8 Reporting Verbs 64
Total 1357
Source: The authors.

3. Sadly, I must state that all of these high and mighty appointees meted
out a step-motherly treatment to Fata and never contributed towards its
development (Necessity: The Daily News, file no. 13).
4. Pemra should be dealing with bias and bigotry on the airways. It is
clearly failing in its primary task (Modal Adverb: The Daily News, file
no. 154).
5. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton rapidly turned
their fire on each other with an eye toward November’s presidential
election after rolling up strong wins in north-eastern states (Evaluative
Adverb: The Daily News, file no. 28).
6. Shah took only two minutes to declare that the premier didn’t answer
the seven questions prepared and circulated earlier (Reporting Verb: The
Daily News, file no. 146).
7. Now, will there be any breakthrough in the deadlock in the coming days
or will we see street agitation after Eid, for which Imran Khan, Bilawal
Bhutto and JI Emir Sirajul Haq seem ready (Knowledge Verb: The Daily
News, file no. 63).
8. Sometimes it seems that the aim instead is to stir up anger and push the
blame elsewhere (Generic Phrase: The Daily News, file no. 21).

Modal Expressions in The Daily Dawn

The results in Table 4 showed that the editorial writers used modals in editorials
published in The Daily Dawn. So far as the frequencies of different modals are
concerned, the editorial writers have been observed to use: evaluative adverbs 54
times; generic phrases 4 times; knowledge verbs 75 times; modal adverbs 133
times; necessity modals 389 times; possibility modals 501 times; prediction
modals 528 times; and reporting verbs 83 times. Thus, the total frequency of the
modal verbs in the editorials published in The Daily Dawn is 1767 out of which
the frequency of generic phrases is minimum whereas the frequency of prediction
Ahmad et al. 117

Table 4.  Modal Expressions in The Daily Dawn

Sr. No. Modals Frequency

1 Evaluative Verbs 54
2 Generic Phrases 4
3 Knowledge Verbs 75
4 Modal Adverbs 133
5 Necessity 389
6 Possibility 501
7 Prediction 528
8 Reporting Verbs 83
Total 1767
Source: The authors.

markers is maximum. Some of the examples of different modals explored in the

corpus are given below:

1. As ever, the superior might of the security forces is likely to succeed -- but
perhaps at the political and social cost of alienating the Baloch population
(Possibility: The Daily Dawn, file no. 240).
2. The law should be applied to regulate the actions of citizens, rather than
brandished as a weapon to silence weaker segments of society or else
held in abeyance when it comes to those perceived as being powerful for
various reasons (Necessity: The Daily Dawn, file no. 58).
3. To defeat groups like the banned TTP, a truly national action plan will be
required -- not the piecemeal actions that have been taken so far (Modal
Adverb: The Daily Dawn, file no. 181).
4. Given the stress and strains on military hardware in recent years
with large-scale operations in Fata, maintenance, replenishment
and upgradations are inevitable and should be seriously attended to
(Evaluative Adverb: The Daily Dawn, file no. 208).
5. The claim about the Sharif family bearing all expenses related to Mr
Sharif’s medical treatment may well be true, but it is just that … a claim
(Reporting Verb: The Daily Dawn, file no. 72).
6. At the moment, it would appear the provincial government departments
have a wait-and-pray approach to the approaching monsoon season
(Knowledge Verb: The Daily Dawn, file no. 122).
7. There is no doubt that space is rapidly shrinking in the country for the
multiplicity of views (Generic Phrase: The Daily Dawn, file no. 169).

It is evident from the results shown in Table 5 that there are certain differences
and certain similarities in the use of modal verbs in the editorials of The Daily
News and The Daily Dawn newspapers. A difference is that the frequency of the
modal adverbs in The Daily News is 1 but the frequency of the same in The
Daily Dawn is 133. However, the most frequently used modality in both of the
118 Asia Pacific Media Educator 30(1)

Table 5.  Comparison of the Use of Modal Expressions between The Daily News and
The Daily Dawn

Modality Frequency in The Daily News Frequency in The Daily Dawn

Modal Adverbs 1 133
Generic Phrases 5 4
Evaluative Verbs 22 54
Knowledge Verbs 25 75
Reporting Verbs 64 83
Necessity 182 389
Possibility 363 501
Prediction 695 528
Total 1357 1767
Source: The authors.

newspaper editorials is the same, that is, prediction modal verbs have been
found in maximum use.

Discussion
The first question of this study has been raised to know: ‘Do Pakistani newspaper
editorial writers use modals?’ The answer to this question is ‘yes’. Results in
Table 3 and 4 show that Pakistani English newspapers’ editorial writers use all
types of modals: (a) prediction modals, for example will and would; (b) possibility
modals, for example, can, could, may and might; (c) necessity modals, for
example, should and must; (d) modal adverbs, for example, accurately, apparently,
clearly, genuinely, grandly, less likely, surely, truly, unacceptably, undeniably and
unlikely; (e) evaluative adverbs, for example, badly, chiefly, cynically, deadly,
efficiently, frighteningly, not surprisingly, painfully, rapidly, ruthlessly, sadly,
seriously, substantially, uncritically, understandably, and woefully; (f) reporting
verbs, for example, admit, announce, charge, claim, concede, declare, doubt,
hope, predict, speculate, voice and warn; (g) knowledge verbs, for example,
appear, believe, and seem; and (h) generic phrases, for example, it seems that, it
is clear that, it makes us wonder, it is never acceptable, it is obvious that, doubts
have now arisen, and there is no doubt that.
In fact, the use of modals is very common in different genres (see, e.g., Bista,
2009; He & Wang, 2012; Holmes, 1988; Hyland, 1994; Hyland, 1996; Mirahayuni,
2002; Molina, 2012; Moskowich & Crespo, 2019; Nartey & Yankson, 2014;
Ngula, 2017; Orta, 2010; Siddique et al., 2019; Tenuta et al., 2015). Since a
newspaper editorial is also a significant genre, it also contains modals, for
example, the writers of editorials also make use of modals in editorials of world
famous newspapers in general (see, e.g., Bonyadi, 2011; Fowler, 2013; Halliday,
1994; Lawal, 2015; Le, 2004; Ntsane, 2015; Qun, 2010; Trajkova, 2011) and
Pakistani English newspapers in particular (see, e.g., Hayat & Juliana, 2016;
Ahmad et al. 119

Khalid, 2013; Sadia & Ghani, 2019). So, the results of this study (see Table 3 and
4), examples from the editorial texts (see results section), results of previous
studies (see, e.g., Hayat & Juliana, 2016; Khalid, 2013; Sadia & Ghani, 2019;
Siddique et al. 2018) lead to establish that the writers of editorials for Pakistani
English newspapers (particularly the writers of editorials for The Daily Dawn and
The Daily News) use modals.
Having explored that the writers of editorials for Pakistani English newspapers
use modals verbs, it is now required to know ‘which modals do the Pakistani
newspaper editorial writers use most frequently?’ In this regard, the results (see
Table 3 and 4) show that the editorialists of the both of the newspapers use
prediction modals in maximum frequency, that is, 695 and 528 times in The Daily
News and The Daily Dawn respectively. The results of this study validate the
results of another study by Sadia and Ghani (2019) which also reports that the
prediction modals (i.e., will and would) are in maximum use of the editorial
writers and claims that prediction modals are in use of Pakistani English newspaper
editorial writers. So far as the minimum frequency is concerned, it has been
observed that the editorialists of both of the newspapers have different inclination;
The editorialists of The Daily News use modal adverbs in minimum frequency,
that is, 1 and editorialists of The Daily Dawn use generic phrases in minimum
frequency, that is, 4.
Having come to know about the most frequently used modals in Pakistani
English newspaper editorials, it is important to know: ‘which functions do the
Pakistani newspaper editorial writers achieve through the most frequently used
modals?’ Results (see Table 3 and 4) show clearly that the said editorial writers
use prediction modals most frequently. It means that the said editorial writers are
mainly concerned with making predictions. In fact, prediction modals possess the
median value of modality which helps editorial writers tone down their attitude
towards an event (Halliday, 1994). Halliday adds, that prediction modals evaluate
acts, events, happenings and situations. For this type of evaluation, Halliday
introduces three values, that is, (a) High value: has to, need to, ought to, must, and
should; (b) Median value: will, shall, and would; and (c) Low value modals: can,
could, may, and might. The results show that Pakistani English newspaper
editorial writers use median value modals which further means that they are trying
to mediate something under the cover of median value modals which, in the view
of Halliday (1994), leads the writer of an editorial to the mid of the attitude
towards an event.
Having answered the above questions, another question arises, that is, what it
actually is for which the editorial writers have to use middle value modals.
Actually, newspaper editorial writers extensively use discursive resources to
negotiate as well as rapport with the readers. For this purpose, the writers have to
take a position (Le, 2004) which is very stable (Van Dijk, 1992). This position has
been termed differently by different researchers (see introduction section) but this
study has analysed it as ‘stance’. Stance is a matter of personal attitude or opinion
(Du Bois, 2007) which expresses writers’ attitude, feelings or viewpoints about
the propositions (Biber & Finegan, 1989; Biber et al., 1999; Chafe & Nichols,
1986; Hunston & Thompson, 2000; Hyland, 2000). Stance is an important feature
120 Asia Pacific Media Educator 30(1)

of the language (Hunston & Thompson, 2000) and it is achieved by employing

different strategies (see introduction section). Among these strategies, the use of
modals is very common (Biber, 2006; Biber et al., 1999; Breeze, 2016).
Use of modals by editorial writers is also very common (see Bonyadi, 2011;
Fowler, 2013; Halliday, 1994; Hayat & Juliana, 2016; Khalid, 2013; Lawal, 2015;
Le, 2004; Ntsane, 2015; Qun, 2010; Sadia & Ghani, 2019; Trajkova, 2011). The
use of modals in Pakistani English language newspapers is also very common,
with the help of which the editorial writers express obligations, probabilities or
pass judgements (Halliday, 1994), express beliefs and values (Fowler, 2013),
show authorial interest with a particular colour or feel in the story giving an
opinion about the truth of the propositions (Simpson, 1993), express necessity as
well as possibility (Von Fintel, 2006), influence public opinion, cause the creation
of authorial identity in the texts (Molina, 2012), cover the notions of necessity,
obligation, permission, possibility, probability and volition (Tenuta et al., 2015),
and express attitudes (Sadia & Ghani, 2019) while commenting, informing or
reporting about different news events. These modalities which are the focus of the
study create stance in the editorials due to which the editorials become full of
personal beliefs as well as values (Fowler, 2013; Iwasaki & Yap, 2015; Orta,
2010) which influence the opinions of the readers, that is, the editorial writers use
biased language (Timucin, 2010) about hard-hitting on local as well as national
news about economy, health, politics and science (Newman & Levy, 2014 cited in
Ricketson & Graham, 2018). In this way, the editorials become subjective realities
(Anderson et al., 1994) or subjective opinions which most of the times present
conjectural as well as explanatory opinions blended with personal feelings as well
as perceptions (Anderson et al., 1994; McQuail, 1987). This type of exercise in
the newspaper editorials is affected by commercial interests (Tawab, 2000),
ideology of the newspaper’s owners as well as managers (Henry & Tator, 2002)
ideology of the newspaper (Lawal, 2015) and newspaper’s policy, political
circumstances in which the newspaper is published and proprietary structure
(Hayat & Juliana, 2016).
In such a condition, the function of the modals becomes twofold, that is, (a) the
writers of the editorials use them to mark personal stance which helps them
influence the opinion of the readers, and (b) to neutralize the effect of stance as
well as authorial persona. In fact, modals help the language users express ‘what
is’, ‘what may be’, ‘what should be’, and ‘what would be’. These expressions help
them depict necessity, possibility or prediction. In addition, modals help the
writers show their position of authority having the knowledge to claim what will
happen in future (Lawal, 2015), maintain their relationship with the readers as
well as authorial presence (Khalid, 2013; Ntsane, 2015). The knowledge in
editorials is more personal. Therefore, it needs to be diminished to be acceptable
for the readers at a large scale (Le, 2004). Moreover, editorial writers use modals
to steer the readers towards a specific bent of mind while reporting on different
news events (Sadia & Ghani, 2019) therefore, the readers should be conscious of
authorial stance through the use of modals because it might influence their mind
and manipulate their opinion.
Ahmad et al. 121

Conclusion
The discussion leads to the conclusion that the writers of editorials in Pakistani
English newspapers use all types of modals, that is, prediction, possibility,
necessity, modal adverbs, evaluative adverbs, reporting verbs, knowledge verbs
and generic phrases. Among all of these modals, the modals of prediction are in
most frequent use of the said writers. Thus, prediction is the most important
function in Pakistani English newspaper editorials and the Pakistani editorialists
not only report information about news events but they also provide the readers of
their editorials with personal judgements and stances which are realized through
different modal verbs, modal adverbs, reporting verbs, generic phrases, knowledge
verbs, etc. Such a use of modals as stance markers needs to be diminished and the
readers of Pakistani English newspaper editorials are suggested to be conscious of
the fact that the editorials might be biased and affect their opinion.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of
this article.

ORCID iD
Muhammad Ahmad https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6759-9511

References

Al-Shunnag, M. A. (2014). Stance in political discourse: Arabic translations of American

newspaper opinion articles on the ‘Arab Spring’ (Doctoral dissertation). The University
of Salford.
Anderson, R., Dardenne, R. W., & Killenberg, G. M. (1994). The conversation of
journalism: Communication, community, and news. Praeger.
Bednarek, M. (2006). Evaluation in media discourse: Analysis of a newspaper corpus.
Continuum.
Benveniste, E. (1971). Problems in general linguistics (Mary E. Meek, Trans.). University
of Miami Press.
Biber, D. (2006). University language: A corpus-based study of spoken and written
registers. John Benjamins.
Biber, D., & Finegan, E. (1988). Adverbial stance types in English. Discourse Processes,
11(1), 1–34.
Biber, D., & Finegan, E. (1989). Styles of stance in English: Lexical and grammatical
marking of evidentiality and affect. Text-Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of
Discourse, 9(1), 93–124.
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Grammar of spoken
and written English. Longman.
122 Asia Pacific Media Educator 30(1)
Bista, K. (2009). On ‘yes, we can’: Linguistic power and possibility. Journal of English for
Specific Purpose, 3(24), 34–50.
Bonyadi, A. (2011). Linguistic manifestations of modality in newspaper editorials.
International Journal of Linguistics, 3(1), 1–13.
Breeze, R. (2016). Negotiating alignment in newspaper editorials. Pragmatics, 26(1),
1–19.
Chafe, W. L., & Nichols, J. (1986). Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology.
Ablex.
Conrad, S. & Biber, D. (2000). Adverbial marking of stance in speech and writing. In
S. Hunston & G. Thompson (Eds.), Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the
Construction of Discourse (pp. 56–73). Oxford University Press.
Du Bois, J. (2007). The stance triangle. In R. Englebretson (ed.), Stancetaking in Discourse:
Subjectivity, Evaluation, Interaction (pp. 139–182). John Benjamins.
Du Bois, J. W., & Kärkkäinen, E. (2012). Taking a stance on emotion: Affect, sequence,
and intersubjectivity in dialogic interaction. Text & Talk, 32(4), 433–451.
Dury, R. (2018). A brief glossary of modality. www.unibg.it/anglistica/slin/modgloss.htm
Englebretson, R. (2007). Stancetaking in discourse: Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction
(Vol. 164). John Benjamins Publishing.
Fillmore, C. J. (2003). Double-decker definitions: The role of frames in meaning
explanations. Sign Language Studies, 3(3), 263–295.
Fowler, R. (2013). Language in the news: Discourse and ideology in the press. Routledge.
Hall, H. L. (2003). Junior high journalism. Taylor & Francis.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar. Arnold.
Hayat, N., & Juliana, A. W. (2016). A comparative analysis of Pakistani English newspaper
editorials: The case of Taliban’s attack on Malala Yousafzai. Pertanika Journal of
Social Sciences & Humanities, 24(3), 1087–1101.
He, Y., & Wang, H. (2012, July). A corpus-based study of epistemic modality markers in
Chinese research articles. In Workshop on Chinese Lexical Semantics (pp. 199–208),
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Henry, F. & Tator, C. (2002). Discourse of domination: Racial bias in the Canadian
English- Language Press. University of Toronto Press.
Holmes, J. (1988). Doubt and certainty in ESL textbooks. Applied Linguistics, 9(1), 21–44.
Hunston, S. (1994). Evaluation and organization in a sample of written academic discourse.
In M. Coulthard (Ed.), Advances in Written Text Analysis (pp. 191–218). Routledge.
Hunston, S. (2011). Corpus approaches to evaluation: Phraseology and evaluative
language. Routledge.
Hunston, S., & Thompson, G. (2000). Evaluation in text: Authorial stance and the
construction of discourse: Authorial stance and the construction of discourse. Oxford
University Press.
Hyland, K. (1994). Hedging in academic writing and EAP textbooks. English for Specific
Purposes, 13(3), 239–256.
Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing.
Longman
Hyland, K. (2005). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse.
Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192.
Hyland, K.(1996). Writing without conviction? Hedging in science research articles.
Applied Linguistics, 17, 433–454.
Iwasaki, S., & Yap, F. H. (2015). Stance-marking and stance-taking in Asian languages.
Journal of Pragmatics, 83, 1–9.
Ahmad et al. 123
Jaffe, A. (2009). Stance: Sociolinguistic perspectives. USA: Oxford University Press.
Kärkkäinen, E. (2006). Stance taking in conversation: From subjectivity to intersubjectivity.
Text & Talk, 26(6), 699–731.
Khalid, P. Z. B. M. (2013). Modality analysis of the newspaper articles about the Scottish
Ship RMS Queen Elizabeth. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2(9),
458–461.
Lawal, O. A. (2015). Pragmatics of truth and modality in newspaper editorials: An example
of the punch and the tribune. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(4),
688–693.
Le, E. (2004). Active participation within written argumentation: Metadiscourse and
editorialist’s authority. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(4), 687–714.
Lyons, J., & John, L. (1995). Linguistic semantics: An introduction. Cambridge University
Press.
Martin, J. R. (2000). Beyond exchange: Appraisal systems in English. In S. Hunston & G.
Thompson (Eds.), Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of
Discourse (pp. 142–175). Oxford University Press.
Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. R. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English.
Palgrave Macmillan.
McQuail, D. (1987). Mass communication theory: An introduction. SAGE Publications.
Mirahayuni, N. K. (2002). Investigating textual structure in native and non-native English
research articles: Strategy differences between English and Indonesian writers.
University of New South Wales.
Molina, S. (2012). Non-verbal markers of modality and evidentiality in MarENG. LFE.
Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos 18, 45–70.
Moskowich, I., & Crespo, B. (2019). Arguments that could possibly be urged: Modal verbs
and tentativeness in the Coruña corpus. Languages, 4(57), 1–12.
Nartey, M., & Yankson, F. E. (2014). A semantic investigation into the use of modal
auxiliary verbs in the manifesto of a Ghanaian political party. International Journal of
Humanities and Social Science, 4(3), 21–304.
Ngula, R. S. (2017). Epistemic modal verbs in research articles written by Ghanaian and
international scholars: A corpus-based study of three disciplines. Brno Studies in
English, 43(2), 5–27.
Ntsane, M. F. S. (2015). The management of writer-reader interaction in newspaper
editorials. Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 4(2), 108–123.
Orta, I. V. (2010). A contrastive analysis of the use of modal verbs in the expression of
epistemic stance in business management research articles in English and Spanish.
Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para fines específicos (AELFE),
(19), 77–96.
Palmer, F. R. (2001). Mood and modality. Cambridge University Press.
Qun, Z. (2010). Modality and generic features in Chinese EFL writings. Chinese Journal
of Applied Linguistics (Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press), 33(5), 40–51.
Ricketson, M., & Graham, C. (2018). The state of feature writing today. Asia Pacific
Media Educator, 28(2), 205–217.
Sadia, S., & Ghani, M. (2019). Modality in editorials of Pakistani English newspapers: A
corpus based study. International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(1), 144–151.
Siddique, A. R. (2017). Metadiscourse analysis of Pakistani English newspaper editorials:
A corpus based study (Unpublished Master Thesis). Department of Applied Linguistics,
Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
124 Asia Pacific Media Educator 30(1)
Siddique, A. R., Mahmood, M. A., & Iqbal, J. (2018). Metadiscourse analysis of Pakistani
English newspaper editorials: A corpus-based study. International Journal of English
Linguistics, 8(1), 146–163.
Siddique, A. R., Mahmood, M. A., Akhter, N., & Arslan, F. (2018). Hedges as metadiscourse
in Pakistani English newspaper editorials: A corpus based study. International Journal
of Development Research, 8(5), 20478–20486.
Siddique, A. R., Shah, S. K., & Ahmad, M. (2019). Modality in an autobiography ‘If I am
assassinated’ by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in English and its Urdu translation. Revista
Dilemas Contemporáneos: Educación, Política y Valores, 6, 1–36.
Simpson, P. (1993). Language, ideology and point of view. Routledge.
Stubbs, M. (1986). Educational linguistics. Blackwell.
Tawab. (2000). Editorial coverage of women right (Unpublished Master Thesis). Punjab
University, Lahore, Pakistan.
Tenuta, A. M., Oliveira, A. L. A., & Orfanó, B. M. (2015). How Brazilian learners express
modality through verbs and adverbs in their writing: A corpus-based study on n-grams.
DELTA: Documentação de Estudos em Lingüística Teórica e Aplicada, 31(2),
333–357.
Timucin, M. (2010). Different language styles in newspapers: An investigative framework.
Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 6(2), 104–126.
Trajkova, P. Z. (2011). Toning down statements in newspaper editorials. The Journal for
Languages and Literatures of the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, 1, 71–84.
Traugott, E. C. (2012). Intersubjectification and clause periphery. English Text
Construction, 5(1), 7–28.
Van Dijk, T. A. (1992). Racism and argumentation: Race riot rhetoric in tabloid editorials.
In F. H. van Eemeren, R. Grootendorst, J. A. Blair, & C. A. Willard (Eds.),
Argumentation Illuminated (pp. 243–59). SICSAT.
Van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Opinions and ideologies in the press. In A. Bell & P. Garrett (Eds.),
Approaches to Media Discourse (pp. 21–63). Blackwell.
Von Fintel, K. (2006). Modality and language. In Donald M. Borchert. (Ed.), Encyclopedia
of Philosophy – Second Edition. MacMillan Reference USA. http://mit.edu/fintel/
www/modality.pdf
White, P. R. (2001). Appraisal: An overview. http://www.grammatics.com/appraisal/
AppraisalGuide/Framed/Appraisal-Overview.htm.

Authors’ bio-sketch
Muhammad Ahmad is a Secondary School Teacher at Government High School,
Hujra Shah Muqeem, Okara, Pakistan where he teaches English as a second
language to 9-10 grade students. He is also a PhD candidate at the Department of
Applied Linguistics, Government College University, Faisalabad, Pakistan. His
research interests include applied linguistics, (media) discourse analysis, ELT,
and language testing and evaluation.

Muhammad Asim Mahmood is a Professor of Applied Linguistics and serving

as a Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at Government College
University, Faisalabad, Pakistan. He specializes in (applied) corpus linguistics,
Pakistani English, and the analysis of spoken/written professional discourse.
Ahmad et al. 125
His publications include articles on the issues related with CALL, corpus
linguistics, electronic/print media discourse, SFL, syntax, and world Englishes.

Ammara Farukh is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics, at the University of

Education, Lahore, Pakistan where she is engaged in administration and teaching
related jobs. Her research and teaching interests include discourse analysis,
psycholinguistics, and teaching of English as a second/foreign language. Her
recent publications include articles in Balkanistic Forum, Dyslexia, Learning and
Individual Differences, and VIAL, Vigo International Journal of Applied
Linguistics, and a chapter titled ‘L1, quantity of exposure to L2, and reading
disability as factors in L2 literacy skills’ edited by T. Cadierno & S. Eskildsen
(2015, Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton).