Stance and Modality

Definition

One of the key differences among the ways that students will use language in school is between texts where writers use evaluative language and take a stance versus those where writers use more objective language and take neutral stances. In addition to vocabulary choices, there are a number of grammatical resources, which we can group together as the systems of modality. Stance is not just expressed in single words or clauses; it emerges through choices throughout texts.

Form

Language features that express modality include:

Modal Verbs

Consider the difference between saying that a solution works and a solution may/might/should/must work. See Modal Verbs and Phrasal Modal Verbs.

Reporting Verbs

At one level, the choice of reporting verb can itself express stance: a writer can show, argue, state, prove, suggest, contend . More fundamentally reporting verbs project other voices into the text, which can be used to distance the writer from an idea (it’s not my idea – it’s this author’s) or to try to align the reader with a particular stance (I’m right because this expert agrees with me). See Reporting Verbs.

Noun Clauses

Noun clauses are often used as the complements (objects) of reporting verbs to express an idea from a source. Additionally, they are used in hedging structures such as: it is possible that, there is a chance that, it is likely that. See Noun Clauses.

Nominalization

Noun such as possibility, probability, likelihood, certainty, doubt, suspicion are nominalized ways of saying that an idea is possible, probable, doubtful, etc. Other nominalizations can make texts sound technical and authoritative by turning clauses into things (nouns) that then participate in further sentences. See Nominalization.

Quantifiers

Quantifiers can modify nouns in ways that express modality – there’s a difference between all students, some students, most students, and few students, for example. See Quantifiers.

Verb Tense

It’s worth remembering that the present simple tense, known as the timeless present in functional grammar, is used to express facts and thus makes texts sound certain and authoritative. This is why “generalized statements” (a common term in some KLUs in the WIDA Framework) are usually phrased in the present simple (in the sciences and social sciences) or past simple (in history) tenses. See Verb Tense Overview.