Analysis of the Evolution of the Grammatical Portrait of the Speeches of British Prime Ministers and American Presidents Over the Past Fifty Years

Student: Koreniak Vladimir

Educational Programme: Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication (Bachelor)

Final Grade: 8

Year of Graduation: 2024

The study of political discourse presents ample opportunity for analysis of linguistic devices. Political actors persuade and influence the opinion of other politicians and electors. A potent tool of discourse is modality, the commitment of the speaker to the utterance. Modality is expressed through modal auxiliaries. Core modals of necessity must, should, and shall can express both deontic and epistemic modality. The study confirms observations of previous research based on a newly compiled corpora of State of the Union Addresses and Prime Minister Questions. The paper demonstrates a steady decline in the frequency of modal verbs and the weakening of modality. Trends of modal usage are connected to social and political changes through the realm of pragmatics and discourse analysis.

Full text (added May 26, 2024)

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