A Corpus Study of Brexit Political Discourse: Exploring Modality through Lexical Modals

Encarnación Almazán Ruiz; Aroa Orrequia-Barea

doi:10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20249837

Authors

Encarnación Almazán Ruiz Universidad de Jaén https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8724-6596
Aroa Orrequia-Barea Universidad de Cádiz https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1478-7847

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20249837

Keywords:

modality, lexical modals, corpus-assisted discourse studies, political discourse, Brexit

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the lexical modals used in the political speeches given by Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn during the final months of the Brexit process. This study explores whether lexical choice shows the politicians’ commitment to their constituents, particularly to determine which lexical modals each politician uses and which semantic implication(s) these modals convey. The study is descriptive-interpretative and uses the corpus-assisted discourse studies approach. It contributes to research on modality in the English language by examining parts of speech other than (semi)auxiliary modal verbs. As the corpus analysis shows, lexical modals are a prominent resource employed by politicians to present facts to their audience.

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Author Biography

Aroa Orrequia-Barea, Universidad de Cádiz

Dr Encarnación Almazán-Ruiz got her PhD in English Linguistics at the University of Granada. She currently works as an assistant professor at the University of Jaén, teaching in both Graduate and Postgraduate programs. Her research interests include Corpus Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Digital Linguistics and implementing innovative teaching approaches in the EFL classroom. Dr Almazán-Ruiz has published several papers in the field, with a particular focus on analysing political discourse and researching the effectiveness of the Flipped classroom approach for teaching English grammar.

Dr Aroa Orrequia-Barea is a lecturer at the University of Cádiz, where she obtained her PhD in English Philology. Her research interests include Corpus Linguistics, which she applies to various topics such as Semantics, Discourse Analysis, Computational Linguistics, and Sentiment Analysis. She is currently working on a critical discourse analysis of trendy media topics, specifically political speeches. Dr Orrequia-Barea has authored several publications that focus on analysing political speeches, particularly those related to the Brexit process.

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A Corpus Study of Brexit Political Discourse: Exploring Modality through Lexical Modals

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Aroa Orrequia-Barea, Universidad de Cádiz

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