Modal verbs in the abstract genre in the field of tourism

Authors

  • Francisco J. Álvarez-Gil Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
  • Elena Domínguez MOrales Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Keywords:

Modal verbs, modality, mitigation, English, tourism

Abstract

This paper looks into the use of modal verbs in a corpus of abstracts excerpted from scientific papers in the field of tourism. These texts have been written by specialists in tourism studies. Our study will show the way in which modality is used to show the authors’ intention as to the contents of their texts. The pragmatic implications of modal uses will be highlighted bearing in mind the purposes of the abstractgenre within the academic paper. The methodology of study is corpus linguistics, and the framework of analysis includes the works of Palmer (1979; Palmer, 1986)and Collins (2009), among others. This paper is part of a larger research on modal verbs in touristic scientific papers.

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Author Biographies

Francisco J. Álvarez-Gil, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Francisco José Álvarez-Gil, PhD, is a lecturer of English language and linguistics in the Department of Modern Philology, Translation and Interpreting, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He also teaches French and English at secondary level in Gran Canaria. He has written his doctoral on adverbs as stancetaking devices in the Coruña Corpus of English History Texts (1700-1900). He has delivered talks on some linguistic aspects of Modern English scientific writing in international conferences of the field. He has been a visiting scholar in some reputed Universities with leading departments in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). His research interests primarily concern the analysis of specialised English from a synchronic and diachronic perspective, corpus linguistics, and language pedagogy at tertiary level.

Elena Domínguez MOrales, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

María Elena Domínguez-Morales is a lecturer of English for Specific Purposes in the Department of Modern Philology, Translation and Interpreting, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. She also teaches English at secondary level. She is now writing her PhD dissertation on the language of scientific texts in the field of tourism with a special focus on modal verbs. She has participated in language conferences dealing with English for specialised purposes.

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Published

2018-11-19

How to Cite

Álvarez-Gil, F. J., & Domínguez MOrales, E. (2018). Modal verbs in the abstract genre in the field of tourism. Revista De Lenguas Para Fines Específicos, 24(2), 27–37. Retrieved from https://ojsspdc.ulpgc.es/ojs/index.php/LFE/article/view/1058

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 2 (2018): Revista de lenguas para fines específicos. Issue dedicated to Professor Françoise Salager-Meyer

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Artículos/Articles

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