An Analysis on Stance Projection Function of Modal Resources in Academic Discourse

Persuasion is one of the important and fundamental goals for authors in academic discourse to “promote” their academic research. As for academic authors, modal resources are the key language carriers to achieve such purpose and also a major rhetorical strategy. However, the interpersonal function of modality resources as a projection of academic stance still needs further exploration. Therefore, this article attempts to explore the contribution of modal resources to the projection of academic author stances. Firstly, a general illustration is given about the interpersonal functional of academic discourse; Then, a brief introduction to the theoretical knowledge of modal resources is made as well; Finally, the stance projection function of modal resources in academic discourse is explored from the dimensions of Congruency and Metaphor. The Analysis shows that modal resources are an important rhetorical mechanism for academic authors to implicitly/explicitly project their stance evaluation, providing more flexible and diverse discourse strategies to help academic authors achieve the goal of persuasion and interpersonal communication. This has positive implications for improving academic English writing and academic discourse research.