The aim of the present study is to examine which, as well as to what degree, different modal auxiliary verbs and modal disjuncts appear in posts on written discussion forums online and which differences and similarities that occur between them. The aim is also to examine which modal meanings that occur and how these meanings affect the room for negotiation in the posts. In order to achieve the aim, a method of textual analysis is employed which includes both quantitative and qualitative elements. The material consists of 20 posts from four discussion threads: two from Familjeliv.se and two from Flashback.org. Since modal expressions affect the content in which they are placed as more or less valid or powerful depending on the room for negotiation it is interesting to examine these on Familjeliv.se and Flashback.org. Considering how easy it is for anyone, people with a low or high level of knowledge, to express their opinions in different topics the expectation is high that the modal expressions in this context will be high.The results of the study show that in the material here are, in total, 116 modal auxiliary verbs, which consists of behöver, borde, får, kan, måste, ska/skall, skulle, verkar and vill. The modal disjuncts appear 36 times in total and the occurrences consist of alltså, faktiskt, ju, kanske, självklart and väl. Therefore, there are a total of 152 modal occurrences present in the material. The present study finds that the modal meanings probability, commonness, obligation, and willingness, as well as other modal meanings, occur. The modal meanings on Familjeliv.se give, in general, a smaller room for negotiation than on Flashback.org. This speaks for that the interaction between the users on Familjeliv.se to a greater extent dominates by that the users, through modal expressions, try to highlight their posts as more valid and powerful. The fact that one thread on each forum dominates by modal expressions which gives the posts a smaller room for negotiation than the other two threads can contradict this, or at least give rise to the complexity of modality. One explanation to the smaller room for negotiation in two of the for threads can be that the topics of these to give rise to stronger emotions. This means that the interaction between the users is, in the threads that give rise to stronger emotions, to a greater extent dominated by modal expressions which convey a smaller room for negotiation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kau-82460 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Blomkvist, Linnea |
| Publisher | Karlstads universitet, Fakulteten för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap (from 2013) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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