Modality in Ghanaian and American personal letters

Bibliographic Data

ID2268701
AuthorsLawrence K Owusu‐ansah, L K Owusu-Ansah (University of Cape Coast, corresponding author)
Year1994
Volume13
Issue3
Pages341-349
Publication date1994-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Englishes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0883-2919 • E-ISSN: 1467-971X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-971x.1994.tb00320.x
OpenAlexW2072765109
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited6

This paper reports a comparative study of the ways in which modality as a semantic feature is expressed in one nonnative variety of English and one native variety of English. A set of twenty-two informal letters written by Americans were compared with another set of twenty-two written by Ghanaians in respect of the distribution and use of modal words and expressions in the data. Given other differences such as a reading index for the American set of 11.9 grade level and 7.9 grade level for the Ghanaian set, it was hypothesized that the two varieties would make different use of modal words and expressions. The results of the analysis of the data using Analysis of variance (Anova) showed that there was no significant difference between the two sets of data in the distribution and use of modal auxiliary verbs. This finding has important implications for the description of native and nonnative varieties of English which is discussed in the paper

American English · Feature (linguistics · Index (typography · Linguistics · Modal · Modal verb · Modality (human–computer interaction · Natural language processing · Reading (process · Set (abstract data type · Variance (accounting · Variety (cybernetics · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence

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