英文求职信中的情态研究.pdfVIP

Abstract Cover letter plays an important role in the job-hunting process because it is an effective means for the realization of better communication and understanding between the job-seeker and potential employer. The present thesis makes a detailed analysis on the modal expressions of the English cover letters. The author intends to find out the distribution of different modal expressions, the value distribution and the orientation distribution of these modal expressions. Fifty-two English cover letters from native speakers are selected as corpus in the present research. The research is conducted on the basis of Halliday ’s modal theory. According to the data collection, the distribution of the modal expressions—modal operators, modal adjuncts and modal metaphors are explored. All of these modal expressions are analyzed to find out their value distribution and orientation distribution. The value of different modal expressions is categorized into high, median and low, three categories and the orientation is classified into explicit subjective, implicit subjective, explicit objective and implicit objective. It was found that in all modal expressions of English cover letters, modal operators are used most frequently, while the modal adjuncts are the least. In the writing of English cover letters, the job applicants are inclined to choose median value and low value modal expressions to increase the possibility of getting the job. As to the orientation, the implicit subjective and explicit subjective are preferred to the other two orientations. The purpose of the study is to help the reader have a better understanding of cover letter from the perspective of Systemic Functional Grammar, especially from the modal theory and at the same time, offer some guidance in the analysis of other contexts. Key words: Engl