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PERSONAL ATTITUDE AND MODALITY IN NARRATIVE FICTION
National University of Uzbekistan Jizzakh Brench,
1
st
year master’s student:
Narzullayeva Mohina
Annotation:
This article explores how personal attitudes are expressed through
modality in narrative fiction. Drawing on pragmatic and stylistic theories, the study
investigates how authors use modal verbs, adverbs, and subjective language to convey
evaluation, doubt, certainty, and emotion. The analysis focuses on selected excerpts from
20th-century English prose, highlighting how modality contributes to character
development and narrative stance. The findings suggest that modality serves as a central
tool in the construction of subjectivity and narrative voice.
Keywords:
Modality, Narrative Voice, Subjectivity, Stylistic Devices, Pragmatic
Markers, Personal Attitude, W.S. Maugham
Introduction
Personal attitude is a fundamental aspect of human communication and literary
narrative. In narrative fiction, writers often employ linguistic devices that reveal their
stance or the stance of their characters toward events, people, or ideas. One of the key tools
in this process is modality, which refers to the expression of possibility, necessity,
obligation, belief, and other forms of subjective evaluation.
In literary prose, modality is not just a grammatical or semantic feature—it is deeply
tied to stylistic and pragmatic dimensions of language use. This article investigates how
modality functions as a carrier of personal attitude in narrative fiction, focusing especially
on epistemic and deontic modality. The aim is to show how modality helps shape the
narrator’s voice, tone, and evaluative stance, contributing to the reader’s understanding of
the fictional world.
Methods
This study uses a qualitative stylistic analysis method. Three short excerpts from
20th-century English narrative fiction were selected for close reading. The selection
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included prose by authors such as W.S. Maugham, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce. These
texts were chosen for their use of subjective narration and rich modal expression.
The analysis focused on identifying:
• Epistemic modality (e.g., might, must, could, probably)
• Deontic modality (e.g., should, ought to, must)
• Modal adverbs (e.g., perhaps, surely, undoubtedly)
• Pragmatic markers that reveal evaluative stance (e.g., I suppose, I guess, it seems
that)
Each instance of modality was analyzed in context to understand how it contributed
to the narrator’s or character’s personal attitude.
Results
The analysis revealed several patterns in how modality functions to express personal
attitude:
3.1. Epistemic Modality and Tentativeness
In Maugham’s prose, modal verbs like might, could, and seem are used to convey
doubt or emotional distance. For example, in The Moon and Sixpence, the narrator often
uses I suppose and it seems to me to frame personal judgments cautiously, thereby
signaling humility or hesitation.
3.2. Deontic Modality and Moral Judgment
In Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, the use of should and ought to is common in internal
monologues, especially in moments of moral reflection. These forms convey not only
necessity but also internalized social norms, highlighting the character’s inner conflict.
3.3. Modal Adverbs and Emotional Nuance
Across all excerpts, modal adverbs such as probably, surely, and perhaps were used
to soften claims or express emotional coloring. For instance, Joyce’s narrative voice in
Dubliners relies on perhaps to introduce ambiguity or irony.
3.4. Pragmatic Markers and Subjective Framing
Subjective expressions like I believe, I imagine, and I dare say were found to add a
conversational tone to the narrative, enhancing the presence of the narrator’s personal
voice.
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Discussion
The findings confirm that modality is central to the stylistic and pragmatic
construction of personal attitude in narrative fiction. In particular, epistemic modality
allows narrators to indicate degrees of certainty or doubt, subtly guiding reader
interpretation without overt authorial intrusion. Deontic modality, meanwhile, often
reflects moral or social judgments, aligning the character’s voice with broader cultural
norms.
These modal strategies contribute to what Simpson (1993) calls narratorial point of
view, creating layers of subjectivity that enrich the literary texture. In Maugham’s work,
for example, the frequent use of modal hedges like I suppose or it may be suggested a
narrator who is observant yet reserved, judgmental yet unwilling to commit fully. Such use
of modality creates a nuanced narrative persona that engages the reader in active
interpretation.
Moreover, modal adverbs and pragmatic markers serve to embed evaluation within
seemingly objective narration. They often function as stylistic fingerprints, signaling the
presence of an authorial or character perspective. This blending of subjective and objective
tones is a hallmark of 20th-century narrative fiction, where authorial distance is both
maintained and subtly undermined.
Conclusion
Modality plays a critical role in expressing personal attitude in narrative fiction.
Through the use of modal verbs, adverbs, and pragmatic markers, authors encode
evaluative stances, emotions, and levels of certainty into the narrative. This study
highlights how such linguistic features contribute to the construction of narrative voice and
subjectivity, particularly in the prose of W.S. Maugham and his contemporaries. Further
research could explore the interaction of modality with other stylistic devices, such as
irony, focalization, and free indirect discourse.
References:
1.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1970). Functional Diversity in Language as Seen from a
Consideration of Modality and Mood in English.
2.
Joyce, J. (1914). Dubliners.
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3.
Leech, G. N., & Short, M. H. (2007). Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction
to English Fictional Prose (2nd ed.). Pearson.
4.
Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics. Cambridge University Press.
5.
Maugham, W. S. (1919). The Moon and Sixpence.
6.
Palmer, F. R. (2001). Mood and Modality (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
7.
Simpson, P. (1993). Language, Ideology and Point of View. Routledge.
8.
White, P. R. R. (2006). Evaluative language and the construction of authorial
stance. Asian EFL Journal, 8(3), 1–25.
9.
Woolf, V. (1927). To the Lighthouse.
