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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Need of the Study
Modality is always a heated topic among philosophy, logic and linguistics, variousstudies have been made on it. It is also regarded as one of the basic categories of language andmind. The Greek philosopher Aristotle discussed the logical relationship between possibilityand necessity about two thousand ago, which focused on modal logic. In the end of 20thcentury, linguists have explained and enriched modality from different perspectives, such assemantics, traditional grammar, pragmatics, semiology, cognitive linguistics,systemic-functional grammar and various branches, which have achieved great contributions.There are different linguistic forms to express modality, modal verbs are the commonest way.Modal verbs in English are also called modal auxiliaries or modal operators, which are usedto express modal meaning that is related to possibility and necessity. On linguistic level, thecomplexity of modal meaning not only reflects in multi-level and multi-orientation ofsentence structure, but also embodies in the ambiguousness of modality and pragmatics whichmake the modal meanings obscurer. Moreover, the meaning of modaliy is closely related tocontext, and derives from the negotiation between speakers and the adaptation to context.When interpreting a specific linguistic phenomenon, four aspects of adaptation should beconsidered, that is contextual correlates of adaptation, structural objects of adaptation,dynamics of adaptation and the salience of the adaptation. The different awareness oflinguistic adaptation leads to the change between context and linguistic structure, followed bythe change of linguistic meaning, so it can be concluded that the expression and interpretationof language is a dynamic process.As is mentioned above, the expression and interpretation of language is a dynamicprocess, so some aspects should be considered when one explains or interprets language. Forthe above reason, this paper will study modal verbs in RA Introductions, as well as explain theadaptation process of modal verbs in such discourse on the basis of adaptation theory. At thesame time, the writer hopes that English learners, teachers and discourse authors could beenlightened by the paper.
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1.2 Purpose of the Study
The paper will study modal verbs in Education and Engineering RA Introductions from the angle of linguistic adaptation theory. As a bridge of communication between countries,academic exchange plays an irreplaceable role, and as an important form of academicexchange, the status of academic research articles is obvious. Introduction is the general ideaof the whole passage, and its purpose is to introduce the main content and related backgroundof the article and to attract readers, so the paper will analyze modal verbs in RA Introductions.Countries now pay more and more attention to Education, and regard it as the key toeconomic development. Especially in China, the development and innovation of Educationbecomes more and more important. As 18th CPC National congress reports, the developmentof Education can lay a good foundation for the country’s development. That is to say nationalprosperity and good Education is inseparable. Therefore, research on Education has a veryspecial practical significance nowadays.If Education is a process of accepting different kinds of theoretical knowledge,Engineering is to apply these theories to specific department of