A Corpus-Based Analysis of Modal Auxiliaries in the What Is Up, Indonesia? Podcast

Abstract

Modal auxiliaries are one of the ways to express modality, a linguistic concept that reflects the speaker's attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions regarding the likelihood, necessity, or willingness to perform certain actions. Modality plays an important role in how speakers communicate varying degrees of certainty, obligation, and possibility, making it a crucial aspect of everyday communication. This study examines the types and realization of modality expressed through modal auxiliaries in the What is Up, Indonesia? (WIUI) podcast using #LancsBox X 5.5.0 corpus tool. The study analyzes transcribed spoken data from ten episodes of the WIUI podcast, focusing on the modal auxiliaries used by the speakers in expressing modality. The data of modal auxiliaries were extracted using POS tagging [pos="MD"]. The framework of modality proposed by Halliday and Matthiessen (2014) which divides modality into modalization (probability and usuality) and modulation (obligation and inclination), was applied to classify the modal auxiliaries found in the WIUI podcast. The study found that can was the most frequently used (43%) for expressing modality, followed by will (24%), while must was the least used, with only 2%. The study identifies probability as the dominant modality type (61%) in modalization. Additionally, inclination was expressed predominantly (28%) in modulation. The findings indicate that in the WIUI podcast, speakers tend to focus more on probability and inclination rather than obligation, with the use of the modal auxiliary can being the most dominant, showing a more open and flexible attitude in expressing opinions.