A Comparative Study of Chinese and English Mood System from the Perspective of System-Functional Grammar

摘要

This essay compares modality in a Chinese and a corresponding English news report. Modalities can be expressed in different parts of clauses, such as modal verbs, adjuncts, predicators and complements. It is found that in spit of the similarity in contents, the modal verbs and their frequencies are quite different. The Chinese news report contains more modal verbs.