Preferences of interpersonal metaphor of modality in academic disciplines

Drawing on diachronic and synchronic collexeme analyses, this paper investigated preferences of interpersonal metaphor of modality, which is realized by explicit subjective orientation, explicit objective orientation and implicit objective orientation, in academic disciplines of Corpus of Contemporary American English or COCA. The findings demonstrate that explicit subjective orientation is generally avoided by academic writers in later phases of COCA and more rarely used in natural sciences than in social and human sciences. Explicit objective orientation that denotes low modal value of probability, i.e., possible, and median value of obligation, i.e., important and necessary, is insensitive to both three phases and academic disciplines in COCA. Implicit objective orientation, inclusive of significantly attracted possibility and importance, employs probability and obligation that denote median value of probability and high value of obligation respectively to mask the subjective judgments of scholars regarding the proposition under scrutiny. This research is significant in shedding light on the use of interpersonal metaphor of modality in academic writings across disciplines.