Modal expressions in job application letters

The article deals with the semantic-pragmatic complexity of modal expressions in a corpus of US job application letters (JALs). Reasons for complexity include a) the apparent clash between the directive nature of the JAL as a global language act (request for consideration and offers of professional competence), and the informative-representative character (presentation of self) of its component acts, and especially its goal-oriented bias affecting the interactants’ role-relationships and the nature of their transaction; b) the difficulty of assigning unambiguous semantic roles to the clauses making up the texts; c) the instantiation of types of modality technically in contrast with the speech function of the clauses they are part of, and d) the occurrence of genre-specific, marked realizations of speech functions and relevant modality (meant to favour the effectiveness and acceptability of the JAL as a whole). The context of situation needs to be considered to fully account for the encoding of modality in JALs: the scarcity of modal expressions of obligation and the frequent presence of modal expressions of probability and inclination is relatable to the applicants’ need to promote their candidacy (by focusing on the likelihood of their successful professional performance and commitment to do well) and to appear deferential to their socially superior interactant (by avoiding reference to his/her expected behaviour)