With the aim towards informing the populace of current facts in the world, the tone of newspaper reporting is expected to stay objective. Since this feature of objectivity contradicts with the subjective nature of epistemic elements, we are justified to assume that the use of epistemic
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modal markers should be avoided generally in news reports. However, journalists are also aware of the fact that their reporting is based on their own observation, which, as noted earlier, inevitably involves subjectivity. Therefore, when using stance taking markers such as epistemic adverbs, journalists tend to strike a balance between honesty (i.e. subjectivity) and justice (i.e. objectivity) (see Hsieh, 2008). In what follows, it will be suggested that the attempt to achieve such a balance between linguistic and contextual concerns will offer an answer to the pattern of Chinese epistemic class and its subclasses as clustered in newspaper reports.
The extent to which journalists reveal their stance may be controlled by the nature of their reports (Hsieh, 2008). For example, business news reports tend to be more objective because they are often substantiated with empirical numerical data. Another case of a higher level of objectivity is politics news reports. They are concerned with important public figures and affairs that require a greater sense of seriousness. A comparatively lower sense of objectivity can be attested in local news reports, where ordinary people and local events that do not receive much attention from the society are reported. Alternatively, the function of the news content also affects the degree to which journalists specify their stance. Narrations are objective in that, by definition, they refer to the part of news reporting where journalists present the reported event. Compared with narrations, quotations and reflections are intrinsically more subjective. Quotations are statements that represent viewpoints from interviewees, who may probably not adhere to or be aware of the media morality to stay as objective as possible. Reflections are also subjective since they are journalists’ personal comments on the reported event. Accordingly, Hsieh (2008) sets two types of reported matters apart, one inherently more objectivity-oriented, as shown by business and politics news, and the other less objectivity-oriented, as shown by local news. Another distinction can be drawn between narrations, which are objective in essence, and quotations and reflections, which manifest a higher level of stance taking than factual narrations.
Such disparity in terms of objectivity along subject types can be attested in the use of epistemic adverbs in our dataset. As already observed from (17) in the former section, epistemic adverbs are most widely distributed in local news, where the maxim of objective reporting is least strictly obeyed.
In addition, as shown by (18), the speculative subclass outnumbers the assertive across all subject types. This suggests evaluation with lower certainty as more acceptable in the setting of news reporting, which in turn implies that, the weaker the journalists’ commitment is, the weaker sense of personal stance it conveys. To illustrate, (21) to (26) are samples taken from our dataset, all of which involve the use of speculative markers. (21) and (22) are taken from business news, (23) and (24) from politics news, and (25) and (26) from local news. The use of assertive markers are illustrated by (27) to (32), where (27) and (28) are extracts from business news, (29) and (30) from politics news, and (31) and (32) from local news.
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23 (21) Bolanhui bujiande shi defang fazhan qiji, fanershi duyao.
exposition not necessarily be regional development opportunity but poison
‘An exposition is not necessarily an opportunity for regional development but a poison.’
博览会不见得是地方发展契机，反而是毒药。
(22) Shangchang shang shi “jinghe guangxi”, yexu jintian business world on is competitive-cooperative relationship perhaps today hezuo, mingtian jingzheng.
cooperate tomorrow compete
‘The business world is of a “competitive-cooperative relationship”; perhaps people cooperate today and compete tomorrow.’
商场上是「竞合关系」，也许今天合作，明天竞争。
(23) Taiwan nuxing xianzaide diwei shifou reng yu nanxing you mingxiande Taiwan women current status whether still and men exist obvious chaju kong youyiwen.
gap probably in question
‘Whether there is still an obvious gap between women and men in Taiwan concerning their current social status is probably in question.’
台湾女性现在的地位是否仍与男性有明显的差距恐有疑问。
(24) Huoxu minshi gaoceng keyi yinyong zhege lizi wei benshen bianhu.
perhaps FTV high executive can cite this example to oneself defend
‘Perhaps the high executives of Formosa Television can cite this example to defend themselves.’
或许民视高层可以引用这个例子为本身辩护。
(25) Yuanshan diqu de jiaotong pingjing jiang kewang huode jietao.
Yuanshan area Poss. traffic jams will hopefully get resolve
‘The traffic jams in Yuanshan area will hopefully get resolved.’
圆山地区的交通瓶颈将可望获得解套。
(26) Diannao xiangqi chedi dabai rennao dagai keyi zai erlingyiling computer check completely beat human brain perhaps can in 2010 nian qianhou shixian.
year around come true
‘That computers completely beat human brain in playing check can perhaps come true around 2010.’
计算机象棋彻底打败人脑，大概可以在二○一○年前后实现。
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(27) Fubang jituan yiding hui ke shou dangchu dingding de heyue Fubon group certainly will strictly obey originally sign Poss. contract yiwu.
oblication
‘Fubon Group will certainly strictly obey the obligations originally signed in the contract.’
富邦集团一定会恪守当初订定的合约义务。
(28) Zai chenggong yanlan Yidian jiaru zhenying huo, Weiruang wuyi in successfully recruit EA join league after Microsoft undoubtedly woyou gengduo de jingzheng benqian.
hold more Poss. competition capital
‘After successfully recruiting EA in its league, Microsoft undoubtedly held more capital to compete.’
在成功延揽艺电加入阵营后，微软无疑握有更多的竞争本钱。
(29) Weilai zhongda renshi Chen Shuibian yizhi biran chongfen future important personnel matter Shuibian Chen will inevitably fully zhanxian.
exert
‘Shuibian Chen will inevitably fully exert his will towards the future important personnel matters.’
未来重大人事陈水扁意志必然充分展现。
(30) Chen Shuibian zongtong lianren hou zhongguo dangju biding hui Shuibian Chen President re-elected after Mainland China authority certainly will you yiduan shiijian de guancha ji.
have some time Poss. observation period
‘After President Shuibian Chen is re-elected, the authorities of Mainland China will certainly observe him for some period of time.’
陈水扁总统连任后，中国当局必定会有一段时间的观察期。
(31) Ruguo shouji haishi danyin lingsheng de ren, na tieding bu If cell phone still single note ring tone Poss. person that definitely not shuyu E-shiddai zuqun de yi yuang.
belong E-generation group Poss. one member
‘If someone still has single-note ring tone on the cell phone, that person is definitely not a member of the E-generation.’
如果手机还是单音铃声的人，那铁定不属于Ｅ世代族群的一员。
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25 (32) Lixing yu langman pingheng, xiangbi shi Liu Xianjue de chenggong
reason and romance balance presumably be Xianjue Liu Poss. success mijue.
secret
‘The balance of reason and romance is presumably the secret of Xianjue Liu’s success.’
理性与浪漫平衡，想必是刘先觉的成功秘诀。
Our data also lend strong empirical support to the correlation between epistemic modality and stance involvement in the aforementioned news functions. First, as observed in (19), the majority of epistemic adverbs display a broader distribution in the parts of news reports where journalists comment on the reported event or quote from interviewees. This fact conforms to the generalization that reflections and quotations are more open to subjective manipulation than narrations. Moreover, (20) indicates that the speculative subclass amounts to a greater proportion than the assertive subclass, which holds true for all three function types observed in this study. Evaluation with lower certainty thus appears more acceptable in news reporting. This again suggests that journalists’ degree of commitment correlates with their intention to mark personal stance. Specifically, assertive modality bears a stronger connection to subjectivity than speculative modality. Data illustrating the occurrence of speculative markers in our dataset are provided in (33) to (39). (33) and (34) are examples of narrations. (35), (36), and (37) are those of quotations. (38) and (39) are those of reflections. (40) to (46) give empirical evidence for the presence of assertive markers. The first two illustrate assertive markers in narrations. Those in quotations are given in the next three examples, and the last two include assertive markers used in reflections.
(33) Kezai de texing difangren weibi zhidao.
Oyster Poss. nature local not necessarily know
‘About the nature of oysters, the locals do not necessarily know.’
蚵仔的特性，地方人未必知道。
(34) Zongtongfu huoxu renwei gongtou caishi jintian jizhehui Office of the President perhaps think referendum be today press zhongdian.
conference emphasis
‘Perhaps the Office of the President thought that referendum was the emphasis of the press conference today.’
总统府或许认为公投才是今天记者会重点。
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(35) Minjindang liwei xiaochen gaobuhao shi zongtong jiao ta nian gaozi DPP legislator joke perhaps be President ask her read script bu yao luanjiang.
not to blabber
‘A legislator of DPP joked, “perhaps it was the President who asked her not to blabber but to read the script.’
民进党立委笑称「搞不好是总统叫她念稿子不要乱讲」。
(36) Lu Xiulian shenzhi anran gaosu youren fuzongtong dagai bu shi wo.
Xiulian Lu even glumly told friend Vice President perhaps not be me
‘Xiulian Lu even told her friends glumly, “perhaps the Vice President is not me.”’
吕秀莲甚至黯然告诉友人，「副总统大概不是我」。
(37) Ta ze hahadaxiao, “ni caide henmiao shuobuding ye youkeneng.”
she but laugh you guess interesting perhaps also possible
‘But she laughed, “Your guess is interesting, but perhaps it is also possible.”’
她则哈哈大笑：「你猜得很妙，说不定也有可能。」
(38) Muqianweizhi Taiwan bujiande neng zai zhelimian taodao sheme so far Taiwan not necessarily able in this earn any jingzheng yooshi.
competition edge
‘So far, Taiwan is not necessarily able to earn any competitive edge in this.’
目前为止，台湾不见得能在这里面讨到什么竞争优势。
(39) Zhuban danwei dagai bu xiwang rang yuangdan shengqi dianli host organization perhaps not hope let New Year flag-raising ceremony chengwei xuanju zaoshi huodong.
become election campaign activity
‘The hosting organization perhaps did not hope that the New Year’s flag-raising ceremony becomes an election campaign.’
主办单位大概不希望让元旦升旗典礼成为选举造势活动。
(40) 520 taiwan wuyi jiang shi zhong wai zhumu de jiaodian.
520 Taiwan undoubtedly will be China abroad fix eyes Poss. focus
‘520 Taiwan will undoubtedly be the focus at home and abroad.’
520 台湾，无疑将是中外瞩目的焦点。
(41) Canyiyuan Kairui masaizhusaizhou duding chengwei minzhudang houxuanren.
senator Kerry Massachusetts definitely become Democratic candidate
‘Senator Kerry (Massachusetts) will definitely become a candidate of the Democratic Party.’
参议员凯瑞（马萨诸塞州）笃定成为民主党候选人。
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27 (42) You fawushi zhuren Xu Mingfu qinzi dui meiti shuoming ru
by Office of Law Affairs director Mingfu Xu in person to media explain if you minzhong jiedao yanghang yao tuiqian de dianhua tieding shu there public receive Central Bank want refund Poss. call definitely be jiade.
fake
‘If the public receive calls from the Central Bank to refund, it is definitely fake,” explained to the media the Director of the Office of Law Affairs Mingfu Xu in person.’
由法务室主任许明夫亲自对媒体说明：「如有民众接到央行要退钱的电话，铁定是假的！」
(43) “Ruguo didi meimei yao keyao, wo yiding gei ta yi bazhang.”
if brother sister are drug I certainly give him/her a slap
‘“If my brother and sister are on drug, I certainly give them a slap in the face.”’
「如果弟弟妹妹要嗑药，我一定给他一巴掌。」
(44) Duoban wangyou shi zheme shuode, “xiange zuiai luanshuohua zhe ju most Net-pals be this say Xiange loves blabber this Cl.
hua, bacheng shi taziji biande bu bi renzhen.
word probably be himself made up not need serious
‘This was what most net-pals said, “Xiange loves to blabber. This word was probably made up by him. There is no need to be serious.”’
多半网友是这么说的：「宪哥最爱乱说话，这句话，八成是他自己编的，不必认真。」
(45) Ruguo minjindang jiushi zheme huibao minyi dui gaige de if DPP be so repay public opinion towards reform Poss.
qidai, biran buli yu qi zhizheng ji fazhan.
expectation inevitably unfavorable to its in power and development
‘If that was how the DPP repaid the public’s expectation of reform, it inevitably impedes its power and development.’
如果民进党就是这么回报民意对改革的期待，必然不利于其执政及发展。
(46) Dan ruoshi minzhong zhaozhe zuo, hutou li cunkuan kending liuru daitu but if the public follow do account in savings certainly enter outlaw koudai.
‘But if people follow it, their savings in the bank account will certainly enter the outlaw’s pocket.’
但若是民众照着做，户头里存款肯定流入歹徒口袋。
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In conclusion, judgmental evaluations are shown to be crosscut into those with a weaker speaker/writer stance (i.e. speculative) and those with a stronger speaker/writer stance (i.e. assertive).
These two subclasses supply choices of resource for journalists to achieve a harmonious relation between personal assessment in the linguistic dimension and impersonal coverage of a news story in the contextual dimension. Therefore, our conclusion sheds light on how epistemic marking fulfills different forces of stance taking in the journalist language. Since the interpretation of epistemic subclasses in terms of stance visibility is regulated by the relative certainty inherent to their meaning, this paper also documents how the form of language and the function of discourse interact to reach a best balance in human communication.
In addition, another conclusion can be made on the psychological reality of the conceptual and semantic subcategorization within the realm of modality. The distributional patterns attested above provide support for a dividing line established between speculative and assertive adverbs with respect to their stance values in the pragmatic and cognitive level. They further reflect a correlation between the strength of certainty and the weight of personal stance.