M.A. thesis at Basrah University Entitled (Epistemic Modality in Walt Whitman's Memories of President Lincoln)
By: Zuhair Fua'd Mary
The thesis has been discussed at the Department of English, College of Education for Human Sciences, University of Basrah.
Topic & Abstract: The thesis states that epistemic modality is a linguistic phenomenon which exists in poetry elegy discourses. It offers a detailed analysis of epistemic modality and the linguistic markers used to encode the epistemic meanings in those discourses. It investigates epistemic modality as a linguistic phenomenon in Walt Whitman's Memories of President Lincoln. They are a group o f four elegies poems appeared in Walt Whitman's masterpiece Leaves of Grass of the sixth edition in (1881) in which he commiserates the death of president Lincoln.
Thesis Outline: This study falls in five chapters. Chapter one represents preliminaries to the study. Chapter two represents the theoretical part which includes the concept of epistemic modality and related arguments about it . Chapter three represents a reference to Whitman's life and language. Chapter four represents the methodology of the study. Chapter five represents the conclusions of the study and suggestions for future studies.
Conclusions: The thesis has come up with the following conclusion that epistemic modality is a linguistic phenomenon which does exist in poetry elegy discourses.
