Abstract

During the early stage of the COVID-19, scientists encountered many uncertainties about the virus in their research, primarily due to its novel and rapidly unfolding nature. As the public learned more about its threats, there was widespread panic and fear. More than ever, scientists had to ensure their ongoing research was helpful and reassuring. Nonetheless, the uncertainties were still evident and studies that probe into how they navigated this situation are relatively scarce. By incorporating Lyons’ (1977) concept of modal expressions and Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) trichotomy of epistemic modality values, the study examined the (un)certainty of scientific researchers in COVID-19 articles through their epistemic modality choices. The results of a corpus-based semantic analysis on a small collection of COVID-19 scientific research articles show the use of multiple epistemic modality expressions. The usages were purposeful and responsive to various circumstantial factors attributed to the pandemic. It was found that the use of either modal auxiliaries or non-auxiliary modals demonstrates the precautions taken by researchers in making claims to avoid possible deterioration of the situation. This study contributes to the literature on epistemic modality and demonstrates how especially important the negotiation of this semantic category is in communication during a major health crisis.