Negotiating dominance on Facebook: Positioning of self and others in pro- and anti-Trump comments on immigration

Abstract

The article examines the use of the modal auxiliaries MUST and HAVE (GOT) TO in politically charged online communication. Comments from D. Trump’s official Facebook page were categorized according to the ideological position of the commenters and further divided into employing deontic or epistemic senses of the modals. The analysis was based on the assumption that the proportion of epistemic and deontic modals in the supportive and critical comments reflects the stances of equality or superiority assumed by the commenters. The hypothesis that pro- and anti-Trump camps assume different stances while debating immigration was confirmed as the proportion of deontic and epistemic senses of the modals differed significantly between the two groups. There were also differences in the use of passive voice referring to in- and out- groups. The results are used to make inferences about the underlying ideology of Trump supporters and the prevalent attitudes in the population under study.