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.

中文翻译：

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在 Facebook 上谈判主导地位：在支持和反特朗普的移民评论中自我和他人的定位

本文研究了模态辅助工具 MUST 和 HAVE (GOT) TO 在具有政治意义的在线交流中的使用。来自 D. Trump 官方 Facebook 页面的评论根据评论者的意识形态立场进行分类，并进一步分为使用模态的道义或认知意义。该分析基于这样一个假设，即支持性和批判性评论中认知和道义模态的比例反映了评论者所采取的平等或优越的立场。支持和反特朗普阵营在辩论移民时采取不同立场的假设得到证实，因为这两个群体之间的模态的道义和认知意义的比例存在显着差异。在提及组内和组外的被动语态的使用方面也存在差异。