Hedging and attitude markers in Spanish and English scientific medical writing
Hedging, a sociopragmatic phenomenon that allows authors to maintain their presence in discourse, is a rather difficult strategy for non-natives scholars. In this paper, we present two studies: the first analyses hedging from cross-linguistic (Spanish and English L2) and cross-generic (Research Paper and Case Report) approaches in a corpus of 30 Medical full-texts from highly indexed research journals. Our results indicate that Spanish authors hedge more when writing in English L2 but less than an English native. The second focus on attitude markers (Affect, Judgement and Appreciation) following Appraisal Theory (Martin and White 2005) to detect cross-cultural differences in 60 Medical Book Reviews. The outcome shows that Spanish reviewers blend categories and seem more positive and direct in their assessments.
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