Cover not available
Part of
Evidentiality Revisited: Cognitive grammar, functional and discourse-pragmatic perspectives
Edited by Juana I. Marín-Arrese, Gerda Haßler and Marta Carretero
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 271] 2017
► pp. 225–248

Chapter 9
Evidential and epistemic stance strategies in scientific communication

A corpus study of semi-formal and expert publications

| Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

The present paper presents the results of a corpus study of evidential and epistemic strategies as stance markers in two subgenres of scientific discourse, a sample of semi-formal publications (New Scientist) and one of expert publications (PubMed). First, an onomasiological approach to evidentiality and epistemic stance is adopted, following Marín-Arrese (2015b). Second, the evidential and epistemic strategies performed in the context of the two genres are discussed, following recent research which points to the need to explore this dimension (Mushin 2012; Nuckolls and Michael 2014). Results show that within the distinction between direct and indirect markers of evidentiality and epistemic stance, both samples show a preference for indirect strategies. Within the four categories of evidentiality and epistemic stance, the semi-formal corpus shows an overall significant higher frequency of indirect markers than the expert corpus. These differences reveal communicative discourse-pragmatic strategies which underlie the discipline specific conventions and interactive motivations in the two sub-genres.

Keywords: corpus study, evidential and epistemic strategies, scientific discourse, stance
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Evidentiality and epistemic stance
    • 2.2Evidential and epistemic stance strategies in scientific discourse
  • 3.Data and method
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Direct evidentiality
      • 4.1.1Frequency and distribution
      • 4.1.2Discourse-pragmatic strategies
    • 4.2Indirect evidentiality and epistemic stance
      • 4.2.1IIE
        • 4.2.1.1Frequency and distribution
        • 4.2.1.2Discourse-pragmatic strategies
      • 4.2.2IRE
        • 4.2.2.1Frequency and distribution
        • 4.2.2.2Discourse-pragmatic strategies
      • 4.2.3EM
        • 4.2.3.1Frequency and distribution
        • 4.2.3.2Discourse-pragmatic functions
      • 4.2.4CGA
        • 4.2.4.1Frequency and distribution
        • 4.2.4.2Discourse-pragmatic functions
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 21 March 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.271.10hid
References

References

Anderson, Lloyd B.
1986 “Evidentials, Paths of Change, and Mental Maps: Typologically Regular Asymmetries.” In Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, ed. by Wallace Chafe, and Joanna Nichols, 273–312. Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, and Edward Finegan
1999 The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Boye, Kasper
2012 Epistemic Meaning: A Crosslinguistic and Functional-Cognitive Study. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Calsamiglia, Helena, and Teun A. Van Dijk
2004 “Popularization Discourse and Knowledge about the Genome.” Discourse & Society 15: 369–389. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chafe, Wallace
1986 “Evidentiality in English Conversation and Academic Writing.” In Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, ed. by Wallace Chafe, and Joanna Nichols, 261–272. New York: Ablex.Google Scholar
DuBois, John W.
2007 “The Stance Triangle.” In Stancetaking in Discourse, ed. by Robert Englebretson, 139–182. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gotti, Maurizio
2014 “Reformulation and Recontextualization in Popularization Discourse.” Ibérica 27: 15–34Google Scholar
Hidalgo Downing, Laura
2013 “The Role of Negative-modal Synergies in Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species.” In Evaluation in Discourse, ed. by Geoff Thompson, and Laura Alba-Juez, 259–279. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Horvitz, Herbert Robert
2003 “Nobel Lecture. Worms, Life and Death.” Biosci Rep Dev 23: 239–303. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hunston, Susan, and Geoff Thompson
(eds.) 2000 Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hyland, Ken
1998 Hedging in Scientific Research Articles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2008 “Genre and Academic Writing in the Disciplines.” Language Teaching. 41: 543–562. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ifantidou, Elly
2001 Evidentials and Relevance. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kamio, A
1997 Territory of Information. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kerr, John. F., Andrew H. Wyllie, and Alastair R. Currie
1972 “Apoptosis: a Basic Biological Phenomenon with Wide-ranging Implications in Tissue Kinetics.” Br J Cancer Dev 26: 239–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lockshin, Richard A., and Jacques Beaulaton
1964 “Programmed Cell Death.” Life Sci Dev 15: 1549–1565. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marín-Arrese, Juana I.
2013 “Stancetaking and Inter-subjectivity in the Iraq Inquiry. Blair vs. Brown.” In English Modality: Core, Periphery and Evidentiality, ed. by Juana I. Marín-Arrese, Marta Carretero, Jorge Arús Hita, and Johan van der Auwera, 411–445. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015a “Epistemic Legitimisation and Inter/subjectivity in the Discourse of Parliamentary and Public Enquiries.” Critical Discourse Studies 12 (3): 261–278. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marín Arrese, Juana I.
2015b “Epistemicity and Stance: A Cross-linguistic Study of Epistemic Stance Strategies in Journalistic Discourse in English and Spanish.” Discourse Studies 17 (2): 210–225. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin, James, and Peter White
2005 The Language of Evaluation. Appraisal in English. New York: Palgrave. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mushin, Ilana
2012 “ ‘Watching for Witness’ Evidential Strategies and Epistemic Authority in Garrwa Conversation.” Pragmatics and Society 3 (2): 270–293. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Myers, Greg
1990 Writing Biology. Texts in the Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge. The University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
1994 “Narratives of Science and Nature in Popularizing Molecular Genetics.” In Advances in Written Text Analysis, ed. by Malcolm Coulthard, 179–190. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nerlich, Brigitte, Robert Elliott, and Brendan Larson
2009 Communicating Biological Sciences. Ethical and Metaphorical Dimensions. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Nuckolls, Janis, and Lev Michael
(eds.) 2014 Evidentiality in Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parkinson, Jean, and Ralph Adendorff
2004 “The Use of Popular Science Articles in Teaching Scientific Literacy.” English for Specific Purposes 23: 379–396. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peacock, Matthew
2014 “Modals in the Construction of Research Articles: A Cross-disciplinary Perspective.” Ibérica 27: 143–164.Google Scholar
2015 “Stance Adverbials in Research Writing.” Ibérica 29: 35–62.Google Scholar
Siau, Annelien
2013 “A Corpus-based Analysis of Evidentiality in Popularised Scientific Discourse.” Unpublished Master paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of “Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde: Engels – Spaans”. University of Ghent.Google Scholar
Tarantino, Maria
2004 “Epistemic and Dialectic Pathway to Knowledge, Meaning and Language Advancement.” LSP & Professional Communication 4 (1): 69–88.Google Scholar
2011 “Inter-subjectivity, Cognition, Nature and Multimedia Representations: Modal Categories in Professional Discourse.” LSP & Professional Communication 2 (1): 16–43.Google Scholar
Teubert, Wolfgang
2010 Meaning, Discourse and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Williams, Geoffrey
2002 “In Search of Representativity in Specialised Corpora: Categorisation through Collocation.” International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 7: 43–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Grichin, Sergei & Olga Ulyanova
2023. Evidential Text Units in Russian Research Articles. In Science and Global Challenges of the 21st Century – Innovations and Technologies in Interdisciplinary Applications [Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, 622], ► pp. 135 ff. DOI logo
Hasselgård, Hilde
2023. Seem and Appear and Their Norwegian Verbal Counterparts: A Cross-Register Contrastive Study. English Studies 104:1 ► pp. 173 ff. DOI logo
Huang, Jinyi & Jinjun Wang
2021. Evidentiality in science from specialization to popularization: A case study of COVID-19 texts. Journal of World Languages 7:1 ► pp. 124 ff. DOI logo
Ruskan, Anna, Helen Hint, Djuddah Arthur Joost Leijen & Jolanta Šinkūnienė
2023. Lithuanian academic discourse revisited: Features and patterns of scientific communication. Open Linguistics 9:1 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 7 september 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.