“Arguments That Could Possibly Be Urged”: Modal Verbs and Tentativeness in the Coruña Corpus

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“Arguments That Could Possibly Be Urged”: Modal Verbs and Tentativeness in the Coruña CorpusDate
2019-07-22Citation
Moskowich, Isabel, Crespo, Begoña. 2019. “Arguments That Could Possibly Be Urged”: Modal Verbs and Tentativeness in the Coruña Corpus. Languages, 4(3), 57
Abstract
[Abstract] This paper complements previous research into the late Modern English scientific writing uses of the adverbs possibly and perhaps as manifestations of either subjectivity or intersubjectivity, as presented in the Coruña Corpus of English Scientific Writing. In order to have a better understanding of the uses of these adverbs as markers of tentativeness, we will explore their syntagmatic relations with modal verbs. It is widely assumed that scientific discourse has an objective nature, although it has been questioned by its use of hedging and other expressions of stance. In the present study, we will assess how modal verbs accompanying these stance adverbs modulate the expression of
tentativeness. The use of stance adverbs shows authorial presence and a covert interaction with the
reader. The paper examines di erent degrees of hesitancy depending on the type of modal verb
accompanying these adverbs. The analysis has been carried out on four subcorpora of the Coruña
Corpus of English Scientific Writing. Our findings will be presented from a more general to a more
detailed account for each of the forms under investigation and interpreted taking into account the
variables ‘date of publication’ and ‘genre’ for the text, and ‘sex’ for the author.
Keywords
Modals
Late Modern English scientific writing
Coruña Corpus
Late Modern English scientific writing
Coruña Corpus
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Creative Commons License Attribution (CC BY 4.0)
ISSN
2226-471X