THE MITIGATION OF SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS IN RESEARCH PAPERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
In the context of academic writing, authors tend to mitigate the force of their scientific claims by means of hedging devices in order to reduce the risk of opposition and minimise the face threatening acts that are involved in the making of claims. This study explores the phenomenon of hedging in t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad de Murcia
2008-12-01
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| Series: | International Journal of English Studies (IJES) |
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| Online Access: | http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/49201 |
| _version_ | 1819206865183047680 |
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| author | Pedro Martín Martín |
| author_facet | Pedro Martín Martín |
| author_sort | Pedro Martín Martín |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the context of academic writing, authors tend to mitigate the force of their scientific claims by means of hedging devices in order to reduce the risk of opposition and minimise the face threatening acts that are involved in the making of claims. This study explores the phenomenon of hedging in the research article (RA) from a cross-cultural perspective. To this end, a total of 40 RAs written in English and Spanish in the field of Clinical and Health Psychology were analysed in terms of the frequency of occurrence and distribution of the various strategies and the linguistic devices associated to each strategy which perform a hedging function in the different structural units of the articles. The results of the comparative quantitative analyses revealed that there are similarities between the two languages regarding the distribution of hedges across the structural units of the RAs, although a certain degree of rhetorical variation was also found mainly in terms of the frequency of use of the strategy of indetermination (i.e. modality devices and approximators) which occurs to a much greater extent in the English texts. This suggests that the English RAs in the field of Clinical and Health Psychology, as a whole, involve more protection to the author’s face. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T05:14:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1c0b073408dc4c0fa0cd2e77ab166eed |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1578-7044 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T05:14:23Z |
| publishDate | 2008-12-01 |
| publisher | Universidad de Murcia |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of English Studies (IJES) |
| spelling | doaj.art-1c0b073408dc4c0fa0cd2e77ab166eed2022-12-21T17:58:52ZengUniversidad de MurciaInternational Journal of English Studies (IJES)1578-70442008-12-018213315210.6018/ijes.8.2.49201THE MITIGATION OF SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS IN RESEARCH PAPERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDYPedro Martín MartínIn the context of academic writing, authors tend to mitigate the force of their scientific claims by means of hedging devices in order to reduce the risk of opposition and minimise the face threatening acts that are involved in the making of claims. This study explores the phenomenon of hedging in the research article (RA) from a cross-cultural perspective. To this end, a total of 40 RAs written in English and Spanish in the field of Clinical and Health Psychology were analysed in terms of the frequency of occurrence and distribution of the various strategies and the linguistic devices associated to each strategy which perform a hedging function in the different structural units of the articles. The results of the comparative quantitative analyses revealed that there are similarities between the two languages regarding the distribution of hedges across the structural units of the RAs, although a certain degree of rhetorical variation was also found mainly in terms of the frequency of use of the strategy of indetermination (i.e. modality devices and approximators) which occurs to a much greater extent in the English texts. This suggests that the English RAs in the field of Clinical and Health Psychology, as a whole, involve more protection to the author’s face.http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/49201academic writingscientific claimshedgingresearch articles |
| spellingShingle | Pedro Martín Martín THE MITIGATION OF SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS IN RESEARCH PAPERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY International Journal of English Studies (IJES) academic writing scientific claims hedging research articles |
| title | THE MITIGATION OF SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS IN RESEARCH PAPERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY |
| title_full | THE MITIGATION OF SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS IN RESEARCH PAPERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY |
| title_fullStr | THE MITIGATION OF SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS IN RESEARCH PAPERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY |
| title_full_unstemmed | THE MITIGATION OF SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS IN RESEARCH PAPERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY |
| title_short | THE MITIGATION OF SCIENTIFIC CLAIMS IN RESEARCH PAPERS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY |
| title_sort | mitigation of scientific claims in research papers a comparative study |
| topic | academic writing scientific claims hedging research articles |
| url | http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/49201 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pedromartinmartin themitigationofscientificclaimsinresearchpapersacomparativestudy AT pedromartinmartin mitigationofscientificclaimsinresearchpapersacomparativestudy |