Certainty and commitment in the construction of academic knowledge in the humanities
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Rebecca Beke
Abstract
In this paper we report on the analysis of thirty two research articles written in Spanish in the fields of education, linguistics, philosophy and psychology, with the purpose of identifying writers’ choices of modality and modal commitment. The objective was to find out how disciplinary discourse varies across disciplines in the humanities with respect to the use of possibility, probability, obligation, inclination and quantity, along the dimensions of knowledge about the discipline, the research process and text organization. The analysis shows high modal commitment in most disciplines studied, but important differences are found as far as use of the signals used and the type of knowledge referred to.
Abstract
In this paper we report on the analysis of thirty two research articles written in Spanish in the fields of education, linguistics, philosophy and psychology, with the purpose of identifying writers’ choices of modality and modal commitment. The objective was to find out how disciplinary discourse varies across disciplines in the humanities with respect to the use of possibility, probability, obligation, inclination and quantity, along the dimensions of knowledge about the discipline, the research process and text organization. The analysis shows high modal commitment in most disciplines studied, but important differences are found as far as use of the signals used and the type of knowledge referred to.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- As academics we are not disposed to say “I know the world is round...” 19
- Certainty and commitment in the construction of academic knowledge in the humanities 33
- Citation in business management research articles 49
- A cross-cultural comparison of the functions and sociolinguistic distribution of English and German tag questions and discourse markers in academic speech 61
- Polyphony in academic discourse 83
- Academic voices in the research article 109
- Author identity in economics and linguistics abstracts 123
- Exploring the polyphonic dimension of academic book review articles in the discourse of linguistics 135
- Notes on notes 151
- The use of contrastive strategies in a sociology research paper 165
- Different worlds, different audiences 187
- Spoken rhetoric 199
- Argumentative strategies in conference discussions sessions 219
- Clash of the Titans 243
- Semantic and discursive construction of the “Europe of knowledge” 275
- Magna Charta Universitatum 294
- Index 297
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- As academics we are not disposed to say “I know the world is round...” 19
- Certainty and commitment in the construction of academic knowledge in the humanities 33
- Citation in business management research articles 49
- A cross-cultural comparison of the functions and sociolinguistic distribution of English and German tag questions and discourse markers in academic speech 61
- Polyphony in academic discourse 83
- Academic voices in the research article 109
- Author identity in economics and linguistics abstracts 123
- Exploring the polyphonic dimension of academic book review articles in the discourse of linguistics 135
- Notes on notes 151
- The use of contrastive strategies in a sociology research paper 165
- Different worlds, different audiences 187
- Spoken rhetoric 199
- Argumentative strategies in conference discussions sessions 219
- Clash of the Titans 243
- Semantic and discursive construction of the “Europe of knowledge” 275
- Magna Charta Universitatum 294
- Index 297
