Negation in biomedical English
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Natalia Judith Laso
Abstract
It seems intuitively certain that in scientific articles, affirmative clauses far surpass negative clauses. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that there are few negative sentences in this type of written discourse. The aim of this article is to analyse negative polarity in biomedical English. By linking discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, it studies how negative polarity and the scope of negation in combination with discourse connectors can bring about systematic patterns in biomedical discourse. The analysis of the context, position in the clause and text distribution of some adjectives that appear in the negative in the data under analysis reveals how different rhetorical devices, such as hedging and polarity, contribute to the rhetorical weight of the multiword expressions selected in this study.
Abstract
It seems intuitively certain that in scientific articles, affirmative clauses far surpass negative clauses. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that there are few negative sentences in this type of written discourse. The aim of this article is to analyse negative polarity in biomedical English. By linking discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, it studies how negative polarity and the scope of negation in combination with discourse connectors can bring about systematic patterns in biomedical discourse. The analysis of the context, position in the clause and text distribution of some adjectives that appear in the negative in the data under analysis reveals how different rhetorical devices, such as hedging and polarity, contribute to the rhetorical weight of the multiword expressions selected in this study.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction ix
- Collocations, lexical bundles and SciE-Lex 1
- SciE-Lex 21
- Formal and functional variation of lexical bundles in biomedical English 39
- A corpus-based analysis of the collocational patterning of adjectives with abstract nouns in medical English 55
- As described below 73
- Negation in biomedical English 105
- A cross-disciplinary analysis of personal and impersonal features in English and Spanish scientific writing 121
- Gender assignment in present-day scientific English 145
- The metaphorical basis of discourse structure 165
- Frames, constructions, and metaphors in Spanish FrameNet 185
- Subject index 211
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction ix
- Collocations, lexical bundles and SciE-Lex 1
- SciE-Lex 21
- Formal and functional variation of lexical bundles in biomedical English 39
- A corpus-based analysis of the collocational patterning of adjectives with abstract nouns in medical English 55
- As described below 73
- Negation in biomedical English 105
- A cross-disciplinary analysis of personal and impersonal features in English and Spanish scientific writing 121
- Gender assignment in present-day scientific English 145
- The metaphorical basis of discourse structure 165
- Frames, constructions, and metaphors in Spanish FrameNet 185
- Subject index 211
