Epistemic modal markers in two domains of academic research papers in English

Abstract

In this paper we compare the combinations of epistemic modal markers in research articles in medicine and humanities written in English. In our analysis, we focus on three aspects. First, we look at the distribution of combinations of MODAL AUXILIARY + MODAL ADVERB (emphasizer) used in an epistemic sense in two subdomains of academic writing, ACAD: Medicine and ACAD: Humanities in COCA (Davies, 2008–2018). Second, we investigate the statistical significance of the differences between the two subdomains. Finally, we consider the relevance of the epistemic modal markers in presenting the argumentation line in research articles in medicine and humanities. The results demonstrate the difference in preference in co-occurrences of the selected modal markers in the two distinct academic subcorpora and indicate to what extent they are a significant feature to be included in developing academic writing skills, which is crucial for the effective and convincing communication of research