Epistemic Modality in Academic Writing: A Discipline-Based Analysis

Year 2017, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 47 - 65, 05.09.2017

Havva Kurt Taşpınar

Abstract

Hedges and boosters, as
significant indicators of epistemic modality, have recently grasped the
attention of scholars conducting research to explore the language use in
academic discourse. Hence, the study aims to reveal the hedges and boosters that
are utilized in academic articles and the frequency of the use of these
linguistic devices. The article presents findings from both education and
engineering. Twenty-four journal articles retrieved from leading research
journals were analyzed. The results were in line with the previous studies
indicating similarities as well as differences between the selected journals in
terms of the use of hedges and boosters.  

Keywords

hedges, boosters, epistemic modality

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