Epistemic Modality and Knowledge Attribution in Scientific Discourse: A Taxonomy of Types and Overview of Features

摘要

We propose a model for knowledge attribution and epistemic evaluation in scientific discourse, consisting of three dimensions with different values: source (author, other, unknown); value (unknown, possible, probable, presumed true) and basis (reasoning, data, other). Based on a literature review, we investigate four linguistic features that mark different types epistemic evaluation (modal auxiliary verbs, adverbs/adjectives, reporting verbs and references). A corpus study on two biology papers indicates the usefulness of this model, and suggest some typical trends. In particular, we find that matrix clauses with a reporting verb of the form 'These results suggest', are the predominant feature indicating knowledge attribution in scientific text.