(Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs, Vol. 104) Anna Duszak - Culture and Styles of Academic Discourse-De Gruyter Mouton (1997)

Culture and Styles
of Academic Discourse
WDE
G
Trends in Linguistics
Studies and Monographs 104
Editor
Werner Winter
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
Culture and Styles of
Academic Discourse
edited by
Anna Duszak
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York 1997
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.
© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines

of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data
Culture and styles of academic discourse / edited by Anna

Duszak.
p. cm. - (Trends in linguistics. Studies and mono-
graphs ; 104)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 3-11-015249-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Discourse analysis. 2. Language and culture. 3. Aca-
demic writing. I. Duszak, Anna. II. Series.
P301.C85 1997
401'-dc21 97-16450
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication-Data
Culture and styles of academic discourse. - Berlin ; New York :

Mouton de Gruyter, 1997
(Trends in linguistics : Studies and monographs ; 104)
ISBN 3-11-015249-5
© Copyright 1997 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-10785 Berlin.

All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechan-
ical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, with-
out permission in writing from the publisher.
Typesetting and Printing: Arthur Collignon GmbH, Berlin.
Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin.
Printed in Germany.
Contents
Introduction
Anna Duszak
Part One
Values, attitudes, and doings
Cross-cultural academic communication:

a discourse-community view
Anna Duszak
Academic writing and cultural identity:

the case of Czech academic writing
Svetla Cmejrkovä and Frantisek Danes
Doing well ... doing badly:

An analysis of the role of conflicting cultural values in judgments
of relative "academic achievement"
Lesley Farrell
Language culture, language awareness,

and writing curricula in Polish schools
Urszula Zydek-Bednarczuk
The signs of a new time:

academic writing in ESP curricula of Ukrainian universities
Tatyana Yakhontova
Developing awareness of the rhetorical and linguistic conventions

of writing a thesis in English:
addressing the needs of EFL/ESL postgraduate students
Linda Cooley and Jo Lewkowicz
Mind your metaphors! Historical and theoretical notes toward a

constructivist theory of metaphor in scientific communication
Heinz L. Kretzenbacher
vi Contents
Systems of reference in intellectual discourse:

a potential source of intercultural stereotypes
Vittorina Cecchetto and Magda Stromska 141
Part Two
Interpersonal meanings in academic discourse:
The case of hedging
Modalization: Probability -
an exploration into its role in academic writing
Eija Ventola 157
Some observations on the distribution and function of hedging in

German and English academic writing
Heinz Kreutz and Annette Harres 181
Hedging in English and Bulgarian academic writing

Irena Vassileva 203
The effects of hedges and gender on the attitudes of readers in the

United States toward material in a science textbook
Avon Crismore and William J. Vande Kopple 223
Part Three
Variation in the genre
Journal abstracts from three academic fields in the United States

and Sweden: national or disciplinary proclivities?
Björn Melander, John M. Swales, and Kirstin M. Fredrickson 251
Research article introductions in Malay:

Rhetoric in an emerging research community
Ummul K. Ahmad 273
If not given, then what?

Things that come first in academic discourse
Lyubov A. Prozorova 305
Analyzing digressiveness in Polish academic texts

Anna Duszak 323
Contents vii
Inference in science and popular science

Merja Koskela 343
Index 359
Introduction
Anna Duszak
The intersection of cultural studies and analysis of academic discourses

is today drawing more and more attention among linguists, educationists,
and professional researchers in many disciplines. Among the reasons for
this are: transformations in the philosophical stance regarding language,
texts, and communicants; increase in cross-cultural contacts and growing
awareness of the role of language in disseminating knowledge and in
giving meaning to relations among individuals and groups; changes in
educational views and policies, including in particular advancements in
genre-based pedagogy for native and nonnative writers in research and
academic settings. Intellectual, practical, and social considerations con-
spire to imbue such issues with profound scientific and social relevance.
The current state of the art in the field of contrastive academic rhetoric
would not have been possible without a change of perspective on lan-
guage and the nature of scientific communication. Natural language has
long been seen as an enemy of scientific exposition. This has not made it
any easier to view academic writing in communicative terms, let alone in
a cross-cultural perspective. The main problem was — and is, for that
matter — the delicate nature of the field of science and scholarship: the
sacrum of knowledge and truth is at the mercy of a medium that is pro-
fane, and a user who is fallible. For the sake of scientific purity and
veracity, a plain and impersonal language was recommended — a lan-
guage devoid of emotional and interpersonal meanings, of fuzzy expres-
sions, and of intellectual or attitudinal bias. All this contributed to the
image of a dehumanized language of science, and likewise to the image
of a dehumanized writer/reader. Since people acting as scholars were ex-
pected to separate the scientific from the human, uniformity of academic
writing styles was taken for granted, and was accounted for in terms of
objectivized research standards.
The emergence and subsequent rapid development of modern text lin-
guistics and discourse analysis envisaged the communicative potential of
the language of science as well as its variation across fields and cultures.
The line and the pace of such renewed interest in academic communica-
tion patterns was strongly influenced by the general evolution of proces-
sual, strategic, dynamic, and interactive models of discourse organization
2 Anna Duszak
and discourse processing. Focus on language was superseded by focus on

text and discourse characteristics that were then correlated with human
properties.
Within the last ten years or so extensive work has been done on aca-
demic discourse patterns in mono- and multicultural contexts. Cross-cul-
tural variation has been noted in at least the following areas of discourse
organization: global and local structures in texts; levels of explicitness
and metatextual cuing; degrees of redundancy and distribution of sa-
lience; and linearity and complexity in form and content development.
Parameters of text organization were reinterpreted in interactional terms
and correlated with underlying social and cultural values. Contrary to
original assumptions, academic discourses were found to accommodate
relations of involvement and detachment, power and solidarity, face and
politeness. These and related observations undermined the concept of a
plain language and a pure, objectivized statement of knowledge. They
led to a humanizing trend in discussions of academic communication that
found space for a more natural language and a more human academic.
By speaking of academic communication rather than the language of
science, we come closer to reconciling the sacred and the profane in how
people cope with reporting science.
The papers in this volume espouse such a discourse- and communica-
tion-sensitive outlook on the language of science. They document varia-
tion in academic discourse patterns and relate it to social, cultural, and
historical factors, as well as to language-typological constraints on textu-
alizations in science. Under an integrated discourse view on academic
register, social structure relations as well as general systems of values
bear on how knowledge is presented and how academic solidarity and
competition are envisaged. Historically entrenched intellectual traditions
also have a say in what methodologies are preferred, what research and
educational priorities are selected, and what the dominant patterns of
scholarly ideation are. In this way the intellectual climate in a given aca-
demic community influences the style of doing and reporting research.
All this means that there is no universal pattern of communicating schol-
arship; neither is there a single style of communicating interpersonal rela-
tions between academic writers and readers.
It is only natural that disparities in intellectual styles and academic
writing conventions should produce relative standards regarding what
makes an academic text good or valued. As a result, there are varying
conceptions of field and discourse expertise that are required of texts and
writers competing for access to code. Disparate standards may indeed
Introduction 3
lead to biased views, misattributions of intention, or communication fail-

ures.
In discussing differences among writing styles, attribution of value
may not be excluded, even despite the author's intentions. Thus, Clyne's
description of academic German (or Polish, Czech, and Russian for that
matter) as "digressive" may appear judgmental. The same could apply to
such qualifying terms as "circular", for circularity (at least according to
European standards) can hardly produce positive connotations. Rather,
it will be interpreted as a sign of inefficient or ineffective communicative
practice. Whether a similar inferiority could follow from Clyne's compar-
ison of the digressive style to cooked spaghetti depends also on one's
culinary taste. Whether, in turn, "teutonic" is a term that could be popu-
lar among, say, Polish academics is still more debatable, for reasons other
than mundane preference.
In a world of rapid internationalization of science, further insight into
academic communication styles is both pressing and worthwhile. Igno-
rance of, or misconceptions about, the communication styles of others
can hinder understanding among academics and ultimately obstruct co-
operation and advancement of scholarship. Clearly, therefore, cross-cul-
tural education in matters of academic style plays an important role in
making people aware of their own discourse patterns, as well as in enrich-
ing their knowledge of other academic cultures. Studies in cross-cultural
academic rhetoric have great potential for application.
Applications of such studies become still more apparent given the
increasing tendency to establish an English monoculture in scholarly
communication. Natural as it may seem due to the uncontested position
of English as an academic lingua franca, the trend seems to meet some
reluctance on the part of writers and readers from other academic cul-
tures, who choose to adhere to their own rhetorical standards. Admit-
tedly, however, attitudes may differ. For speakers of some minority lan-
guages English offers a way out of isolation and into the world of interna-
tional scholarship. Proficiency in academic English becomes a value in
itself, a commodity to be acquired through instinctive imitation or guided
instruction.
No matter what attitude we take toward form in communicating
scholarly matters, writing academic texts is a skill to be taught to native
as well as nonnative speakers. Nonnative speakers in particular are likely
to have problems with research writing. All this makes assistance in writ-
ing academic texts an issue of pedagogical concern for applied linguists,
teachers, and supervisors of writing classes as well as students working
on their dissertations.
4 Anna Duszak
This volume is divided into three parts. This marks differences in fo-
cus, but does not change the general orientation. The contributions in
Part 1 touch upon general issues connected with the role of underlying
value systems in addressing and transmitting knowledge. Social, cultural,
national, historical, philosophical, and practical factors are discussed, in-
cluding attitudes to texts and users, as well as a host of applied concerns
related to the teaching of academic writing in general and to nonnative
speakers of English in particular.
Duszak provides an introductory chapter that reviews and evaluates
numerous general problems raised by other contributors, and poses ques-
tions for further inquiry. The author's main objective is to defend an
interpersonal and interactive approach to academic communication.
Variation in academic text and discourse characteristics is interpreted in
terms of human properties and with reference to the concept of an "aca-
demic discourse community", originally proposed by Swales. Duszak ex-
amines the concept in light of a variety of cross-cultural data. In particu-
lar she explores the various facets of an internationalized academic com-
munity, paying special attention to the interaction between field and rhet-
oric expertise, genre fuzziness, gradience of membership, and the inter-
rhetoric of science.
Cmejrkovä and Danes give a profound analysis of the relations be-
tween academic writing patterns and cultural values. Even though their
point of reference and emphasis is Czech academic writing, they docu-
ment and analyze the numerous coincidences of Czech with German,
Russian, Finnish, and Polish on the one hand, and its global disparities
with English (Anglo-American) norms on the other. Their scope of inter-
est is very broad and covers textual as well as interactive properties of
Czech academic discourse. Considerable space is given to problems of
modality and hedging, which makes their contribution relevant to Part 2
of this volume as well.
The paper by Zydek-Bednarczuk offers an indirect assessment of the
state of research in Polish academic discourse and of the teaching of
writing skills in Polish schools. It implicates a lack of the discourse-ana-
lytical studies and educational practices suggested as appropriate by this
volume. To drive her point home Zydek-Bednarczuk adopts a much
broader perspective, and concentrates on longstanding priorities in Polish
linguistics and educational policies: language culture, language norm and
its literary grounding, and the role of the authority in norm creation and
evaluation. In this way Zydek-Bednarczuk appears to gloss some of the
general points made by Cmejrkovä and Danes on the affinities between
Introduction 5
the Czech and the Polish intellectual traditions. She discusses language
curricula in Polish schools and demonstrates their failure to meet a grow-
ing awareness in the society of the disparities between the norm and the
practical communication needs in various communicative settings.
Yakhontova discusses the situation of Ukrainian scholars struggling
to overcome the Soviet education heritage, and to meet the new chal-
lenges of the pan-Western academic culture. Yakhontova argues that the
Soviet focus on nonwritten forms of knowledge acquisition, control, and
evaluation led to neglect of academic writing instruction. She focuses on
the opportunities an English academic monoculture offers a speaker of a
minority language in a new democratic society: good and appropriate
performance in academic English becomes a tool to break out of isolation
and establish a presence in world scholarship. Yakhontova discusses an
approach to teaching English academic writing to Ukrainian scholars
that is a practical two-level realization of Bakhtin's genre dichotomy. The
first level is devoted to the mastery of academic genres as "mandatory"
or normative schemata, and the second deals with the development of
skills for creative writing.
The teaching of English academic writing to nonnative speakers is also
addressed by Cooley and Lewkowicz, as well as by Farrell. However, the
authors are faced with different problems, choose different perspectives
on the sources of writing difficulties, and propose various solutions.
Cooley and Lewkowicz concentrate on writing needs and difficulties of
postgraduate Cantonese Chinese students in Hong Kong. The authors
take into account both students' and supervisors' perceptions of how
problems arise. More often than not the two evaluations overlap. Cooley
and Lewkowicz argue that the most serious problems arise at the macro-
level of discourse. These are the deficiencies that relate to the overall
communicative success of a piece of writing, that involve the clarity of
the text, its global organization, and the consistency and balance of argu-
ment, as well as the expression of thoughts in English. The authors dis-
cuss the development of a Diagnostic Assessment Profile, which they then
adopt as an organizational basis for a series of workshops on thesis writ-
ing.
Farrell examines the social effects of conflicting cultural values in an
educational setting taking the example of Vietnamese-Australian stu-
dents' performance during tertiary entrance examinations in Australia.
Farrell argues that aspects of the students' Vietnamese culture influence
their responses to examination tasks, and that their Anglo-Australian ex-
aminers call upon their own cultural values in interpreting those re-
6 Anna Duszak
sponses. Candidates are rewarded for texts that organize information in

linear, coordinated, and symmetrical ways, which is understood as con-
clusive evidence of the quality of thinking. Candidates subscribing to
alternative cultural orientations in intellectual inquiries are disadvan-
taged.
The last two papers in this section raise more general issues of value
and attitude transmission in academic texts. Kretzenbacher addresses the
cultural values of subjectivity and objectivity in the sciences. He points
to the deep mistrust of language in the sciences, and explores the meta-
phor taboo in academic style as an ideological legacy from the early times
of modern science.
Cecchetto and Stromska discuss how the requirement of impersonal
style, imposed by the rhetoric of science, competes with the natural desire
to assign roles in intellectual discourse. They explore strategies employed
by authors of scientific texts to make reference to themselves and to ad-
dress the audience. In relating the system of academic reference to rela-
tions of power and solidarity, their contribution bridges the two parts of
the volume.
Part 2 focuses on interpersonal meanings in academic discourse, using
the example of hedging. Yentola explores the role of modalizations of
probability (possibly/probably I certainly) in academic texts by native Eng-
lish speakers and by Finnish speakers of English. She uses the Hallidayan
approach to modality as modalization to document problems Finnish
writers have with English modalization:probability choices. In contrast
to the English speakers, Ventola argues, the Finns do not like to hedge
in expressing their attitudes toward, or opinions on, the message. Such
cross-cultural disparities in hedging strategies have their implications for
foreign language teaching: what is it nonnative academic writers need to
know about the appropriate ways of realizing interpersonal meanings in
texts?
Kreutz and Harres discuss hedges as important modality markers and
indicators of text orientation taking the example of English and German
academic discourse. They argue that while hedging serves to downtone
and mitigate arguments and assertions in English texts, their main func-
tion in German writing may be one of assertion and authority. They
relate this to the opposite orientation of English and of German texts,
namely, that towards the reader and the writer respectively. In English,
they argue, the mechanism of hedging can be shown to be text-con-
structive and to incorporate dialogue, whereas in German it is dominated
by the primary function of Wissensdarstellung (presentation of knowl-
edge) and of establishing authority in the discipline.
Introduction 1
Vassileva exercises an interpersonal approach to hedging, taking the

example of English and Bulgarian academic texts. Vassileva explores the
problem from the point of view of speech act theory as part of a more
general theory of commitment and detachment. Hedging is discussed in
terms of quantity and of its linguistic realization. Vassileva examines Eng-
lish and Bulgarian texts as well as English texts written by Bulgarians.
She shows that the three types of texts exhibit varying clines of commit-
ment and detachability. She establishes a lower degree of hedging for
Bulgarian and Bulgarian English texts, which places them high on the
scale of commitment. From the English perspective, such texts may
sound inappropriately self-confident and imposing. The author relates
her observations to the Bulgarian tradition of knowledge presentation.
In the last paper in this part, Crismore and Vande Kopple address a
very specific cross-cultural issue: gender-related differences in evaluating
academic texts in educational contexts and for teaching purposes. Crism-
ore and Vande Kopple report on a study of how the presence of hedges in
English affects the attitudes of ninth-grade students from the midwestern
United States toward controversial material from a science textbook.
They argue that hedging in general, and with female readers in particular,
stipulates positive attitudes toward the content of the passage. In working
toward an explanation of their findings, the authors suggest that their
test material without hedges led to dismissive reading, whereas its version
with hedges encouraged more analytical and evaluative processing. With
this assumption they relate to a broader problem of knowledge presenta-
tion that underlies much of the discussion in this volume: are the factual
format and the impersonal style real alternatives to the human and the
interpersonal in communicating knowledge?
Part 3 focuses on variation in the academic genre. Text characteristics
are interpreted in terms of linguistic features and their interpersonal and
cultural correlates. Melander, Swales, and Fredrickson examine abstracts
in biology, medicine, and linguistics written by Swedes in Swedish, by
Swedes in English, and by Americans in English. They concentrate on
rhetorical aspects of those texts in an attempt to establish how much of
their variability can be ascribed to differences in field and how much to
authors' national origin. They argue that both national and disciplinary
proclivities seem to influence the rhetorical and linguistic structures of
abstracts, but they do so to varying degrees in each field. It is the linguis-
tic abstracts that show a clear tendency toward national proclivities.
Ahmad analyzes rhetorical features in scientific and technical research
articles written in Malay by Malaysian academics. Applying Swales's
8 Anna Duszak
move analysis, Ahmad examines discourse strategies used by Malay writ-

ers in their introductory sections and compares them to those proposed
for English and other languages. She relates the differences to the nature
of the Malayan discourse community and to the developmental stage of
the Malayan language as a medium for expressing scientific arguments.
Prozorova addresses global structures in academic texts in English and
in Russian. Using a revised version of Prince's Given-New taxonomy,
Prozorova argues that various compositional parts of academic texts are
structured differently when evaluated in terms of information distribution
across the leftmost parts of their sentences. Her observations point to
similarities in the semantic structure of English and Russian academic
discourse, yet they also reveal some differences stemming from language-
typological and stylistic motivations.
Duszak addresses variation in the organization of academic texts from
the point of view of linearity and digressiveness. She explores digressive-
ness as a style marker in Polish scientific discourse, and argues that the
concept of digression in academic argumentation is a fuzzy phenomenon.
She establishes two polar categories in the apparent "nonlinearity" of
Polish academic style: digressions proper and elaborations. Digressions
and elaborations are discussed in the context of their thematic and formal
characteristics. On the content level they are interpreted in terms of back-
ground and redundancy. On the level of form they are evaluated in terms
of metatextual cuing. In contrast to English, Polish academic texts are
envisaged as heavy on background, for which a number of linguistic and
cultural factors are discussed as possible explanations.
In the final paper Koskela wanders into the borderland of the aca-
demic genre, and explores its fuzz in terms of text and human characteris-
tics. She analyzes the type and the extent of inference activities in Swedish
scientific and popular texts. The difference between professional and pop-
ular scientific genres is examined in terms of readers' expected knowledge
of the subject and of scientific practice. Koskela argues that levels of
human expertise have correlates in levels of explicitness in the marking
of coherence relations in texts.
Part 1
Values, attitudes, and doings
Cross-cultural academic communication:
a discourse-community view
Anna Duszak
1. Variation in academic discourse
Recent insights into academic writing have shown considerable variation

in text characteristics across fields, languages, and cultures. Major as well
as subtle differences were noted in style preferences, and on various levels
of form and content organization. A number of such discoursal phenom-
ena are discussed in this volume, and ample evidence can be found in
other sources in the area of research into academic communication pat-
terns.
Among the most notable differences are field- and culture-bound dis-
parities in global organization schemata of texts. These include divisions
within text space, their labeling and sequencing. Texts have been found
to vary in the degree of explicitness and metadiscoursal guidance as to
what meanings have been, are, or will be communicated. They have been
shown to differ in redundancy levels and in the amount of background
that is sanctioned in establishing relevance relations between ideas. Dif-
ferences in the use of structural resources and rhetorical devices have also
been pointed out.
If experimental sciences are prone to show more similarities in textua-
lization patterns, writings in the humanities and social sciences evidence
more prominent variation. In these research fields, communication styles
respond most strongly to language- and culture-bound discoursal prefer-
ences and constraints. It is this kind of academic discourse we will focus
on in the following discussion of the human properties behind variable
text characteristics.
2. Interpersonal meanings in academic discourse
It is assumed here that variation in academic texts, as in any other type of

text, is ultimately interpretable in terms of underlying human decisions. It
is not that texts have, or do not have, some parts, that meanings flow
under some text-inherent principles of development, or that particular
12 Anna Duszak
devices simply belong or do not belong to a given discourse repertoire.

Text parameters are significant only as formal realizations of human
choices. In reporting research, writers have options that are competing
for access to code. By choosing some and rejecting others, they perform
strategic acts of commitment: their decisions become explicable in terms
of textual as well as interpersonal meanings in discourse.
The shift of focus from text characteristics to user characteristics is
not uncommon on the plane of modern text and discourse studies (de
Beaugrande- Dressier 1981; van Dijk—Kintsch 1983). Discussions of
texts have been replaced by discussions of discourses understood as
global communicative events, making it possible to cover a wide
spectrum of human and contextual parameters of language use. The pro-
duct view of texts has been replaced by a process view of communicative
occurrences. As a result, a dynamic perspective was adopted and observa-
tions were made in terms of fuzzy sets (text and behavior prototypes)
and preferential choices. The bottom line of such a cognitive, functional,
and processual approach is that communicative events are appraised in
terms of participants' attitudes, which range along a cline from most to
least interpretable and appropriate. It also follows that behavior patterns
depend heavily on expectations of discoursal reciprocity that accommo-
dates the social bonds of solidarity and culture sharing.
The reinterpretation of text realities in terms of user properties may,
however, appear vulnerable when it comes to academic discourse. The
reason is that academic writing is, seemingly by definition, devoid of
human characteristics. The organization of a research text is supposed to
take place "above" or "beyond" the writing ego. It is believed to be gov-
erned by the internal requirements of scientific exposition and by the
nature of the matter under analysis. Apparently it is only by being deper-
sonalized that an academic text can attain an excellence of objectivity
and thus come closer to its primary goal, the truth. The imperative of
scientificity calls for a ban on emotive language, and on the import of
subjective and speculative meanings. Escape from subjectivity underlines
the qualification "impersonal" in the descriptions of the language of sci-
ence (Mikolajczak 1990; Mauranen 1993; Ventola 1994). As "a gnomic
statement of available knowledge" (Nichols 1988: 400, on Russian), an
academic text assumes a special ontological status and a special transac-
tional value. Low on interpersonal meanings, it limits its interactive abili-
ties and narrows its scope of circulation. The desire to seek the truth
alienates the writer not only from the act of creation, but also from the
potential readership.
Cross-cultural academic communication 13
Recently voices have been raised in favor of a "more human" attitude

to academic texts (see Ventola, this volume). Recent developments in
cross-cultural academic discourse are making it clear that academic dis-
course may not be insightfully studied with a disregard for a whole array
of interpersonal meanings. This is also the position adopted here: ide-
ation in academic texts should be approached through attribution to
writers of intentions that are interpreted in terms of attitudes writers
display toward their task, their readers, and themselves.
In reporting research, writers may adopt a style that is more or less
reader-oriented (Hinds 1987). Sensitivity to readers' needs is sometimes
discussed under dialogic versus monologic, or expository versus contem-
plative tendencies in academic narration (Cmejrkova-Danes, this vol-
ume). The dialogic formula, apparently typical of Anglo-American aca-
demic texts, is believed to be more interactive and hence more reader-
friendly. Such an effect stems from, among other things, reader guidance
and discourse predictability through staging and signposting. As a result,
a piece of academic writing turns into a reciprocally negotiable contract,
in which the reader participates in setting the pace and the line of exposi-
tion rather than dutifully following the writer's road to delivery. This, in
turn, contrasts with a kind of contemplative rhetoric that is traditionally
combined with Teutonic intellectual traditions (Galtung 1985) and attrib-
uted to science narrating in languages such as German, Polish, or Czech.
Here writers are believed to indulge more in acts of creative thinking,
and to endeavor more to reproduce them in the name of science and for
the sake of truth, than to report them for the reader's joy and benefit.
Structural options make writers oscillate between various levels of
commitment to and accountability for what they are saying. Assertive
("this is the case") and tentative ("this may be the case") declarations
will variously sever the writer's credibility should (s)he fail to defend his/
her claims or criticisms of others. Linguistic or textual accountability
contributes to judgments of the writer's expertise in field and method.
This is so even though different academic communities may exhibit dif-
ferent thresholds of tolerance for highs and lows in assertiveness in aca-
demic rhetoric. This only means that reader evaluations of texts are eval-
uations of writers. As such they are of consequence for the status of the
writer and have a say in whether (s)he remains a partner for further
contacts or drops out of the dialogue.
An academic text reflects the social self-image of the writer and his/
her perception of the readership. Related interpersonal meanings are nor-
mally discussed under the heading of face and politeness phenomena,
14 Anna Duszak
and reference is made to attitudes such as assertive, defensive, imposing,

or deferential. Attributions of this kind are arrived at from the writer's
assessment of his/her own position and the position of others. Insights in
this area are supported by work on disparities in cross-cultural communi-
cation patterns (e. g. Saville-Troike 1982; Gudykunst-Ting-Toomey
1988). According to such observations, Western cultures are individualis-
tic and hence supportive of direct, assertive, and explicit verbal styles.
Oriental societies, on the other hand, emphasize collective values and
group harmony, and hence subscribe to an affective style of interaction
dominated by vague and defensive formulations. Communication reali-
ties, however, defy any broad generalizations. Wierzbicka (1991), for in-
stance, demonstrates disparities in Western verbal styles using the exam-
ple of Polish and Anglo-Australian communication patterns.
Variation in introducing one's own claims and in taking account of
previous research are discussed by Duszak (1994 a) in reference to Polish
and Anglo-American introductions to linguistic papers. Two radically dif-
ferent strategies of claiming (1 a—b) and criticizing (2 a—b) are outlined:
(1) a. Nie zajmujq si% tu Nie zajmujq si% tu takze .... Proba ta nie
ma pretensji do .... jest raczej naszkicowaniem problematyki.
Sq to w duzej mierze luzne uwagi, chodzi jednakze ο nakreslenie
pewnych tendencji we .... (Bralczyk, in Duszak 1994a: 307)
[I am not dealing here with .... Neither am I dealing here
with This attempt does not aspire to ... but only outlines
a problem. These are largely loose remarks, yet it is also my
purpose to draw out certain tendencies in. ...]
b. In this chapter we will be concerned with (...), and we shall
show how (...). We will then show how (...). Finally, we will
demonstrate how ....
(Clark and Haviland in Duszak 1994 a: 308)
(2) a. Nie negujqc przydatnosci, a nawet owocnosci takiego stanowi-
ska dla okreslonych celow w jgzykoznawstwie, czujemy si% w
obowiqzku zauwazyc, ze jest to jeden ζ punktow nie zawsze do-
datnio wplywajqcych na (Furdal, in Duszak 1994 a: 308)
[Without negating the usefulness, or even the fruitfulness of
such a position for definite purposes in linguistics, we feel
obliged to notice that it is one of the elements that does not
always have a positive influence on ]
b. I will show here that Hawkins' account o f . . . involves miscon-
ceptions, and that the type of universale which he wants to
attribute to UG does not contribute to ... despite his claim to

that effect. ... I will argue here that his suggestion is implausi-
ble and that it is based on an incorrect view of the theories
proposed in generative grammar.
(Coopmans, in Duszak 1994 a: 309)
Pronouncements of this kind are interesting insofar as they are expo-

nents of deeper culture-bound preferences in presenting academic self-
image and the image of others. Addressing scholarly issues in public is a
way of socialization into the role of an academic. In order to perform
that role well, one's growth in content expertise must go hand in hand
with development of a code of verbal conduct. Such a system incorpo-
rates discoursal patterns and expectations that are marked by national,
ethnic, and cultural allegiances. Ultimately, therefore, the human factor
brings into focus the element of communal sharing, group affinities, and
divisions.
Recognition of the interpersonal element in reporting science opens
up a number of questions: how do people behave in transmitting schol-
arly matters, and why? What are the sources and areas of variation in
academic behavior patterns? What creates bonds, and what sets barriers
to communication among academics? The natural way to address such
issues is to relate them to human characteristics and discuss them in terms
of content and discourse properties of entire communities.
3. Academic community as a discourse community
Discussing English in academic and research settings, Swales (1990) es-

pouses the concept of a discourse community. According to him, dis-
course communities are founded on shared discoursal patterns and expec-
tations to the extent that they are said to "have and utilize one or more
genres" (1990: 26). Such genres, defined as communicative events, are
instrumental in the communicative furtherance of a community's goals.
In the case of an academic community, the research article can serve as
one tool for transmitting mutually shared content and discourse ex-
pertise.
Apart from genre, there is another aspect to discourse community:
people enter such groupings by persuasion and training. Swales (1990:
27) argues that a discourse community has a threshold level for members
with a suitable level of relevant content and discourse expertise, and talks
16 Anna Duszak
about expert and novice members. It would seem to me that approxima-

tions to excellence in terms of field and language skills allow for grad-
ation of membership. Swales's experts and novices could then be inter-
preted as polar categories along a cline.
Though Swales recognizes the role of field knowledge in the constitu-
tion of discourse communities, he concentrates on the sense of unity that
stems from shared communication values. He highlights the socio-rhetor-
ical nature of discourse communities, and stresses the role of verbal skills
in the reception and production of texts. As will be argued below, this
distribution of emphasis begs reconsideration, partly due to the increas-
ing internationalization of scholarship. It is assumed here that field
requirements act as prerequisites for community access, and as a ratio-
nale for tapping into its discoursal properties. Striving for discourse com-
petence means struggling above all for recognition of one's field expertise.
It is arguable that focus on the socio-rhetorical character of a dis-
course community should imply primary attention to text-event charac-
teristics, and downplay the sociocultural characteristics of the partici-
pants. I, however, would speak in favor of a sociocultural approach to
academic rhetoric that could accommodate the strategic and dialogical
character of academic behavior patterns in speech and in writing. Swales
(1990: 24) argues that a discourse community consists of a group of peo-
ple who link up in order to pursue objectives that "are prior to those of
socialization and solidarity". It would seem though that the process of
developing academic credentials is a form of socializing into a new public
role. As a result exchanges of academic knowledge can be envisaged in
terms of face phenomena and power and solidarity relations. Accord-
ingly, they will fall within the scope of interpersonal meanings in com-
munication (Halliday 1985). It follows that academics cannot help trans-
porting into their professional exchanges knowledge of genuine interac-
tion principles within their native speech communities. It also means that
their texts will exhibit rhetorical patterns that are compatible with general
discoursal preferences in a given language.
At the same time an academic community may develop its own sense
of intragroup solidarity vis-a-vis its nonmembers. That is, within a single
speech community, an academic community may build up more or less
solid frontiers that will separate it from the rest of the speakers of the
language. Such barriers are not only cognitive in nature (content ex-
pertise); high or specific discoursal standards may be a sufficient deter-
rent for people unaccustomed to a particular rhetoric. In a way, then,
academic communities can be discussed in terms of low- and high-context
cultures in the ethnomethodological tradition (Gudykunst-Ting-Toomey

1988). Whether a given academic community has a high or a low value
along this parameter depends on the general value orientation of a given
speech community. Differences in underlying social and cultural values
account at least in part for the discrepancy in academic communication
styles across languages and cultures. The elitist attitude to academic jar-
gon in Polish or German and the more egalitarian approach to academic
rhetoric in English-speaking countries can serve as examples.
It is also arguable that alienation of academic from general language
supports alienation of theoretical from practical knowledge. In Polish,
scientificity implies a closed-circuit transmission of knowledge among the
knowledgeable. The term "scientific style" can only be applied to ex-
changes of information among "equals", and only on matters concerning
"real" science. It is not used in contexts where knowledge is transmitted
for other academic purposes (e.g., education); in such cases its qualifica-
tion as "popular" scientific style becomes mandatory. As a result, Polish
has no single equivalent of the English term "academic" for describing
communication styles in both research and educational settings.
To what extent an academic discourse community can be said to have,
and utilize, a single dominant style of communication that distinguishes
it from other discourse communities is a separate issue. The difficulty
resides not only in multiple community membership: people can function
as members of a number of discourse communities, and so may develop
stylistic habits that are only partly sensitive to genre requirements. An-
other problem is the variety of field-related interactions academics engage
in. Those interactions take place in various settings, have varying specific
purposes, and involve various interpersonal relations among the parties
concerned. As a result, for some communicative events it may not be easy
to distinguish their "academic" from their "nonacademic" characteristics.
Often subtle distinctions will have to be made in terms of text and user
properties. For the same reason, an academic discourse repertory could
include mutations of genres that are the property of other communities.
Is "talk" a genre property of the academic community, or is it an aca-
demic variant of a verbal behavior that belongs to the more general rep-
ertoire of text types? Like "regular" communications, spoken interactions
on academic matters depend on context characteristics to determine their
level of interactivity. Thus, the office and the dinner table create different
platforms for an exchange of opinions. The presence of nonexperts or
nonacademics is a regulating factor too.
18 Anna Duszak
More attention should be paid to medium-bound variation in style

within a given academic community. Do academics perform differently
when changing from written to spoken discourse? Does the medium bear
on the type of interpersonal rhetoric used? It is an open question to what
extent spoken academic interactions diverge from preferential strategies
in written communication. Some observations, however, support some
tendency toward style consistency. The dominant stereotype of a lecture/
talk in the Anglo-American style is indeed compatible with the general
reader-friendliness of academic writing in this culture: the audience is
addressed directly, there is a lot of pausing and occasional attention sti-
mulation in the form of jokes and side remarks. This contrasts with a
paper-style lecture that has historical traditions in Europe and that meets
the requirements of a difficult intellectual product. As a rule, the speaker
reads or reproduces the text word by word from a manuscript. The lis-
tener is responsible for controlling his/her concentration, and no place is
left for interruptions. These presentation styles differ not only in the level
of inherent interactivity, but also in their potential for initiating dialogue
with the audience.
Interesting evidence could come from insights into how academics talk
about science, and not only from how they report research. Ventola (in
this volume) quotes the observations of Gilbert and Mulkay, who note
that spoken interviews with scientists feature elements that are prohibited
or strongly dispreferred in written communication: they display specul-
ative insights, prior intellectual commitments, and personal characteris-
tics, as well as social and group allegiances. In this way, as Ventola con-
cludes, they undermine the "empiricist repertoire" attributable to "imper-
sonal" scientific writing.
Scholarly texts vary in their level of interactivity both within and
across academic communities. In the context of this chapter it is the
cross-cultural variation that matters most. Academic cultures and intel-
lectual traditions subscribing to a more impersonal style of academic ex-
position favor less interactive (that is, more complex and more difficult)
texts. There are few reader-friendly devices such as advance organizers,
segment divisions and labelings, or explicit metacues on content. Instead,
intellectual effort is required, and readiness for deep processing is taken
as an obvious prerequisite for engagement in academic discourse. As
noted by Clyne, Hoeks, and Kreutz (1988), change in academic rhetoric
may open processing barriers that can ultimately block the process of
integration of otherwise accessible contents. English-speaking academics
stumble over many German texts even though they are technically able
to read or speak German. Incompatible values in the interpersonal rheto-

ric of academic ideation could well be a barrier to promoting academic
cooperation and exchange of scholarship. Therefore, negotiation of pre-
ferred levels of interactivity in academic texts is one of the most pressing
needs facing the process of internationalization of scholarship.
Interactivity is a form of realization of interpersonal meanings in dis-
course. This is particularly important once we agree that academic com-
munication, like any other form of verbal interaction, is dialogic in na-
ture. Its basic idiosyncrasy consists in its limitation to particular field
characteristics: only people with the same or similar cognitive models can
communicate on matters relating to those models. Otherwise, decisions
on discourse level are explicable in terms of interpersonal meanings of
rapport, solidarity, challenge, and power. They are interpretable in terms
of consensus-seeking or distance-establishing strategies typical for "regu-
lar" interactional behavior. Extending Swales's (1990) ecological meta-
phor to the description of the interactive character of academic communi-
cation, we may envisage the following recommendations for an aspiring
community member: enter the territory of the community, mark your
presence by occupying a space in that territory, defend the territory (and/
or expand it), gain supporters, and dissuade opponents. Expertise comes
through active performance, so discourse skills are instrumental for gain-
ing territorial rights. It is expert members in particular who have the
right to exercise moves of turn-initiating, topic raising, topic defining,
and topic closing.
For Swales (1990: 24), discourse communities are socio-rhetorical
communities in contrast to sociolinguistic speech communities. Primary
determinants of behavior in speech communities are social and relate to
the needs of socialization and solidarity. In contrast, Swales argues,
socio-rhetorical communities are established through shared goals; thus
their behavior is determined by functional considerations. This is proba-
bly right in terms of dominancies. What complicates the picture is that
the pursuit of academic credentials is a social act, and — as it follows
from cross-cultural data analysis - its realizations may well accommo-
date varying sociocultural values, similar to what happens in other types
of interaction. Internationalization of scholarship opens up new chal-
lenges for our understanding of academic communication phenomena.
20 Anna Duszak
4. Internationalization of academic communities
4.1. Field and rhetoric

Given the rapidly growing access to information and increase in multina-
tional contacts, it makes sense to talk about the emergence of interna-
tional groupings of people united by similar academic goals. The question
is to what extent the constitution of such communities could depend
more on specific field interests and less on concurrent language and dis-
course abilities. Does the concept of an academic discourse community
hold water in the face of the growing internationalization of scholarship?
This poses a number of derivative questions: can an international dis-
course community be founded within fields, yet across languages? If so,
what would happen to its socio-rhetorical foundation? What effect could
internationalization of scholarship have on academic rhetoric in regional
academic styles?
In exploring the feasibility of an international discourse community
we have to consider the consequences of the original juxtaposition of
speech and discourse communities. It is indeed easier to establish discour-
sal standards on membership in a regional academic community (that is,
one located within a single speech community). Such standards derive
from communication conventions that are valued by academics in their
capacity as "regular" speakers of the language. In a way they are exten-
sions of, and elaborations on, their skills in their native language, criss-
crossing the areas of social, pragmatic, cultural, interactive, and textual
competence. The situation becomes much more complex for people from
different linguistic and ethnic backgrounds. For purposes of style evalua-
tion, it is doubtful whether we should accept an international academic
community that shares field interests, yet falls short of common language
and discourse properties. In theory we could of course imagine groupings
of professionals engaged in similar research, but performing it in different
languages. We might even be able to isolate some rhetorical core in how
such research presentations are delivered. In this case, however, we would
return to the fallacy of an objectivized rhetoric of academic exposition
following from the nature of a scientific fact rather than mediating be-
tween the various needs of the academics, their self- and other-percep-
tions, and their academic face-saving and face-preserving strategies. Such
an apparent rhetorical sameness has to do with cognitive constraints on
valued argumentation strategies in science, yet it fails when discoursal
appraisals are made in terms of writers and readers, their intentions, and
their attributions of intentions to other writers. Today, studies in cross-

cultural academic discourse have provided sufficient evidence of style
variation in scholarly discourse, including disparities in form and mean-
ing organization of academic texts. All this validates the role of the inter-
personal function in controlling vast areas of academic communication.
It also makes highly questionable the presumption that there exists one
style tailored to field and method requirements in doing research.
A different situation is found when the idea of an international aca-
demic community is considered with respect to people of different linguis-
tic and ethnic backgrounds who pursue similar academic goals by means
of one language. It would be better, perhaps, to talk about a dominant
language, since various noninstitutionalized or social interactions in
other languages are not to be excluded. Neither can they be belittled for
their role in scholarship promotion and development of communal sense
among people engaged in related areas of study.
Specialization of a small number of languages for purposes of interna-
tional communication is a natural practical solution in a world of grow-
ing international contacts and social interdependence. The way things are
today, English comes closest to being an academic lingua franca. In an
international discourse community founded on English, a nonnative
speaker of that language is disadvantaged from the very beginning. Ine-
qualities in discoursal expertise are to be expected among writers, and a
tug-of-war between content and language skills could be foreseen in ex-
pertise evaluations.
On the other hand, English is spoken today in many different ways,
and its native speakers are noted for their relatively high tolerance for
the various Englishes that can be heard or read. The question is, however,
to what extent marked uses of English are sanctioned in more institution-
alized contexts where the desire for optimization is understandable from
the point of view of some language purity: a text in English should abide
by preferred English choices in terms of structure and style. An academic
text, perhaps more than many other writings, is also submitted to struc-
tural and rhetorical scrutiny by institutionalized gatekeepers. The out-
come of this scrutiny decides whether a given text enters the territory of
the English-speaking community, and thus also whether it has the chance
to implant its seed of thought. Texts with traces of alien patterns are
dispreferred - sometimes returned for repair, or edited with a possible
loss of the original author's intentions. But even texts that ultimately
make it through to the market show varying levels in the writer's discour-
sal expertise. However, since publishing in English is the key to the Eng-
22 Anna Duszak
lish-dominated international academic community, an aspiring nonnative

expert normally does his/her best to improve proficiency in academic
English.
Variability in English discoursal skills of academics from various eth-
nic and linguistic backgrounds is not the only obstacle to the coherence of
an international academic community. The distinction between language
competence and discourse competence is more complex here than in the
case of a homogeneous language environment: a nonnative speaker of
English can have a relatively low competence in general English, espe-
cially in speech, yet perform quite satisfactorily in writing professional
texts. This happens more often in the sciences, where the academic code
operates on more restricted and more schematized communicative beha-
viors than a spontaneous social occasion.
In addition, speakers of minority languages, such as Czech or Polish,
often find it necessary to acquire some command of a foreign language
in order to get acquainted with developments in their field. This underlies
the presumption of limited bilingualism or multilingualism. In Polish aca-
demic texts citations from English, German, and French are normally left
in the original; a field-sophisticated reader is expected to have a sufficient
passive knowledge of major foreign languages. Clearly this does not hold
for English texts addressing an English readership. Here quotations or
illustrations in languages other than English are followed by translations.
This is the case even with texts that are in principle targeted at speakers
having some (though not necessarily equal) competence in the languages
concerned (see for instance Clyne's translations of German examples il-
lustrating discoursal phenomena in German).
Another illustration is the strong tendency in Polish sources (especially
journals and paper collections) to include English translations of tables
of contents and to append texts with abstracts in English. The purpose
of these tactics becomes even more evident once we realize that the ab-
stract is not normally included with Polish academic texts, and, if present,
is more a text by itself than an integral part of the main text (see also
Melander et al. in this volume on the role of the abstract in Swedish
academic writing). This would mean that selecting parts of texts for trans-
lation is a way of building up interpersonal relations in science: Polish
texts are signposted in English in order to attract the attention of aca-
demics from other discourse communities who share an interest in field
and method.
In discussing the relation between speech community and discourse
community in English, Swales (1990: 24) argues that speech communities
are centrifugal in that they join people, whereas discourse communities

are centripetal in that they divide people. Following up on that, we could
say that international academic communities would rather exhibit cen-
trifugal tendencies of uniting people despite some variation in discourse
competence. Such communities develop primarily in response to alle-
giances in perceived topic relevance and topic coherence. Therefore, an
international academic community could be above all a content com-
munity, where shared field and method interests act as prerequisites for
removing communication barriers and striving toward an interrhetoric
of academic exposition. This means selection of preferred languages as
tools for exchange of scholarship, and then negotiation of acceptability
thresholds for texts. Mastery of an interlanguage of science entails the
capacity to produce valued scholarly ideations in more than one linguistic
code.
As in a regional community, expertise in an international community
is a matter of delivering recognized products, putting them in circulation,
and receiving feedback. On the other hand, a multilanguage academic
community may attract field experts who are not members proper. Such
peripheral or satellite members can read, say, written English texts, yet
they do not produce for an English readership. As a result, they do not
participate in the dialogue within that community. They may, however,
transmit its knowledge secondhand to their regional academic audiences.
4.2. Genre
According to Swales (1990: 26), genre constitutes the essence of a dis-
course community: for a community to come into existence, people must
develop and use at least one genre. This is possible only when people
entertain congruent expectations as to what is valued and appropriate
behavior in particular situations. Classes of communicative events are
established on the basis of perceived commonalities of goals, and - as
Swales (1990: 58) has it - communicative purpose not only "constitutes
the rationale of the genre" but ultimately also "shapes" the structure of
the discourse as well as its style and rhetoric. Can an academic com-
munity that shows tendencies toward expansion across linguistic and eth-
nic frontiers preserve its genre-sharing characteristics?
There are many aspects to this question. The major difficulty is the
underspecification of the concept of genre, and above all of purpose as
its constituting element. The fuzziness of the category "text type" is a
well-known problem in modern text and discourse studies (de Beau-
24 Anna Duszak
grande 1990). First, it is not easy to establish text types as discernible

classes of communicative events with clear parameters of contrast. If ba-
sic categories of communicative involvement can be isolated in terms of
dominant goal characteristics (e. g., narration, description), then a more
specific partition of the universe of speech is hard to implement. It seems
therefore that texts can be most insightfully studied in terms of goal do-
minances rather than single goal characteristics (de Beaugrande—Dress-
ier 1981). As a result, a prototype approach is usually adopted in discus-
sions of variation among classes of discourses (Snell-Hornby 1988;
H a t i m - M a s o n 1990). Second, repertories of genres do not coincide
across languages and cultures. Neither can they be studied in dissociation
from a comprehensive view of the past and present ecology of a given
speech community.
Academic communication does not escape these and related problems
with text typologies. We still need a specification of those text and event
categories that are privileged communication patterns in an academic
community. Swales (1990) does not elucidate sufficiently on the potential
number or the characteristic features of such classes of academic events
in English. His main focus is on the research article, and it would seem
indeed that a research paper could be a good example of a prototypical
form of academic communication. As a rule, it is relatively brief and has
a sharp topical focus. It shows partly schematized strategies of standpoint
selection and defense. Globally speaking, it can be taken as a turn within
a broader (open-ended) academic dialogue whose purpose is to make a
(single) academic "point". However, on a more subtle level of analysis,
specifications are still needed in terms of global purpose characteristics
and intermediate goals on the level of ideational, interpersonal, and tex-
tual meanings.
On the other hand, the research article is not the only form of intra-
group professional exchange, and its conceptions and textual realizations
may vary across fields and languages. In addition, its intertextual status
may vary depending on its position among other genres in a given com-
munity. Polish, for example, has no cultural equivalent for the English
concept of an academic "talk" (Wierzbicka 1983). As a result, oral re-
search presentations are more naturally relatable to research paper char-
acteristics.
In a more global look at the research paper, variation in the prototype
would have to account for internal and external influences, where in-
ternal has to do with the writer's choice of paper size and format, topic,
method, and line of argumentation. External factors, on the other hand,
import interferences from the writer's perceptions of style and format

preferences in his/her native culture. In addition, deviations from the pro-
totype would have to accommodate departures from privileged goal char-
acteristics of the research paper. Among the relevant parameters are: gra-
dient of creativity ("original" vs. review papers), gradient of representa-
tiveness of the genre (more or less popularized schemata while addressing
interdisciplinary or field-unsophisticated audiences), or gradient in text
formating (adjustments to idiosyncratic editorial policies).
In the context of internationalization of scholarship, approximations
to a research paper prototype are likely to be biased toward the solutions
preferred within the ecology of a dominant language of scientific exposi-
tion. For all practical purposes, today this means English. Some unifor-
mity in text production is therefore a natural drive. It includes expecta-
tions of compliance with a variety of technical guidelines for papers sub-
mitted for publication.That such a skewing does not require general ap-
proval is clear. This became clear to me when one of the contributors to
this volume initially refused to comply with some points in the style sheet,
objecting to its tendencies to establish an anglophone linguistic monocul-
ture in the philologies.
In terms of event-type characteristics, academics engage in all sorts of
formal and informal interactions. From the point of view of a discourse
community approach to academic communication, it follows that only
institutionalized and expert-acknowledged written interactions are rele-
vant, significant, or decisive for community constitution. This seems to
be a limiting view. Oral paper presentations, followed by questions and
answers, can add to our perception of integrating and disintegrating stra-
tegies in verbal conduct among professionals.
Last but not least, the rationale behind the genre must be "recognized
by experts" (Swales 1990: 58). This may be so; yet reference to human
expertise will not by itself explain which discoursal patterns are selected
for imitation and why. Neither can it answer the question of why some
text patterns integrate, whereas others erode or evolve in contact with
competing patterns: like any other form of language communication, aca-
demic genres are dynamic and liable to change.
4.3. Members
Community membership is a matter of degree: there are experts and nov-
ices, as well as aspiring experts and aspiring novices. Experts are proto-
typical members in that they are assumed to combine high field expertise
26 Anna Duszak
with high language skills for the purposes of scientific exposition. They
produce texts valued on both the content level and the interactive level
of text interpretability. With the adoption of the idea of an expert, we
are confronted with the problem of expertise evaluation. Are experts self-
made authorities, which would mean that they usurp for themselves the
right to foster some communication patterns and suppress others? Or are
they assigned that role through some process of initiation?
It is doubtful whether field competence predisposes a person naturally
to attain high communication skills on matters related to research pre-
sentation. Observation shows that those who are already vocal on the
academic scene show significant differences in communication skills, and
they admit varying levels of difficulty in articulating scholarly contents.
Clearly, evaluations of writers are marked by the reader's subjective needs
and style preferences. It seems that expertise standards are negotiable
among more competent members of the community, and that attributed
levels of expertise are correlates of one's scope of readership. On the
other hand, widely recognized experts may take the liberty to diverge
from standardized patterns in academic communication. As Swales
(1990: 129) notices himself, Chomsky's later writings show a number of
atypical textual properties. An expert turns into an authority, and then
may develop an idiosyncratic style of writing that is not to be imitated
or criticized for its violations of academic standards. This brings to mind
striking occurrences of colloquialisms in Boguslawski (1983). In qualify-
ing a methodological stance toward the definition of the text (Boguslaw-
ski 1983: 29), he uses a very informal expression kawa na lawie, which is
comparable to 'talking turkey' or 'calling a spade a spade'. At an other
point (1983: 21), he argues that two candidates for the status of the theme
of a given sentence are totally unrelated, using the expression majq do
siebie jak piernik do wiatraka 'resemble one another like gingerbread and
windmill'. I cannot say at this point to what extent these are rare gim-
micks of an author who manages to get away with his stylistic idiosyncra-
cies, or perhaps whether they point to a subliminal tendency in Polish
academic jargon to ease the heaviness of style through some importation
of colloquial formulations.
Talking of "experts" brings to mind an earlier discussion of "ideal"
communicants in the Chomskyan sense of the word (Chomsky 1965).
The two terms, an "ideal" and an "expert" user of language, authorize no
simple comparisons. It is interesting, though, that the nature of human
competence in language skills - gradable as it is — should invariably
encourage descriptions and evaluations in terms of optimized and sehe-
matized patterning. The concept of a "skilled", "competent", or "better"

reader/writer has of late received a lot of attention in text and discourse
studies (Brown 1980; Collins-Brown-Larkin 1980; Flower 1981; Stubbs
1983; Jordan 1984; Hult 1986; Nystrand 1986: Carrell 1988). To what
extent the idea of a "better" writer/reader has been operationalized is not
quite clear to me; to paraphrase Coulthard (1994: 3), it could simply be
used as "a flattering redefinition of the label 'ideal speaker'".
Membership in one discourse community does not preclude adherence
to other groupings on the basis of pursuit of a common goal. In this case
performance under a particular set of communal standards is likely to
show traces of discoursal interference from other standards. The writer's
individual (subjective) and sociocultural (group) patterns of thinking and
acting play here the role of an interface. Multiple community membership
opens up space for operation within an international grouping. This
participation can be seen in terms of individual membership, yet it may
also affect entire local communities. Thus, for instance, scholars in the
Netherlands are more likely to function in the sphere of English-domi-
nated academic communication than, say, Poles or Czechs for a number
of reasons of a historical, political, and economic nature.
Internationalization of scholarship can have varying effects on re-
gional communities, and can lead to the constitution of groupings of
professionals that are characterized by varying levels of institutionaliza-
tion and language awareness. The very concept of an international com-
munity is a fuzzy one in terms of community size and closeness of contact
among its members. Today the English-speaking community is the best
full-fledged example of an academic discourse community, even though
more local international communities may exist on the basis of German
or possibly French. This is the community that "absorbs" people with
different linguistic and ethnic backgrounds, and makes them try to adapt
to uniform discoursal standards of academic ideation. On the other hand,
partial internationalization of a regional community takes place through
ad hoc contacts and exchanges among people from different ethnic and
linguistic backgrounds. Here measurements of discoursal expertise are
irrelevant or secondary to the execution of the primary goal: academic
message transfer. Regional communities that do not develop into interna-
tional communities normally lose some of their members to communities
responding to internationalizing tendencies. These are the people who
sever their ties with their original academic environments, or at best re-
tain a partial presence as satellite members or passive onlookers.
At the same time, integrative or isolative tendencies within an aca-
demic community have to do with the level of conservativeness it culti-
28 Anna Duszak
vates with respect to field engagement and form management. The notion
of an academic community is sometimes interpreted not as a grouping of
individual researchers, but as an impersonal construct: a community "as
a whole". Myers (1989) argues that an academic community "as such"
deserves special respect even though relations between individual re-
searchers may show little deference. Conservative academic communities,
probably associable with less egalitarian societies in general, tend to high-
light this sense of communal being. The community as a whole has au-
thority and repels criticism; its pronouncements deserve attention and
concentration of effort. In other words, community stands for knowledge
and truth. It could be mentioned at this point that the word nauka
(science/scholarship) in Polish can on top of its reference to the type of
activity and the products of that activity also be used to designate the
(expert) group of people involved in that activity and credited for its
outcomes. Also relevant here are Clyne's (1987 a: 80) remarks on idealiza-
tion of knowledge in the German tradition, and the ensuing intellectual-
ization of academic register in order to make it more scientific. Intellectu-
alization of Polish academic jargon is highlighted by Gajda (1982, 1990)
and Mikolajczak (1990). It is another matter indeed that a highly intellec-
tualized way of talking may be a cover-up for the writer's discoursal
ineptitude or conceptual ramblings.
The development of an international academic community is a process
of constant standard reconciliation, where attitudes to discourse compete
with attitudes to field and method, including here attitudes to knowledge
and academia. Rapprochement is more likely to occur in cases of similar
self-images in the groups concerned, in the event of comparable sources
of academic authority or parallel intellectual traditions. Some areas of
value incompatibilities are discussed below.
As has been shown (e. g., Kaplan 1972; Clyne 1987 a, b; Cmejrkovä
1994; Duszak 1994 b), various intellectual traditions attach varying de-
grees of importance to the relative positions of content and form in the
evaluation of academic texts. Disparities of this kind are historically con-
ditioned and still transmitted by educational systems. Unlike English,
languages such as German, Polish, and Czech are — even though not
necessarily to the same extent or effect - low on (text) form in judgments
of academic achievement and quality of research. In schools, exercises in
creative writing replace the English drill in step-by-step instruction in the
production of expository and argumentative texts. The ability to produce
academic prose is viewed more as an art than a skill to be mastered
through observation and practice. This attitude is extended to research
presentation and assessment, where revelations of the states of one's mind

in the act of creation are allowed to proceed less rigorously and with less
heed to the transactional nature of communication. For a Pole aspiring
to join the international caste of English-speaking academics, it becomes
necessary not only to assimilate the structural and stylistic patterns of
English, but also to overcome the psychological barriers of an alien aca-
demic "text appeal".
Text properties such as symmetry, linearity, internal structuring, re-
dundancy, or complexity are not necessarily equally appropriate as meas-
ures of the writer's discoursal skills. The distribution of emphasis in dis-
course evaluation varies cross-culturally, and so do estimates of scientif-
icity of expositions. By the same token, expertise standards are negotiable
on the basis of comparable yet not identical criteria. They are the prop-
erty of a given academic community and function as gatekeepers for
writers and texts. In effect, what is an acknowledged form of behavior in
one community may be dispreferred or discredited in another.
In Polish research papers, authors normally do not declare at the very
outset their main goal in pursuing a given topic, whereas such declara-
tions are typical in introductions to English papers. Similarly, Polish aca-
demic discourse easily accommodates papers low on structuring (internal
organization) and structure-identifying devices. The value of scientiflcity
is sought in the text's conceptual and terminological clarity and coher-
ence. The language used in academic texts is first of all scrutinized for
what it says about the writer's thinking processes. Much attention is paid
to the author's formulations of the terminological apparatus as well as
to its internal and external consistency, where internal relates to a given
text reality, and external to other systems and approaches. The handling
of the methodological and conceptual issues bears witness to the author's
credibility as a researcher. For this reason "tool" analysis enjoys a high
priority among expertise criteria, and tool negotiations normally occupy
large portions of the text. The requirement of good warsztat naukowy
(roughly: 'methodology of scientific work') constitutes an important ele-
ment in evaluations of junior academics and in laudationes prepared for
senior researchers. Incidentally, the term warsztat naukowy has no good
equivalent in English. Literally, it means 'scientific workbench' or 'work-
shop', and connotes both instruments and methods of applying them to
objects. Most importantly, however, it implicates a particular disposition
to address scholarly issues.
That Polish or German academic cultures are low on form may ac-
count only in part for the "poor" elegance of such writings as against the
30 Anna Duszak
English-style understanding of an interactive and reader-friendly text. It

is characteristic, for instance, that Polish should still cultivate the long-
standing campaign for 'culture of the word' (kultura slowa), under which
grammatical correctness is the primary target of language education and
the best sign of linguistic competence. In the context of academic com-
munication, this attitude changes into culture of scientific argumentation,
where the clarity of semanticizations in talking science is more important
than the sole communicativeness of the exposition. Such care for lan-
guage and tool is illustrated in
(3) Istotnym momentem porzqdkujqcych refleksji, ktore tu przed-

stawig, jest, po pierwsze, dqzenie do poczynienia w miarg moz-
nosci wszystkich rozroznien, jakie mogq wchodzic w gre, chocby
byly one calkiem trywialne: nie znaczy to naturalnie, ze owo
dqzenie ma bye juz tutaj w pelni zrealizowane. Po drugie zas,
chodzi ο wprowadzenie tych rozroznien za pomocq sformulowan
budowanych ζ terminow mozliwie prostych lub do takich termi-
now dajacych siq zredukowac (Boguslawski 1983: 7)
[An important element of the ordering reflections that I shall
present here is, first, the striving to make, if possible, all the
distinctions that may come into play, including the most triv-
ial ones; obviously this does not mean that this strife can be
fully realized here. Second, the point is that these distinctions
should be introduced by means of formulations that consist
of terms as simple as possible, or such that can be reduced to
such simple terms... (my translation - A. D.)]
Attention to language is a way of showing respect for field and respon-

sibility for one's own image as a researcher. Being careful, however, nor-
mally means being precise, and attempts at precision can have the oppo-
site effect of producing impenetrable complexities of meaning. Focus on
semantics leads to preoccupation with language in the service of science,
rather than in the service of interpersonal academic rhetoric. Such tend-
encies are sometimes attributed to the European intellectual tradition,
and in particular to the German-style research on the continent. If only
to some extent, such interest in language could perhaps explain why in
countries like Poland, most linguistic work is still done in the areas of
syntax and semantics, while little recognition is given to the interactive
properties of texts, academic texts included. It is characteristic, for in-
stance, that the very few works on Polish academic jargon espouse a
primary interest in its structural properties and practically none in its

social characteristics (e. g., Gajda 1982, 1990; Mikolajczak 1990). Dis-
cussing the evolution of Polish scientific style, Kurkowska and Skorupka
(1959: 353) argue that it was the growing abstractness of its lexis and
grammar that led to its ultimate dissociation from common and artistic
modes of communication.
Historically entrenched traditions may also lead to emphasis on either
the empirical or the theoretical involvement in research, and thus project
the community's attitude to data and practical extensions of science.1
Some fifty years ago Tatarkiewicz (1937: 4) stressed the theoretical profile
of European culture, and its dedication to the pursuit of the truth irre-
spective of what practical applications, if any, it may have. More recently,
Galtung (1985) argued that the Anglo-Saxon love for empirical pursuits
sets in relief the Teutonic (Germanic) trust in theorizing. Supportive evi-
dence can be found in the area of text studies. A large number of text-
linguistic studies in continental Europe display a theoretical interest in
modeling discourse phenomena (e. g. Heinemann-Viehweger 1991;
Strohner 1990; Vater 1992; Wawrzyniak 1980). On the other hand, Anglo-
Saxon and Anglo-American work on text and discourse shows a skewing
to pragmatization and the applicative potential of discoursal phenomena
(Cook 1989; McCarthy 1991; Renkema 1991; Coulthard (ed.) 1994; Schif-
frin 1994; Scollon-Scollon 1995).
There are additional parameters that affect the speed, ease, and scope
of internationalization of academic communication. Among them is the
size of the regional community, its location, and its contacts with other
communities. In this volume Prozorova talks about the isolation of the
Russian linguistic community, Cmejrkovä and Danes address the cross-
roads location of the Czech academic community (see also Melander et
al. for Swedish), and Farrell discusses the situation of an emerging Ma-
laysian academic community. All these authors point to the relation that
exists between the size of the community and its dominant patterns of
internal communication. They show how size affects solidarity and power
relations among members, and what global effects it has on preferred
rhetorical patterns. If interpersonal relations within an academic com-
munity can be portrayed along a cline from symbiosis to competition,
patterns of interaction in small communities are likely to be marked by
tendencies for peaceful and harmonious coexistence. On the interpersonal
level, they are governed by avoidance of tension. The tendency not to
antagonize comembers of the community is clear once we realize that
academic exchanges take place among colleagues or people at close
32 Anna Duszak
range. This has symptomatic consequences in the rhetorical patterns that

prevail. Closeness of scientific matter and method permits authors to
make daring assumptions about each other's state of knowledge. As a
result texts are more implicit and show fewer orientation signals and
contextualization cues (see Mauranen 1993, and Ventola 1994 for Fin-
nish).
In contrast, patterns of academic communication change dramatically
with the growth of community membership, depersonalization of reader-
ship, extension of relevant field territory, or density of occupied "niches".
Access to code becomes more difficult, and so does entry into the new
territory. The modern English academic community is an instance of such
a big and internationalized community, in which competitive principles
dominate over symbiotic rules of peaceful cooperation. To meet the
increased demands on texts, academic writing assumes a more reader-
friendly attitude, resorts to predictable schematizing through content
packaging, text segmentation, and segment labeling, as well as through
explicit meanings and personalized tones. An academic text becomes
more of a marketable product that must make its way in order to get on
the market. As Ventola (this volume) argues, affinities are sometimes seen
between "doing science and practicing politics". 2
5. Internationalization of scholarship
and interrhetoric of science
Internationalization of academic communities is a natural phenomenon

in the world of growing multinational contacts, relatively easy access to
literature, and considerable human mobility. In addition, strong anglici-
zation of scholarship eases circulation of information in much the same
way that Latin contributed to the development of the sciences centuries
ago. Multinational dialogue is, and will remain, an important element in
the advancement of scholarship (Bungarten 1981), even though particular
regional communities can or may be part of it only to varying degrees
and with different consequences for their field and rhetoric identity. Sci-
entists have unequal personal interests, varying field needs, and diverse
objective possibilities to expand the scope of their activity beyond their
native-tongue professional groupings.
The advantages of internationalization of scholarship cannot obscure
the fact that such integrative processes can lead to states of tension, com-
munication failure, or misattributions of intention to authors or readers.
Due to differences in general and discoursal values, people develop biased

attitudes to alien patterns in reporting research. It is also natural that
they should transfer such attitudes to authors and content. While advanc-
ing cooperation, internationalization of scholarship also brings about
compartmentalization and specialization of research, as well as divisions
within communities.
For internationalization to proceed at its best, constant negotiation of
standards of academic discourse is a most plausible solution. The indis-
pensability of a common tool makes necessary the selection of a narrow
range of preferred languages for communicating science. Today the un-
controversial dominance of English is a practical consequence of a choice
that has been made partly through the academics' own doing and partly
as a result of the generally unchallenged position of English in many
fields of international public life. For a nonnative speaker of English, this
means responding to the "territorial imperative" (Widdowson 1990): be-
ing cooperative requires efforts to abandon one's own territory and to
adapt to another community's view on language and discourse appropri-
ateness. Part of that comes from developing mastery of the lexico-gram-
matical resources of a given language. Another, and much more critical,
effort is learning to perceive, and to produce, texts unmarked for style
and rhetoric. From an individual's point of view, the process is a constant
approximation to an interrhetoric of (academic) communication. In or-
der to enter a new community, the scientist must be able to code-switch
and respond to new discoursal requirements. The better one is at chang-
ing styles, the easier one will find it to integrate into the new academic
invironment.
So far internationalization trends in academic communication have
been seen mainly as problems of compatibility in discourse standards and
in underlying interpersonal meanings. However, the growth of multicul-
tural academic contacts has consequences for field and method. It bears
on what territories are selected for further exploration, and by means of
what methods. On the one hand, internationalization funnels research
along shared lines of interest, and thus perhaps limits areas worthy of
research. On the other, it enriches research by supplying more data to
formulate and verify hypotheses.
At the same time, internationalization of scholarship may have a disin-
tegrating effect on regional groupings of academics. It may cause divi-
sions within such communities — make them lose members or keep them
only as satellite associates. Important here is the language that is put to
active use in addressing academic matters. The situation of Polish lin-
34 Anna Duszak
guists with education in English (anglicists) can be taken as an illustration

of such distance-developing tendencies within a regional community. Sev-
eral years ago, in the heyday of Polish-English contrastive studies, the
work done by native Polish anglicists received no substantial feedback
from linguists specializing in Polish studies (polonists). Practically no dia-
logue took place, even though some of the relevant texts were in Polish
and many polonists have a sufficient knowledge of English to read mate-
rial in that language. The two field and method expertises - one in ana-
lyzing English data and one in analyzing Polish - have never met, proba-
bly to the detriment of the quality of such contrastive studies. Today, a
Polish scholar who publishes in English will most certainly alienate him-
self/herself from his/her "own" academic community.
To a considerable extent the choice of language for academic com-
munication is not only a linguistic decision. The role of language is signif-
icant in that it has a strong bearing on the choice of field and method.
There are orientation preferences that arise from historical and intellec-
tual traditions. Not surprisingly, issues of relatively high relevance to the
English-bound academic readership often remain outside the sphere of
interest of regional communities geared to other linguistic and cultural
traditions. Access to information and language barriers are not the only
reasons. Various perceptions of what is worth intellectual involvement
may be another. Conservativeness in academic ideologies is still another.
Ideas are accepted selectively, and biased attitudes are not uncommon.
The rapid development of text and discourse studies in the West (van
Dijk 1989, 1990) has no parallel in central and eastern Europe. In Poland
this field of study is practically nonexistent. This is due at least in part
to a strong resistance among the intellectuals to the Anglo-American in-
ducement in apparently trivial and mundane problems of language use.
Ideological orientations in sciences are regulated through access to code:
normally editors prefer topics that already have some readership and
some reputation.
Finally, internationalization of scholarship makes ideas meet. With
this it also brings up the delicate problem of the original and the derived,
of creative ideas, of precedence, inspiration, and borrowing. Modern lin-
guistics has an interesting history of such a search for roots and offshoots
while studying points of contact between European and American per-
spectives on language. Probably a most notable example is the discussion
of Chomsky's views and their evolution in the light of earlier work by
Hjelmslev and in particular by Saussure. It has been asked, for instance,
to what extent Chomsky's ideas were actually influenced by "his late
readings of European structuralists" (Grucza 1983: 218), and whether

Chomsky did not in fact "borrow more than he was ready to admit"
(1983: 188).
In a world of growing international contacts, academic communities

are in a state of constant definition. They are field communities in that
sharing cognitive models is a prerequisite for engagement in dialogue.
They are discourse communities in that the production, and interpreta-
tion, of academic texts requires negotiation of textual and interpersonal
values in reporting research. All this highlights the role of the human
factor in explaining cross-cultural variation in academic communication.
Notes
1. Discussing "the lure of occidentalism" for Thai scholars in the humanities, Chatana
Nagavajara (1995) points out some of its implications and difficulties. He maintains, for
instance, that in some Western academic circles, the best way to evaluate a colleague in
a negative way is to call him or her a "journalist". This kind of discrimination is appar-
ently not accepted in Thailand, "for even a most distinguished scholar will not consider
it beneath his dignity to write for a magazine or a newspaper, or to appear on a television
programme" (1995: 12). Nagavajara goes on to argue that the absence of a too rigid
academic tradition in Thailand is the reason why debates are carried over into "a public
forum" rather than being strictly held on university campuses.
2. With reference to note 1, it might be of interest to add that, especially in socialist Poland,
the term "courtier professor" was used as a derogatory description of academics assum-
ing official positions in government institutions.
References
Boguslawski, Andrzej
1983 "Slowo ο zdaniu i ο tekscie" [A word about the sentence and about the text],
in: Teresa Dobrzyhska-Elzbieta Janus (eds.), 7 - 3 1 .
Brown, Ann
1980 "Metacognitive development and reading", in: Rand Spiro-Bertram Bruce-
William Brewer (eds.), 453-481
Bungarten, Theodor (ed.)
1981 Wissenschaftssprache. Munich: Fink.
Carrell, Patricia
1988 "Interactive text processing: implications for ESL/second language reading
classroom", in: Patricia Carrell-Joanne Devine-David Eskey (eds.),
239-259.
36 Anna Duszak
Carrell, Patricia-Joanne Devine-David Eskey (eds).

1988 Interactive approaches to second language reading. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Chomsky, Noam
1965 Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.
Clyne, Michael
1987 a "Discourse structures and discourse expectations: Implications for Anglo-
German academic communication in English", in: Larry Smith (ed.), 73-83.
1987 b "Cultural differences in the organization of academic texts", Journal of Prag-
matics 11: 211-247.
Clyne, Michael-Jimmy Hoeks-Heinz-Josef Kreutz
1988 "Cross-cultural responses to academic discourse patterns", Folia Linguistica
22: 457-475.
Cmejrkovä, Svetlä
1994 "Non-native (academic) writing", in: Svetlä Cmejrkovä-Frantisek D a n e s -
Eva Havlovä (eds.), 303-310.
Cmejrkovä, Svetlä-Frantisek Danes—Eva Havlovä (eds.)
1994 Writing vs speaking. Language, text, discourse, communication. Tübingen:
Gunter Narr Verlag.
Collins, Allan-John Seely Brown - K a t h y M. Larkin
1980 "Inference in text understanding", in: Rand Spiro-Bertram Bruce-William
Brewer (eds.), 385-407.
Connor, Ulla—Robert Kaplan (eds.)
1987 Writing across languages: Analysis of L2 text. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wes-
ley.
Cook, Guy
1989 Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coulthard, Malcolm
1994 "On analysing and evaluating written text", in: Malcolm Coulthard (ed.),
1-11.
Coulthard, Malcolm (ed.)
1994 Advances in written text analysis. London: Routledge.
Couture, Barbara (ed.)
1986 Functional approaches to writing. Research perspectives. London: Frances
Pinter Publ.
Croft, Kenneth (ed.)
1972 Readings on English as a second language. Cambridge, Mass.: Winthrop Pub-
lishers.
de Beaugrande, Robert
1990 "Textsorten im Mittelpunkt zwischen Theorie und Praxis", in: Roger Mackel-
dey (ed.), 173-190.
de Beaugrande, Robert-Wolfgang Dressler
1981 Introduction to text linguistics. London: Longman.
Dobrzynska, Teresa-Elzbieta Janus (eds.)
1983 Tekst i zdanie [Text and sentence]. Wroclaw: Ossolineum.
Duszak, Anna
1994 a "Academic discourse and intellectual styles", Journal of Pragmatics 21: 291 -
313.
1994 b "Styl teutonski czyli ο tworzeniu barier komunikacyjnych" [Teutonic style:

on creating communication barriers], in: Stanislaw G a j d a - J o l a n t a Nocon
(eds.), 257-263.
Flower, Linda
1981 Problem-solving strategies for writing. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Inc.
Gajda, Stanislaw
1982 Podstawy badan stylistycznych nadjqzykiem naukowym [Foundations of stylis-
tic studies of scientific language]. Warszawa: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Nau-
kowe.
1990 Wspolczesna polszczyzna naukowa. Jqzyk czy zargon? [Contemporary Polish
scientific style. Language or jargon?]. Opole: Instytut Sl^ski.
Gajda, Stanislaw-Jolanta Νοΰοή (eds.)
1994 Ksztalcenie porozumiewania sig [Educating for communication], Opole: Wy-
dawnictwa Uniwersytetu Opolskiego.
Galtung, Johan
1985 "Struktur, Kultur und intellektueller Stil", in: Alois Wierlacher (ed.), 151-
193.
Grucza, Franciszek
1983 Zagadnienia metalingwistyki [Issues in metalinguistics]. Warszawa: Panst-
wowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
Gudykunst, William-Stella Ting-Toomey
1988 Culture and interpersonal communication. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publica-
tions.
Gumperz, John
1982 Discourse strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Haiman, J o h n - S a n d r a Thompson (eds.)
1988 Clause combining in grammar and discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Halliday, Michael Α. K.
1985 An introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Hatim, Basil-Ian Mason
1990 Discourse and the translator. London: Longman.
Heinemann, Wolfgang-Dieter Viehweger
1991 Textlinguistik. Eine Einführung. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Hinds, John
1987 "Reader versus writer responsibility: A new typology", in: Ulla C o n n o r -
Robert Kaplan (eds.), 141-154.
Hult, Christine
1986 "Global marking of rhetorical frame in text and reader evaluation", in: Bar-
bara Couture (ed.), 154-168.
Jordan, Michael
1984 Rhetoric of everyday English texts. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Kaplan, Robert
1972 "Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education", in: Kenneth Croft
(ed.), 399-418.
Kurkowska, Haiina-Stanislaw Skorupka
1959 Stylistyka polska [Polish stylistics]. Warszawa: Paristwowe Wydawnictwo
Naukowe.
38 Anna Duszak
Mackeldey, Roger (ed.)

1990 Textsorten-Textmuster in der Sprech- und Schrift-Kommunikation. Leipzig:
Universität Leipzig.
Mauranen, Anna
1993 "Contrastive ESP rhetoric: Metatext in Finnish-English economics texts",
English for Specific Purposes 12: 3 - 2 2 .
McCarthy, Michael
1991 Discourse analysis and language teacher. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Mikolajczak, Stanislaw
1990 Skladnia tekstow naukowych: dyscypliny humanistyczne [The syntax of scien-
tific texts in the humanities]. Poznan: Wydawnictwa Naukowe UAM.
Myers, Greg
1989 "The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles", Applied Linguistics 1:
1-35.
Nagavajara, Chatana
1995 "The plight of the humanities in Thailand", Αν Η = Magazin 65 (Alexander
von Humboldt Stiftung Mitteilungen): 3 -120.
Nichols, Johanna
1988 "Nominalization and assertion in scientific Russian prose", in: John Hai-
m a n - S a n d r a Thompson (eds.), 399-428.
Nystrand, Martin
1986 The structure of written communication. Studies in reciprocity between writers
and readers. Orlando: Academic Press.
Renkema, Jan
1991 Discourse studies. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Saville-Troike, Muriel
1982 The ethnography of communication. An introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
Publishers.
Schiffrin, Deborah
1994 Approaches to discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Scollon, Ron-Suzanne Wong Scollon
1995 Intercultural communication. A discourse approach. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Snell-Hornby, Mary
1988 Translation studies: An integrated approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Smith, Larry (ed.)
1987 Discourse across cultures. Strategies in world Englishes. New York: Prentice-
Hall.
Spiro, Rand-Bertram Bruce-William Brewer (eds.)
1980 Theoretical issues in reading comprehension. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Strohner, Hans
1990 Textverstehen. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag GmbH.
Stubbs, Michael
1983 Discourse analysis.OxioiA: Basil Blackwell.
Swales, John
1990 Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Tatarkiewicz, Wtadyslaw
1937 Nauka a tradycja europejska. Kultura i nauka [Science and the European tradi-
tion. Culture and science]. Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Mianowskiego.
van Dijk, Teun
1989 "New developments in discourse analysis (1978—1988)", Journal of Interdisci-
plinary Studies 1: 119-145.
1990 "The future of the field: Discourse analysis in the 1990s", Text 10: 133-156.
van Dijk, Teun-Walter Kintsch
1983 Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York: Academic Press.
Vater, Heinz
1992 Einführung in die Textlinguistik. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Ventola, Eija
1994 "Finnish writers' academic English. Problems with reference and theme"
Functions of Language 1,2: 1 - 3 3 .
Wawrzyniak, Zdzistaw
1980 Einführung in die Textwissenschaft. Warszawa: Paristwowe Wydawnictwo
Naukowe.
Widdowson, Henry
1990 Aspects of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wierlacher, Alois (ed.)
1985 Das Fremde und das Eigene. München: Iudicum Verlag.
Wierzbicka, Anna
1983 "Genry mowy" [Speech genres], in: Teresa Dobrzyhska-Elzbieta Janus
(eds.), 125-137.
Wierzbicka, Anna
1991 Cross-cultural pragmatics. The semantics of human interaction. Berlin: Mouton
de Gruyter.
Academic writing and cultural identity:
the case of Czech academic writing
V
Svetla Cmejrkovä and Frantisek Danes
Identity is both ascribed and acquired. Ascribed characteris-

tics are those over which individuals have the least con-
trol .... Of course, there may be mismatches between an
individual's "actual" identity and the ascription of attri-
butes by some or even all of the surrounding society.
— Dennis R. Preston, Sociolinguistics and second language
acquisition
1. Introduction
Robert B. Pynsent, a British bohemicist, wrote a book entitled Questions

of identity. This book deals with the questions of identity in the history
of Czech culture, from the National Revival Movement in the Romantic
period up to now. He says: "Problems of identity are particularly keenly
felt by individuals or groups who find themselves left outside what is
considered the norm in those parts of society or the world which appear
to be the bearers of culture" (Pynsent 1993: vii).
Czech society, due to its crossroads position in Central Europe, has
often been forced to trigger adopting and adapting mechanisms to com-
ply with the norms that appeared to be the bearers of culture, or to
confront them.
As John Swales states (1990: 31), communities vary in the extent to
which they are norm-developed, or have their set and settled ways. At a
particular moment in time, some will be highly conservative, while others
may be norm-developing and in a state of flux. Czech scholars seem to
be constantly developing their discourse interaction norms, due to their
position in Central Europe, and to their paradoxical wish "to enter
Europe" after all (a well-known slogan in our country) and to participate
in its discourse communities.
When he compares Saxonic, Teutonic, Gallic, and Nipponic intellec-
tual styles, Galtung (1981, 1985) notices that Central and Eastern
42 Svetla Cmejrkovä and Frantisek Danes
Europe, including the former Soviet Union, were historically under the
influence of the Teutonic intellectual style. Czech scholarship has devel-
oped through direct contact with German thinking, and the Czech aca-
demic register has inherited quite a lot from the German intellectual style:
its syntax and terminology as well as its general ideas on the purpose of
academic discourse (here we refer to Clyne's well-known analysis of Ger-
man academic style [1987] in comparison with English writing). German
influence has been intermediated and transformed in Central Europe via
the Russian intellectual tradition, which has also significantly affected
Czech academic thought. Due to its Slavonic origin, Czech terminology
and sentential and textual patterns are similar to the Russian; Czech is
also typologically disposed to tolerate analogous word-formation and
sentential and textual patterns of expression that are characteristic of
German.
Recently, Czech academic discourse has been profoundly affected by
the spread of English academic norms, and it has been exposed to the
requirements of emerging discourse communities that are governed by
these norms.
Owing to the mixture of cultural and scientific influences, Czech writ-
ing culture can be ascribed features analogous to those Clyne (1987) pos-
tulates for German in contrast to English, Nichols (1988) postulates for
Russian in contrast to English, Enkvist (1987) and Ventola and Maura-
nen (1991) postulate for Finnish in contrast to English (as Finnish is a
small European language like Czech), and Duszak (1994) postulates for
Polish (with which Czech shares not only geographical proximity in
Central Europe but a common Slavic origin as well).
2. Features discussed in cross-cultural rhetorics
2.1. Michael Clyne
Knowledge is idealized in the German tradition. The way knowledge is

presented in German academic texts presents a demanding task for the
reader. Whereas English academic texts tend to resemble nonacademic
ones, academic texts written by Germans are by design less easy to read.
Their emphasis is on providing readers with knowledge, theory, and stim-
ulus to thought.
Academic writing and cultural identity 43
English academic texts obviously adhere to particular discourse

norms, taught and trained in the process of essay writing, the rules for
writing essays being rather rigid: there are the requirements of linearity
in discourse structure and "relevance" (i. e., narrowly limiting the area
covered, determined by the wording of the question, and excluding every-
thing beyond this, even if the information is correct).
English-educated scholars are more likely than German-educated col-
leagues to use advance organizers that explain the path and organization
of the paper, and to place them at the start of it. Main terms are far more
likely to be defined or explained at or near the start of the text if the
author is English-educated. In German papers - at least in some of them
— the definition process develops over the course of the whole text.
In both cultural traditions, there is a cooperation between author and
reader, with the author engaged in an elaborative process and the reader's
perspective affected by a reductive process. In English-speaking coun-
tries, most of the onus falls on writers to make their texts readable,
whereas it is the readers who have to make the extra effort in German-
speaking countries.
2.2. Johanna Nichols
The Russian text is not so much a communicative contract between writer

and reader as it is a statement of truth and general knowledge. In other
words, the Russian text resembles a statement of general truth that the
reader may learn, rather than a communication from a writer to a reader
intended to be experienced as a text by the reader.
If the Russian scientific text is a gnomic statement of the knowledge
available to scientific tradition, this is consistent with its use of the deper-
sonalizing editorial "we", a fairly uniform style and level, a favored ex-
pository strategy consisting of a statement or generalization followed by
illustration, and such features of synthesis as lengthy surveys of literature.
In the English text, which is a communicative contract from a personal
writer to a personal reader, the editorial "we" is obsolescent, style is
personal and variable, the favored expository strategy is argument de-
signed to lead the reader through a thought process to certain opinions,
intuitions often figure as objects of analysis, and whole papers can be
devoted to presenting hypotheses and showing that they are appealing,
rather than testing them.
2.3. Anna Mauranen

In Finnish texts, the authorial presence is missing. Finnish writers use
metatext much less than Anglo-American writers, and favor a more im-
personal style of writing. Both of these features can be seen as contribut-
ing to a more "implicit" rhetorical strategy in Finnish texts. Anglo-Amer-
ican writers use more metatext, or text about text, than Finnish writers.
They are more concerned than Finns with guiding and orienting the
reader, and show more explicitly the presence of the writer in the text.
This is taken to reflect a more reader-oriented attitude, a more positive
notion of politeness, and a generally more explicit textual rhetoric. Fin-
nish writers show a more negative kind of politeness and a greater ten-
dency toward implicitness in their writing. Anglo-American writers seem
to condition the reader's interpretation by explicitly expressed guidelines.
They also convey the impression of having a more acute sense of the
audience than Finns seem to have, as if the readers were more present in
the minds of Anglo-Americans. They thus appear to show more aware-
ness of the text as text, to be more oriented toward the reader.
2.4. Anna Duszak

Introductions in Polish articles are unspecified as to the immediate inten-
tion of the author; accordingly, they give poor previews of the lines and
directions of the exposition to come. The author is reluctant to reveal
his/her ultimate thesis, using a strategy of avoidance. It is apparently left
to the reader to figure out the intentions of the writer.
Polish writers tend to put things on hold and exercise restraint in out-
lining their goals. Instead, they concentrate on entering a given field so
as to clear ground for their prospective engagements. Typically, Polish
authors tend to adopt a defensive position, as if trying to pass off the
responsibility for misreadings of their formulations, to anticipate criti-
cism and questions, or to clarify their intentions. They often make use of
face-saving devices to mitigate the negative tone of their criticism, and
they often resort to tentative and qualified language.
Academic writing in English enforces much more strictly the require-
ment for early and meaningful disclosure of one's purpose for engaging
in a given piece of writing. English writers are more positive and direct
in their formulations. They tend to make their pronouncements in a much
more assertive and matter-of-fact tone.
All the features stated in these linguistic analyses follow from a con-
trastive perspective, applied to the writing culture of a language χ in con-
trast to English (or rather Anglo-American) writing style. The inter-
pretations of this contradistinction coincide strikingly. Does this coinci-
dence indicate something very substantial, predestined, and by nature
irrefutable?
Before we try to answer this question, we shall outline the features of
Czech academic writing, taking examples from texts in the humanities,
our closest area of interest, and more narrowly, from linguistics.
3. Academic writing in Czech
Let us introduce two examples of lingusitic descriptions of Czech. Both

concern the same topic, but the first is written by Henry Kucera, an
American linguist of Czech origin, while the second is written by Josef
Vachek, an outstanding Czech linguist and one of the members of the
pre-war Prague Linguistic Circle.
(1) Literary Czech has ten vowel phonemes. In articulatory terms,

the opposition of front vs. back and high vs. mid tongue posi-
tion, and the quantitative opposition of short vs. long ac-
count, in all possible combinations, for eight phonemes. Two
central low vowels, one short and one long, complete the in-
ventory. A comparison of the matrix in 2.11 with the
following table will show the correspondence of these articula-
tory oppositions and the respective distinctive features.
(Kucera 1961: 25)
(2) The problems of the vowel subsystem of the phonological sys-
tem of Standard Czech are undoubtedly less complicated than
the problems of the subsystem of consonants Neverthe-
less, its more detailed analysis from the point of view with
which we are concerned in our Monograph, i. e., from the
point of view of the dynamics of the language system, arrives
at the unambiguous conclusion that even here it is possible to
ascertain many a point giving evidence of a clear tension in
some sections of this domain of the system. This fact holds
good for the subsection of long vowel phonemes and its rela-
tion to the subsection of short vowel phonemes; nevertheless,
even in the subsection of short vocalic phonemes itself, al-

though its system is relatively balanced, there exist some not
unimportant problems. (Vachek 1968: 28; our translation)
Were we to compare the style of the two texts we could say, that the
first is economical and clearly expository in its style, whereas the second
is contemplative and rather narrative, with a story-like tension. There is
a problem to be solved and several clues to be followed. In other writings
by the same author, even those written in English by Vachek himself, we
can find many expressions of this character: "the first thing that cannot
fail to strike", "one might be tempted to suppose", "the fundamental
importance of this question is beyond doubt", "yet we believe it can be
answered in the affirmative", "this is by far not the most convincing
conclusion". It is the task for the author to find the right solution, to
grasp the heart of the problem. From this point of view, the text is rather
writer-oriented. Nevertheless, the contemplative, narrative, story-like (if
not "detective") features make the text attractive to the reader.
In fact, there is a whole continuum between the pole of the straightfor-
ward and economical expository style and that of the narrative ("redun-
dant") style. Czech expository texts (in the humanities) occupy positions
on the scale nearer to the narrative pole, and Vachek's text appears to be
quite near this pole. To be sure, any style involves an individual or sub-
jective component, and there are some Czech academic authors who pre-
fer the economical way of exposition. The following sample, written by
another outstanding member of the Prague Circle, the late Pavel Trost,
is extremely economical - his style is bare, austere, and terse (cf. the
harmonia austera of the classical rhetorics). Only technical terms (noun
phrases) and the most basic predicates occur, and the thematic structure
is very transparent, based on the two basic types of thematic progressions
in a pure form (Danes 1974):
(3) The sentence may be defined as a field of syntactic relations.

Syntactic relations in general are formal mutual relationships
of words at the level of discourse; they are either determina-
tive or nondeterminative (copulative). Syntactic relations do
not go beyond the sentence. A word without syntactic relation
to the preceding or following words is equal to a sentence. As
a rule, sentences contain the main determinative relation (i. e.,
predicative relation), as well as secondary relations. The main
determinative relation presupposes a main determined constit-
uent and a main determining constituent; the main deter-

mined constituent is independent and the main determining
constituent can determine only the independent constituent.
(Trost 1962: 267; our translation)
However, Czech academic texts written in this style tend to be indivi-

dual exceptions rather than the rule; by introducing here a specimen of
them we mean to indicate the inadequacy of any simplifying classification
and labelling characterizations. Now we shall present some observations.
3.1. Modality in Czech academic writing
Any contrastive comparison of Czech and English academic texts in lin-

guistics reveals that Czech texts show a relatively high degree of modali-
zation. Modal expressions accompany Vachek's specimens (although they
are not found in Trost's text): "it is undoubtedly less complicated", "it is
possible to ascertain", "the thing that cannot fail to strike", "one might
be tempted to suppose". Similar expressions may be found in the text of
the present authors: "were we to compare", "we could say", "we can
find", etc. At least two kinds of modality are to be distinguished in this
connection: deontic and epistemic.
3.1.1. Deontic modality

Expressions like "it is possible (necessary, indispensable) to ascertain ...",
"we are obliged to recognize t h a t . . . " , and "it is wise to consider ..."
appear, more or less occasionally, in English as well. As Greimas (1990:
30) rightly recognized, they "allow us to interpret them as an autonomous
level of discourse where we find the discursive subject's reasoning con-
cerning the principles and requirements of its organizing activity". This
deontic level of discourse appears as "the locus at which the subject of
enunciation organizes its own performances, foresees obstacles, and
passes tests" (1990: 30).
In Czech texts, this "deontic doing" is so prevalent that it takes the
character of a rhetorical device. The texts teem with such expressions
(predicates) as je, bude treba zjistit, zda 'it is, will be requisite, indispens-
able, necessary to ascertain, whether', je, bude zähodno vysvetlit pricinu
'it is, it will be desirable, expedient, advisable to explain the cause', je
vhodne pripomenout, ze 'it is suitable to remember that', je uzitecne vzit ν
üvahu 'it is useful to take into account', je dülezite presne formulovat 'it
is important to formulate exactly', je nutne däle zkoumat 'it is necessary
to conduct further research', musime poznamenat 'we must, we are
obliged to make a note', nesmime zapominat 'we must not forget', Ize
snadno zjistit 'it is easy to find out', nelze, neni mozne se nezminit ο torn
'it is impossible not to mention', and so on.
It is not unusual for the adduced modal expressions to appear in the
so-called conditional mood (rather than in the indicative mood): bylo by
tfeba 'it would be necessary', bylo by Ize 'it would be possible', bylo by
velmi rozu/ηηέ 'it would be very wise', povazovali bychom za nezbytne 'we
would consider it indispensable', ζ tohoto faktu bychom meli vychäzet 'this
fact should be our starting point', to by ovsem znamenalo, ze bychom
museli povazovat 'this would, of course, mean that we would have to
consider' and so on.
This usage also reflects the tendency of Czech writers to modalize the
degree of certainty of their statements (cf. the following subsection deal-
ing with epistemic modalization and hedging — in Greg Myer's [1989]
sense). The same aspect is partly revealed by the use of the future tense:
bude tfeba 'it will be necessary' and very clearly by the use of epistemic
hedging particles (see below).
3.1.2. Epistemic modality
Better known now as modality of assertion, this is the author's modaliza-
tion of his statements in terms of the degree of his conviction or certainty
as to their validity.
Czech academic writers tend to appear wary of committing themselves
fully, without hesitation and reserve, to their statements, propositions,
and suggestions. In other words, they formulate their pronouncements in
a far less assertive, direct, and matter-of-fact tone than English writers
usually do. This high degree of hedging also implies a certain modesty or
understatement (which might be, of course, sincere or merely a rhetorical
trick). Consider the following example:
(4) It is only natural that a handful of modest marginal remarks

which we can submit here today cannot do anything like full
justice to the said monograph. (Vachek 1970: 24)
The next formulations of the introductory paragraph of an article

written by a Czech in English display the Czech stylistic bias mentioned
above to an extremely high degree:
(5) I know only too well how much I expose myself to the danger
of being accused to be again humming the same, old tune. I
do not want to deny that the research into the problems of
written language and into its particular status, as opposed to
that of spoken language, has been one of the subjects repeat-
edly attracting my attention. And each time I was fairly and
honestly convinced I would never take up the subject again.
My only excuse for the repeated breaches of this good inten-
tion rests on an argument the importance of which, I believe,
can hardly be disputed away. This argument points out the
increasing interest of linguists all over the world in the status
of written language, the interest that would shock an ortho-
dox Neogrammarian of the nineteen-twenties and that ap-
pears rather puzzling even to some very outstanding personal-
ities of today's linguistic world. (Vachek 1972: 47)
The list of Czech hedging predicates, particles, and adverbs is similar

to that in other languages, but their text frequency with Czech authors
is conspicuously high. Several examples: je ηιοζηέ, ze ..., moznä ze, je
mozno/müzeme (fici, ze ...) 'it is possible, may be that, we can/may say
t h a t . . . ' , jak se zdä, zdä se, ze, ..., zdä se näm zfejme, ze ... 'it seems
that, as it appears, it seems clear to us t h a t . . . ' , tato moznost se näm zdä
nejpfijatelnejsi 'this possibility seems the most acceptable to us', zfejme
se tu ukazuje, ze ... 'it evidently appears t h a t . . . ' , dojit k jistemu zäveru
'to arrive at a certain, not further specified, conclusion', patrne 'appar-
ently, to all appearance', asi, snad, moznä 'perhaps, possibly, maybe', ye
patrne tfeba rozlisovat 'it is apparently necessary to distinguish', patrne
jeste jasne anaforicke uziti 'apparently still a clearly anaphoric use', spise
nez 'rather than', stezi 'hardly'.
A typical Czech hedging expression may be seen in the particle ovsem,
combining the adversative feature 'but' with the presupposition 'obvi-
ously'. This particle enables the Czech writer to weaken or restrict the
validity of his previous statement (a Czech philosopher wittily called this
phenomenon "the Czech ovsemism"). A similar effect is achieved by the
use of the double expression na jedni strane - na druhi strane ovsem 'on
the one hand — on the other hand, however', witnessing the Czech ten-
dency to dialectic treatment of the tackled phenomena.
Purely verbal predicates: pokusili jsme se ukäzat 'we have tried to
show', naznacili jsme 'we have hinted at', nastinili jsme 'we have outlined',
nase vysledky ukazuji 'our results indicate', navrhujeme 'we suggest',
predpoklädäme 'we assume', povazujeme za 'we take as', pojimäme jako

'we treat it as', chäpeme jako 'we take it, we understand', vidime ν torn,
ze 'we see in it that', and a wide usage of je vi se 'it appears', müze se jevit
'it may appear', müze byt poklädän za 'it may be viewed as', müze byt
chäpän jako 'it may be treated as', etc., instead of je 'it is'.
The verbs soudit and domnivat se 'presume, gather, infer' occur fre-
quently. Also typical are collocations with the nouns näzor 'opinion, view,
conviction': doslijsme k näzoru 'we arrived at the opinion', podle naseho
näzoru 'in our opinion', podle naseho presvedceni 'in our conviction, be-
lief'.
(6) Toto tvrzeni neznamenä panestetismus, hläsim se toliko k nä-

zoru .... [This statement does not mean panesthetism, I only
adhere to the opinion that ]
(Mukarovsky 1970 [1936]: 9; our translation)
A hedging function can be ascribed also to the frequently used adver-

bials ν podstate 'in essence' and ν zäsade 'in principle':
(7) Vpodstate se relativni vety substantivni zäsadne od vet atribu-

tivnich nelisi. [In principle, relative clauses with nominal char-
acter do not differ, in essence, from attributive clauses].
(Grepl 1978: 28; our translation)
As in the field of deontic modality, here also the transposition of the

indicative mode into the conditional typically occurs: tento vyklad by zna-
menal, ze ... 'this explanation would mean that...', dalo by se namitnout,
ze ... 'it could be objected that...', tento postup by bylo mozno aplikovat
take na ... 'it would be possible to apply this procedure also to ...', tut ο
strukturu by snad bylo ιηοζηέ interpretovat jako ... 'this structure could,
perhaps, be interpreted as ...'.
Czech texts teem with hypothetical constructions of "ifs" and "thens".
Consider the following translation of a fragment taken from a Czech
monograph:
(8) It probably will not be out of place to use, with these units,
the same symbol for the function and the form that are con-
nected by primary relation. Thus, if it would be possible, for
example, to differentiate agent, subject, and nominative only
in respect to the fact whether the unit belongs to the tecto-

grammatical, syntactic, or morphematic level, then it would
not be necessary to use more or less redundant rules translat-
ing agent into subject, subject into nominative, etc. With cases
having secondary form, the rules of the change of a unit in a
given context would, of course, remain valid. - This concep-
tion ... should, of course, be applied on a large scale.
(Panevovä 1980: 20; our translation)
On the one hand, this habit bears on the fact that Czech academic
texts often have a tenor of reasoning and contemplation, of evaluating
different possibilities and finding one's way through them; on the other
hand, the impersonal character of the majority of the predicates given is
in accord with the overall impersonal character of Czech writings. (To be
sure, the personal character claimed for English writings by many text-
linguists does not preclude the use of impersonal constructions and of
the "editorial we", as can easily be seen in English texts.) Example (9)
quite interestingly shows the author's low degree of determinacy and his
successive steps toward an optimal solution:
(9) There exists a third possibility that seems to us most accept-

able: to separate the cases of expression of the speaker's atti-
tude to a proposition from the frame of structures with propo-
sitional argument altogether, and, moreover, not even to
speak here of the predicate of attitude, but, in fact, of the
speaker's attitude (or relation) to the proposition or, if
needed, of the operator of attitude. If we employed Fillmore's
scheme S - Μ + P, this operator would belong then to the
component M. (Grepl 1978: 26; our translation)
As a parallel to this kind of hedging, different types of article headings

may also be considered. The modern English heading, in the great major-
ity of cases, has a nominal form (a noun phrase in the nominative case),
whereas Czech authors often use noun phrases with modifying preposi-
tions ο 'on', 'about' or k(e) 'toward', indicating a particular result the
author is trying to achieve, or 'a contribution to'. Thus, for example,
Tomlin (1987), which contains 20 articles by different authors, includes
only 2 headings (10 percent) that have the form "On the status" and "On
the role", respectively. In contradistinction in the Czech volume Slavica
Prageusia IV (1963), containing 65 contributions in Czech, 34 headings
begin with preposition k... and 3 with preposition o... (together more
than 50 percent!). This Czech tendency also prevails in English articles
written by Czech authors. Thus in volume 8 (1983) of Prague Studies in
Mathematical Linguistics, one third of the headings begin with On, and
two other headings have the form "Some notes on" and "A note on",
respectively. In the volume 10 of the same series (1990) we find fully one
half of the headings beginning with On. This practice corresponds, in
principle, with the German usage of the prepositions über and zu (old
Czech purists even demanded the on-form as a norm, as an expression of
the author's modesty) and the Russian usage of o(b) and especially k
(voprosu) 'on the question of'. The hedging effect of these prepositional
phrases is obvious.
In general, the lower degree of assertiveness, the less positive and less
persuasive formulations may be taken to correspond to the features of
the German and Russian intellectual style. What is the deeper motivation
of this phenomenon? Anna Duszak (1993: 307-309) stated that Polish
academic authors adopt a defensive position, trying to anticipate criti-
cism and questions, and that they often resort to tentative and mitigated
language. This evidently holds true for Czech authors, too.
It seems to us that these formulations reflect a certain approach to a
possible comprehension of the very nature of the scientific process — of
the role of the individual participating in it. If we should succinctly con-
trast this approach with that of the English scientists, we would use the
opposition "cooperation vs. competition". Recently, a Czech scientist re-
called a formulation by the famous botanist A. Löve: "The aim of the
scientific worker in a discussion with his colleagues is not to persuade,
but to explain and to reach a better understanding". And the founder of
the Prague Linguistic Circle, Vilem Mathesius (1966: 150), characterized
the scientific atmosphere and spirit of this group in a similar way: "Our
symbiosis has developed, in a very pleasant way, the mutual contact 'give
and take', which should characterize any and every occasion of scientific
cooperation".
Certainly, the feature of keen competition is now rapidly spreading
from the West to the East, overlaying the other attitudes and calling
forth positive as well as negative responses and effects. It is not without
significance when a young Czech scholar writes in a scientific journal
that nowadays everyone wants to call attention to his work under the
conditions of an increasingly fierce competitive struggle. In such a situa-
tion, it appears necessary to use a rather self-centered and persuasive
vocabulary and rhetoric. Though the scientists do not tell lies or cheat,
they make deliberate selections from among facts. How then should we
take their scientific contributions (cf. Cilek 1995)?
3.2. The build-up of texts

3.2.1. Composition and arrangement
Czech academic texts are often not well arranged, do not necessarily fol-
low any accepted text pattern, and are not very easy to survey. This
applies to several aspects of composition:
(a) The introductory formulation of the topic and the author's inten-
tion of the main term (concept), or of the thesis he/she will discuss or
defend, is often lacking.
(b) Metatextual expressions as a guide through the text organization
- signals of text articulation — are not used consistently or sufficiently.
(c) The composition of the whole text often does not reflect the ar-
rangement of canonical text parts. Texts are likely to show discontinuities
between sections and are less likely to end with summaries.
(d) The division of the text by means of subheadings is in most cases
neglected (and appears, in fact, only in English versions of Czech papers,
due to the interventions of text editors). Numbering of paragraphs or
groups of paragraphs is quite uncommon.
(e) Clyne (1987) mentions the tendency of German authors to use
relatively frequent digressions (Ger. Exkurse). The same tendency ap-
pears, though not to such a high degree, in Czech texts as well. Mostly
they form a part of the text, and their beginning is signaled by a subhead-
ing, mostly as Pozmmka ('a remark, a note, a comment'), and also usu-
ally by a different type of script. Shorter remarks of this type sometimes
appear in brackets or in footnotes.
A note:
It appears problematic to view the tendency in English academic writing
to avoid footnotes, etcetera by integrating them directly into the main
body of the text as of unambiguous merit. Though it seems to make the
text simpler and easier to survey, this integration in fact obscures vertical
articulation of the text - the differentiation between the main expository
line of the text and the less important and subsidiary text pieces supple-
menting the main argument with additional information, illustrative ex-
amples, comments, and so on. It seems to us that the trend to linearity
has been motivated by the situation of oral communication, and does
not exploit the specific possibilities of the graphic code.
3.2.2. Writer-reader relation

As mentioned above, Czech texts are writer- rather than reader-oriented.
The reader has to make an extra effort to understand the text. The text
is in general conceived not as a dialogue with the reader, but as the
writer's monologue. The author's knowledge, which represents part of
the general knowledge of the discourse community, is taken to be more
important than the way in which it is presented. Czechs, like Finns, "ap-
pear to have adopted the role of a solitary writer, focusing on the propo-
sitional content of the text, or the text-external reality that they are deal-
ing with" (Mauranen 1993 a: 16).
A "digression" on a linguistic theory of writing:
The theory of text processing has arisen from various roots and has been
shaped through differing motivations in the respective "national linguis-
tics". Anglo-Saxon linguistics, due to its philosophical tradition of a
pragmatic approach to language, naturally aimed at handling the phe-
nomena of text composition in terms of interaction, and even transaction
from sender to receiver, building up (a) a theory of writing encompassing
the achievements of communication and discourse theory, and (b) its ped-
agogical application. Czech text-linguistic activity appears an organic
continuation and development of the "classical" ideas of the Prague func-
tional-structural school (Danes 1994).
Whereas Anglo-Saxon tradition treats writing academic texts against
the background of the general theory of writing with its strong emphasis
on the interactive nature of any writing process, Czech structuralist and
functionalist stylistics treats the so-called scientific (scholarly, or exposi-
tory) functional style in its opposition to the other four language styles,
ascribing to it the following constituent features: regarding the parame-
ters of spoken vs. written it is conceived as primarily written, and as
regards the distinction between monologue and dialogue it is attributed
the features of monologue. Scientific style is defined as belonging to the
public styles, as opposed to those with a close or well-known addressee.
Public design should not be understood as a comprehensive intelligibility
of a scientific text, since due to its exacting and demanding nature schol-
arly discourse is not intended to address everybody. Being aimed at an
unknown and distant addressee, the public design is to be understood as
a formal design. Furthermore, scientific style is opposed to journalistic
style from the point of view of persuasiveness — which is ascribed to the
latter, not to the former. Most importantly, the macrostructure of a scien-
tific exposition is considered to follow from "the internal needs of the
topic development", not from external factors such as situation or reader,

etcetera. This summarizes the classical treatments of expository discourse
in the Czech linguistic tradition that reflects a certain scholarly practice
and assesses it at the same time (Cmejrkovä 1994 a, b).
It is not typical for Czech authors to explicitly lead the reader through
the text and explain the path and organization of the paper at the outset.
Consequently, Czech academic texts are less explicit on this point. This
holds also for definitions of central or crucial terms and concepts, and
for formulation of theses, rules, and so forth. On the other hand, this
kind of implicitness does not necessarily result, as we have seen in our
examples, in brevity, conciseness, economy, or condensed style. Often
the reader is reminded again and again of the author's idea, frequently
formulated in a slightly different way each time, modified, and as if
viewed from a new perspective. The author tries again and again to grasp
the phenomenon described in a more appropriate way, to come closer
and closer to its nature - compare Clyne's (1987: 229) formulation: "the
definition process is seen as developing in the course of the whole text".
This continuing definition process, or rather grasping effort, of Czech
scholars causes many problems for English translators, who are never
sure whether the author is referring to the same phenomenon by all these
different designations; English translators often suggest consistently
using the same term and avoiding parallel expressions.
We should not say, however, that Czech academic texts are not based on
a contract between the writer and the reader. As Clyne states, in both cul-
tural traditions (i. e., English and German), there is cooperation between
the author and the reader. The writer is engaged in a kind of vicarious in-
teraction with a presumed reader, and anticipates and provides for likely
reactions. The reader, for his part, is drawn into the discourse role in which
the writer has cast him/her. It is the author's and reader's expectations of
each other that may be different as a whole in the respective cultures.
We could say, with Mauranen (1993 a: 15—16), that the Czech reader
is apparently assumed to follow the writer's train of thought with care.
He or she is apparently judged to be in a good position to see the signifi-
cance of the point without help from the writer. Such a rhetorical strategy
is much more demanding of the reader than one offering support to the
reader's conclusions (cf. Hinds's [1987] opposition of writer's vs. reader's
responsibility).
Let us now try to examine how the individual cultures, characterized
by the stated sets of features, cope with the demands of cross-cultural
communication. The following formulation offers an insight into this
problem:
It is plausible to assume that there are various intellectual styles that com-
bine with specific patterns of discourse organization and discourse expecta-
tions. On the other hand, growing internationalization of scholarship has
led today to considerable levelling of standards of academic writing.
(Duszak 1994: 291)
4. Territorial and cooperative principles

in academic writing
Let us return to the question we posed earlier: do the strikingly numerous

coincidences in German, Russian, Finnish, Polish, and Czech (and proba-
bly other) writing styles on the one hand, and their global disparities
from English, or rather Anglo-American, norms on the other give evi-
dence of something predestined and irrefutable by its nature?
To answer the question, let us once more (now in a cross-cultural
perspective) examine the cluster of statements we have discussed: that the
English text is more like a contract between the writer and the reader,
that the English writer provides the reader more assistance than do the
writers of other languages. A possible explanation may lie in the fact that
when Czech scholars, for instance, write their articles in Czech (and later
transfer their habits to English), they adhere to a contract established
within their territorially limited community.
As they write, they make assumptions about what their readers already
know, about the common ground of knowledge. They make decisions as
to which points need to be spelled out, which can be stated sparely, and
which do not need to be mentioned at all but can be left for the reader
to infer. Generally, when they write within their own "national" com-
munity, the degree of explicitness may be lower and the degree of implicit-
ness may be higher (especially in the social sciences and the humanities,
of course).
People who have particular knowledge and experience in common, whose
contextual realities are closely congruent, will manage to communicate by
engaging relevant aspects of contexts with only sparing use of the linguistic
resources at their disposal. Conversely, of course, those who have little in
common have to place greater reliance on the language.
(Widdowson 1990: 102)
In wider networks of interaction we cannot rely on particular instances

of shared knowledge and experience. It is not in the first stages of nonna-
tive writing that the (Czech) writer realizes that when he/she starts to
write for an international audience or discourse community, he/she

should abandon the habits acquired writing for the domestic community.
To become a member of an international discourse community, the writer
must acquire other norms to make himself/herself understood, and to
meet the expectations. Present-day English and Anglo-American norms
are those elaborated precisely for the purposes of cross-cultural com-
munication. They are what they are, to a certain degree, due to this func-
tion. Writing for an international discourse community is a kind of co-
operation that has its own norms and its own maxims.
When an author writes about his native language, manifested in native
literature and anchored in native culture, he/she cannot assume that the
potential reader who comes across the text in a cross-cultural communi-
cation knows all the data available to the author. The reader probably
knows less of the writer's world, and the writer should furnish the neces-
sary clues, otherwise the meanings remain inaccessible. In other words, a
source of information should be found in the text. This may be another
(i. e., cross-cultural) explanation for the fact, stated in many descriptions
of it, that English and American academic style "appears to show more
awareness of the text as text" (Mauranen 1993 a: 16), that it is more like
"a communication from a writer to a reader which is intended to be
experienced as a text by the reader" (Nichols 1988: 405).
It seems to us that at least some distinctions between the Anglo-Ameri-
can style of writing and writing in other languages should be ascribed to
the fact that cooperation in cross-cultural discourse communities makes
extra demands on the writer and entails objectives the author does not
realize when he writes within his native culture. Meeting them, on the
other hand, the writer abandons his territorial assumptions.
An analogous conclusion was formulated by Eija Ventola: "Finnish
writers make bolder assumptions about the sharedness of information
and the familiarity and closeness of the scientific community when re-
porting their research, whereas English writers have been trained to ap-
proach the task of reporting research results from the point of view of
presenting something totally new to the reader" (Ventola 1994: 281).
In other words, cross-cultural communication makes its own specific
demands on the proportion of contextualization and decontextualization
cues (the proportion that has always been discussed in the theory of
translation and its well-known antinomies calling for reconciliation).
Widdowson (1990: 108—109), whose notional pair of territorial and co-
operational principles has anticipated our final reflection, says:
The negotiation of meaning which is both accessible and acceptable, there-

fore, involves the reconciliation of two potentially opposing forces: the co-
operative imperative which acts in the interests of the effective conveyance
of messages, and the territorial imperative which acts in the interests of the
affective wellbeing of self.
And in the interests of one's identity, let us add.
References
Baker, Mona—Gill Francis—Elena Tognini-Bonelli (eds.)

1993 Text and technology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Cilek, Vaclav
1995 "Radiokarbon a biblicky exodus" [Radiocarbon and the biblical exodus],
Vesmir 74: 28.
Clyne, Michael
1987 "Cultural differences in the organization of academic texts: English and Ger-
man", Journal of Pragmatics 5: 211—247.
Cmejrkovä, Svetla
1994 a "Nonnative (academic) writing", in: Svetla Cmejrkovä-Frantisek Danes -
1994 b "Academic writing in Czech and English", in: Academic writing - research
and applications. Papers from symposium May 21—23. Helsinki.
Cmejrkovä, Svetla-Frantisek Danes-Eva Havlovä (eds.)
1994 Writing vs speaking: Language, text, discourse, communication. Tübingen:
Gunter Narr.
Cmejrkovä, Svetla-Frantisek Sticha (eds.)
1994 The syntax of sentence and text: Festschrift for Frantisek Danes. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
1987 "Argumentative patterns in student essays: Cross-cultural differences", in:
Ulla Connor-Robert B. Kaplan (eds.), 57-71.
Connor, Ulla—Ann M. Johns (eds.)
1990 Coherence: Research and pedagogical perspectives. Alexandria, VA.: TESOL.
Connor, Ulla—Robert B. Kaplan (eds.)
1987 Writing across languages: Analysis of L2 Text. Reading, MA.: Addison-Wes-
ley.
Danes, Frantisek
1974 "Functional sentence perspective and the organization of the text", in: Franti-
sek Danes (ed.), 106-128.
1987 "On Prague School functionalism in linguistics", in: Rene Dirven—Vilem
Fried (eds.), 3 - 3 8 .
1994 "Prague School functionalism as a precursor of text linguistics", in: Apport
ipistemologique de l'Ecole de Prague (Cahiers de l'IZSL5), 131-142. Lau-
sanne.
Danes, Frantisek (ed.)
1974 Papers on functional sentence perspective. The Hague: Mouton.
Dirven, Reve-Vilem Fried (eds.)

1987 Functionalism in linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Duszak, Anna
1994 "Academic discourse and intellectual styles", Journal of Pragmatics 21: 291 —
313.
Enkvist, Nils Erik
1987 "Text linguistics for the applier: An orientation", in: Ulla C o n n o r - R o b e r t
B. Kaplan (eds.), 2 3 - 4 4 .
1995 "Discourse organization, intercultural rhetoric, and translation", in: Brita
Wärvik-Sanna Kaisa Tanskanen-Risto Hiltunen (eds.) Organization in dis-
course. Turku: University of Turku, 4 1 - 5 8 .
Galtung, Johan
1981 "Structure, culture, and intellectual style: An essay concerning saxonic, teu-
tonic, gallic and nipponic approaches", Social Science Information 6: 817—
856.
193.
Greimas, Algirdas Julien
1990 Narrative semiotics and cognitive discourse. London: Pinter Publishers.
Grepl, Miroslav
1978 "Souveti ν semanticky orientovanem popisu syntaxe" [Complex sentence in
a semantically oriented syntactic description], Sbornik pracifilosoficke fakulty
brnenske university, A 25—26: 7 - 2 9 . [Universita J. E. Purkyne, Brno.]
Hinds, John
1987 "Reader versus writer responsibility: A new typology", in: Ulla C o n n o r -
Robert B. Kaplan (eds.), 141-152.
1990 "Inductive, deductive, quasi-inductive: Expository writing in Japanese, Ko-
rean, Chinese, and Thai", in: Ulla C o n n o r - A n n M. Johns (eds.), 87-110.
Kaplan, Robert B.
1966 "Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education", Language Learning
16: 1 - 2 0 .
1987 "Cultural thought patterns revisited", in: Ulla C o n n o r - R o b e r t B. Kaplan
(eds.), 9 - 2 2 .
Kucera, Henry
1961 The phonology of Czech. The Hague: Mouton.
Mathesius, Vilem
1942 "Ree a sloh" [Speech and style], in: Cteni ο jazyce a poezii [Readings on
language and poetry], 13-102. Prague: Melantrich.
1966 [1936] "Ten years of the Prague Linguistic Circle", in: Josef Vachek (ed.), 137-151.
Mauranen, Anna
1993 a "Contrastive ESP rhetoric: Metatext in Finnish-English economics texts",
English for Specific Purposes 12: 3—22.
1993 b "Theme and prospection in written discourse", in: Mona Baker-Gill Fran-
cis—Elena Tognini-Bonelli (eds.), 95-114.
Mistrik, Jozef
1974 Stylistika slovenskeho jazyka [Stylistics of the Slovak language], Bratislava:
Slovenske pedagogicke nakladatel'stvo.
60 S vet la Cmejrkovä and Frantisek Danes
Mukarovsky, Jan
1970 [1936] Aesthetic function, norm, and value as social facts. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press.
Myers, Greg
1-35.
Nichols, Johanna
Panevovä, Jarmila
1980 Formy a funkce ve stavbe ceske vety [Forms and functions in the structure of
the Czech sentence], Prague: Academia.
Prague Studies in Mathematical Linguistics
1983 Vol. 8. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
1990 Vol. 10. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Pynsent, Robert B.
1993 Questions of identity: Czech and Slovak ideas of nationality and personality.
Prague: Central European University.
Slavica Pragensia
1963 Vol. 4. Praha: Universita Karlova.
Swales, John
Tomlin, Rüssel S. (ed.)
1987 Coherence and grounding in discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Trost, Pavel
1962 "Subjekt a predikät" [Subject and predicate], Slavica Pragensia 4: 267-270.
Vachek, Josef
1968 Dynamika fonologickeho systemu soucasne spisovne cestiny [Dynamics of the
phonological system in Contemporary Standard Czech], Praha: Academia.
1970 "Remarks on the sound pattern of English", Folia Linguistica 4: 24-31.
1972 "The present state of research in written language", Folia Linguistica 6:
47-61.
1973 Written language: General problems and problems of English. The Hague -
Paris: Mouton.
1994 "Vilem Mathesius as one of the forerunners of modern textological research",
in: Svetla Cmejrkovä-Frantisek Sticha (eds.), 67-71.
Vachek, Josef (ed.)
1966 The linguistic school of Prague: An introduction to its theory and practice.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Ventola, Eija
1992 "Writing scientific English: Overcoming intercultural problems", Interna-
tional Journal of Applied Linguistics 2: 379-418.
1994 "Finnish writers' academic English: Problems with reference and the theme",
Functions of Language 1: 261—294.
Ventola, Eija (ed.)
1991 Functional and systemic linguistics: Approaches and uses. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.
Ventola, Eija—Anna Mauranen

1991 "Non-native writing and native revising of scientific articles", in: Eija Ventola
(ed.), 457-492.
Widdowson, Henry G.
1990 Aspects of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1985 Das Fremde und das Eigene. München: Iudicum Verlag.
Doing well ... doing badly:
An analysis of the role of conflicting cultural values
in judgments of relative "academic achievement"
Lesley Farrell
1. Introduction
Australia is a "multicultural" community. Since World War II it has ac-
cepted more migrants per head of population than any other country
except Israel (Kalantzis-Cope—Slade 1989). Families often choose to
migrate to Australia in order to improve the life chances of their children,
and especially to provide them with a "good education", an education
that many parents have been denied. Taken as a group, children of ethnic
minority parents stay at school longer than do Anglo-Australian stu-
dents, and their parents have higher expectations for them with regard
to tertiary education and entry to the professions. We might expect that
children of ethnic minority families would achieve a high degree of aca-
demic success at school and at university. While this is the case for some
ethnic groups, it is not the case for many. Despite their apparent advan-
tages, "a few Non-English-Speaking-Background students are doing well
[in Australia], and a lot are doing badly." (Kalantzis—Cope—Slade 1989:
77).
Trueba, reflecting on similar phenomenon in the United States, has
suggested that the academic under-achievement of ethnic minority chil-
dren is "a function of conflicting cultural values" (1990: 2) and that these
cultural values are evident in characteristic ways of using language. He
argues that there are two contextual dimensions that operate in the pro-
duction and interpretation of text. The first dimension consists of broad
cultural values, the second of the specific demands of unique contexts:
"The appropriate interpretation of people's use of linguistic symbols is
found first in broader culturally patterned social structures and later in
the context specific behaviours that can be observed or recorded by
means of projective techniques or via traditional ethnographic methods".
(Trueba 1990: 2).
All texts are produced in the dynamic interaction of these two
contextual dimensions. Concepts of "academic achievement", as they are
realized in the texts produced in these contexts, are not static. They are
64 Lesley Farrell
continually renegotiated in response to the pragmatic demands of indivi-

dual contexts. Therefore, if we are to understand the role that cultural
values play in defining academic achievement, we must investigate spe-
cific expressions of relative "academic achievement" in specific contexts.
It is only by developing a bank of case studies that general inferences
about the importance of conflicting cultural values in the definition and
realization of academic achievement for ethnic minorities can be drawn.
The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to document and analyse an
instance in which relative academic achievement and under-achievement
is defined and realized in a specific context. It describes an attempt to
better understand why it is that two Vietnamese students, Hang and
Tran, are "doing badly" in the highly specific educational context of their
Australian tertiary entrance examination. The uniqueness of the context
must be emphasized. While Hang and Tran are Vietnamese students liv-
ing in Australia, and aspects of their Vietnamese culture are understood
to be significant in the way in which they generate texts and interpret
them in this context, they can not be considered representative of Viet-
namese students. In the course of their studies, Hang and Tran have
developed "schemata", or conventionalised ways of viewing the world
(Rumelhart 1975), by which they interpret the demands of examination
tasks and generate texts which they believe respond to those demands.
The schemata they develop for each individual instance will call on their
"world knowledge" and "personal experience". While some of their world
knowledge and personal experience will be very different from that of
their classmates, and relate specifically to their Vietnamese identities,
Hang and Tran are also likely to share many experiences with their non-
Vietnamese classmates. They have, after all, attended the same school,
and they have been taught the same curriculum by the same teachers.
This does not mean, however, that they have understood those shared
experiences in the same way. As Gee (1992) explains, even those who
have had similar concrete experiences will not necessarily develop similar
schemata. The schemata they develop will be fundamentally defined by
the ways in which they have learned to attend to, weigh, and value that
experience (McClelland et al. 1986). The phenomenon of "culture", and
the way in which culture realizes social differences like class, gender, and
generation, and cultural concepts like "knowledge", provides a broad
framework against which Hang and Tran, like the other candidates, and
the Examiners, engage in discursive practices of this examination (Van
Dijk—Kintsch 1983). The "cultural values" which shape culture must not,
however, be considered static. They are always dynamic (Bruner 1991),
Conflicting cultural values and relative "academic achievement" 65
and this is especially the case in multi-ethnic settings where they are influ-
enced by the complex cross-cultural negotiations of everyday life (Ferd-
man 1990). This analysis of Hang's and Tran's texts provides insights into
the ways in which aspects of their Vietnamese culture may influence their
responses to these examination tasks, and insights into the ways in which
their Anglo-Australian examiners may call upon their own cultural values
to interpret those responses.
The focus of this analysis is, first, on the discourse phenomena taken
to signify "academic achievement" in this examination, and second, on
the underlying discourse structure of the texts that Hang and Tran gener-
ate as "practice essays" in preparation for their final external examina-
tion. My argument is that, if there is a conflict of cultural values in this
context, it may be realised in discursive practice and illuminated in a
close analysis of underlying discourse structure.
2. Defining "academic achievement":

The examiners' perspective
Australian tertiary entrance examinations may be distinguished from

many European and American examinations by their emphasis on ex-
tended written texts as the basis on which judgments about "academic
achievement" are formed. Candidates are expected to write compara-
tively long "essay-type" answers to the questions set, within a stipulated
time period. Definitions of "academic achievement" operating in this ex-
amination context are, therefore, necessarily framed as features of ex-
tended written texts.
There are two further factors shaping the definition of "academic
achievement" in this context. The first is essentially pragmatic, and con-
cerns the primary purpose of the examination. The examination has been
designed to produce a rank order of candidates. This rank order is impor-
tant because it provides the basis on which undergraduate places in high-
status tertiary institutions are distributed. A rank order can only be
achieved if the examiners are able to make fine distinctions between the
examination essay texts. Any definition of "academic achievement" oper-
ating in this context must, therefore, refer to "relative" academic achieve-
ment and provide an effective means of discriminating between candi-
dates.
66 Lesley Farrell
The second factor shaping the definition of academic achievement is

that it be acknowledged as "legitimate" by the community. The examina-
tion is keenly competitive because there are always more candidates than
there are high-status tertiary places. Because of its important role as the
mechanism by which the social and material benefits that attend higher
education in Australia are distributed, it must be seen to be fair and
objective. To be fair and objective in this context means to appear to
treat all candidates equally and to objectively test the content of the cur-
riculum. The definition of "academic achievement" must generate criteria
which not only distinguish between candidates but also appear to provide
a legitimate basis on which to do so.
These two factors are each important in shaping the operational defi-
nition of "academic achievement" but they exert opposing pressures. It
is not easy to develop a definition of academic achievement which pro-
vides a fine degree of discrimination while at the same time appearing to
be legitimate. The obvious criterion for distinguishing between candidates
in subjects like Australian History, Legal Studies, and Economics is the
amount of factual knowledge included in the essay answers. However,
while the criterion of factual knowledge is an obvious, and apparently
objective criterion, it occupies an ambiguous position in this examination
context. This is because, while it apparently satisfies the criterion of legiti-
macy, it is not, by itself, an effective means of achieving a rank order of
candidates. Most of the candidates for this examination have an adequate
amount of factual knowledge and so, as a criterion, factual knowledge
cannot provide sufficiently fine distinctions between candidates. How-
ever, Examiners bring their own schemata to the process of evaluating
examination scripts and the schemata they construct are influenced by
their Anglo-Australian cultural values. These schemata influence the way
in which the Examiners expect factual material to be organised and ex-
pressed in examination essays. Because many candidates do not share
the cultural values and "world experience" which inform the schemata
developed by the Examiners, the organisation and expression of factual
material provides a useful basis on which to discriminate between essays,
and thus between candidates.
The important role of underlying discourse organization in discrimi-
nating between candidates is identified in the annual Reports of Examin-
ers, the documents through which the Chief Examiners provide an ac-
count of the examination process that has just been completed. The docu-
ments operate as both an accountability mechanism for the students who
have been examined, and as guidance for students who are about to be
examined and their teachers. In the Economics Report, for instance, the
Chief Examiner comments: "Markers [Examiners] reported that while
many answers showed evidence of a satisfactory level of economic knowl-
edge, far too often this was not adequately displayed, and therefore re-
warded, due to poor writing skills and inability to structure answers ap-
propriately." (Economics 1990: 1)
A crucial criterion for determining that candidates are relatively less
capable, even though they have control of the factual knowledge, is,
therefore, the criterion of appropriate underlying discourse structure. It
is not the case, however, that the criterion of underlying discourse struc-
ture is used exclusively to separate those students who have already de-
monstrated that they have adequate factual knowledge. Candidates who
are judged to have inadequate control of factual material, but who do
have control of the valued discursive practices, are rewarded. The Austra-
lian History Report of Examiners make this explicit: "Even if their [the
able students'] information is thin, they do not relent on the task in hand.
They persevere with thinking, rather than writing tons of coherent but
irrelevant stuff, all "glued together" by a trite conclusion which fools no
marker who has a list of discriminators in front of her or him. Few of
the discriminators are attempted. They are absent from the essay." (Aus-
tralian History 1984: 2).
In this examination, in every subject in which essay writing is used as
a major means of assessment, underlying written-discourse structure is
identified as being the single most important criterion in achieving a rank
order of candidates. The criteria by which these examination scripts are
assessed are primarily concerned with underlying text structure, and un-
derlying text structure is taken to be prima facie evidence of "academic
achievement". In other words, the underlying written-discourse structure
of examination essays is understood by the Examiners to be conclusive
evidence of the quality of "thinking" that is going on in a candidate's
mind. It follows that candidates who express themselves in ways that are
familiar to the Examiners (that resemble their habitual ways of ordering
information and expressing it) are likely to be advantaged in this exami-
nation.
This situation is exacerbated by the rapidity with which Examiners are
required to make their judgments about individual essay papers and,
thus, about individual candidates. Examiners typically spend a relatively
short time, two, or at most three minutes, assessing individual examina-
tion essays. It is not surprising that they reward texts which organise
information in patterns with which they are accustomed. A "well-struc-
tured essay" is one which the Examiner, under considerable pressure of
68 Lesley Farrell
time, can read with ease. Another way of putting this is to say that suc-
cessful candidates demonstrate to the Examiners that "people like us use
language, think, value, and talk in these ways, with these objects at these
times and in these places" (Gee 1992: 123).
While the criteria that emerge are local in the sense that they refer only
to this highly specialised discourse, they are represented in the Reports of
Examiners as if they apply universally and are transparent markers of
academic achievement in all social settings. In brief, candidates in this
examination are rewarded for texts that organise information in a "lin-
ear", "co-ordinated", and "symmetrical" way. Essays conforming to this
structure typically adopt a clear and unambiguous opinion with regard
to the question (Farrell 1994 b). In producing texts of this kind, candi-
dates identify themselves to the Examiners as people like themselves; "or-
dered", "logical", and "independent" thinkers who know how to sustain
a "persuasive" argument. These structural requirements reflect culturally
influenced judgments about what counts as "literate", what counts as
"relevant" and what counts as "polite" (Farrell 1994 a) in the highly spe-
cialised discourse of this examination.
The discourse of schooling under discussion here is a "literate" dis-
course in the sense that Reid (1993) means it, a discourse derived from
the logo-centric Platonic discourse described by Havelock (1963), distin-
guished from the essentially oral discourse of the Greeks before Plato,
and concerned primarily with "objective, analytical and sequential think-
ing" (Reid 1993: 20). The distinctive form of "the school essay" can be
understood as a significant literacy practice situated within the body of
specialised school literacy practices which adopt "objective, analytical,
and sequential thought" and the values, viewpoints, and ideologies im-
plied and realised in those modes of thought.
Similarly, judgments of "relevance" refer to the "relevance" that applies
in this highly specialised school discourse. Judgments of relevance can be
understood as integral elements of discourse (Sperber-Wilson 1986). The
term "relevance" refers to decisions about both whether something is rele-
vant and how it is relevant. This latter understanding of relevance is some-
times referred to as "relative importance" (Cazden 1988; Givon 1989). In
school discourses, as with any other discourses, shared understandings of
the "what" and "how" of relevance are the means by which it is estab-
lished that "people like us use language, think, value, and talk in these
ways, with these objects at these times and in these places" (Gee 1992).
Membership of a discourse community is contingent on an individual es-
tablishing shared notions of relevance with other members of a discourse
community. If these notions are not shared then each individual will ex-
perience the texts of the others as fragmentary or incoherent.
Like concepts of literateness and relevance, concepts of politeness ap-
plying in Australian school discourse are specialised versions of those
applying in the English-speaking Australian community generally. They
reflect a relatively high value placed on combativeness and individualism,
and a relatively low value on community identity and traditional forms
of knowledge. To be appropriately "polite" in their essays, candidates
should assume a relationship of apparent equality with the Examiner
who is reading their essay. They should argue in favor of a point of view,
and against other points of view without any concern that they may show
lack of respect or arrogance in doing so. Candidates who have not been
introduced to this specialised school discourse as young children may
bring different views of politeness to school. This is especially the case
for young people from those cultures where individual "face" is an inap-
propriate concept and where the identity of the community is emphasised
above that of the individual, and harmony is prized over dissent (Jan-
ney-Arndt 1993).
Two additional points need to be made with regard to this examination.
The first is that the criteria applied to examination essays are not static.
While they are governed by the principles outlined above, they shift in
response to the features of the texts that are presented for each individual
examination. It is the primary task of the Examiners to provide a rank
order of candidates, and to do so they must distinguish between the ex-
amination essays and exploit whatever differences they find in the texts.
The second point concerns the role of the candidates' teachers in prepar-
ing them for the examination. Teachers act as "brokers" (Bourdieu 1971),
interpreting the Reports of Examiners from previous years and predicting
the ways in which the criteria might be applied in the current year. They
explicitly teach the underlying written-text structure described by the Ex-
aminers, and in many instances candidates adopt, or adapt, these struc-
tures. One consequence of this explicit teaching is that Examiners are
faced each year with a corpus of examination papers which are increas-
ingly similar in broad structure, but from which they must, nonetheless,
achieve a rank order of students. Examiners, therefore, rely on increas-
ingly subtle differences between texts to achieve their rank order.
If relative academic achievement is, from the perspective of the Exam-
iners, largely defined in terms of underlying discourse structure, then it
is important to be able to describe the underlying text structures gener-
ated by Hang and Tran in the examination context and to consider the
extent to which they may be influenced by cultural values.
70 Lesley Farrell
The focus of this analysis is, therefore, on "examination essays" of the

kind referred to above. Twenty-two texts written by Hang and Tran over
the course of the academic year were collected and, of these, seventeen
texts in Economics and Legal Studies were analysed. Very short, incom-
plete texts were discarded. Each of the essays analysed was written in
response to a topic set by the subject teacher and most of these topics
had been culled directly from previous examination papers. The texts
were produced as "practice essays" and so were written within the time
limit applying during the examination. This is generally a period of forty-
five to fifty minutes, although students can spend a longer time on one
essay, and a correspondingly shorter time on another, if they wish. Stu-
dents sometimes wrote their essays in class but more often they were
written at home with students imposing the time limit on themselves.
3. Realising "academic achievement" in discursive practice:

an analysis of Hang's and Tran's texts
3.1. Hang and Tran

Hang is nineteen years old. She completed her elementary education in
Vietnam and began her secondary education in Australia. In Vietnam,
Hang's parents were the proprietors of a small business. The family came
to Australia as refugees and, at the time this study was undertaken, Tran's
mother worked in the home and her father in a local factory. The family
speaks mostly Vietnamese in the home and within the local Vietnamese
community. Hang speaks Vietnamese to her Vietnamese friends and Eng-
lish to her school frieds. The texts analysed here are essays written in
preparation for the Economics and Legal Studies Higher School Certifi-
cate (HSC) examinations.
Tran is seventeen years old. He completed four years of schooling in
Vietnam before migrating to Australia with the rest of his family. He com-
pleted his elementary education, and started his secondary education, in
Australia. Tran's father was a medical doctor in Vietnam, his mother was a
teacher. At the time this study was undertaken both his parents worked as
dressmakers. Tran speaks Vietnamese at home and reads the Vietnamese
newspapers his parents buy. Tran speaks Vietnamese to his friends in the
local Vietnamese community and to his school friends who are almost ex-
clusively Vietnamese. The texts analysed here are essays written in prepara-
tion for the Legal studies Higher School Certificate (HSC) examination.
3.2. A framework for analysis

The framework of analysis is informed by many text level analyses which
cannot be directly applied to extended written texts. In general, these
studies focus on spoken discourse (Kintsch-Van Dijk 1978), on lower-
level discourse phenomena (Meyer 1977; Halliday-Hasan 1976; Halliday
1985) or on discourse processing (Kintsch 1974; Rumelhart 1975;
Schank-Abelson 1977; Kintsch-Van Dijk 1978; McClelland, Rumelhart
et al. 1986). In cases where written texts are the subject of cross-cultural
analyses, the paragraph rather than the whole text is the unit of analysis
(Kaplan 1972). Although the direct application of Givon's (1983) model
of discourse analysis to this study is limited by its emphasis on spoken
language and its orientation towards lower-order discourse phenomena
(and its corresponding application to much shorter texts than those con-
sidered here), it is informative because it provides a detailed model of
topic continuity which enables cross-language comparisons. This frame-
work incorporates those aspects of broad text organisation identified by
Clyne (1987) in addition to those discussed by Givon. The present study
follows Clyne in mapping the discourse organisation of written text. Each
text is analysed on four dimensions:
(i) Linearity
(ii) Hierarchy
(iii) Symmetry
(iv) Continuity
Texts are rendered as a set of propositions. Like Clyne (1987), I am
using the term "proposition" in the sense in which it is used in formal
logic, but I am not expressing those propositions formally. The function
of the propositions in this analysis is to characterise the components of
the discourse content so that they can be manipulated in the concrete
representations of the texts.
Two representations of each text were developed. The first, which rep-
resents the evolution of the text, is the graph (an example is provided in
Appendix A). It provides a strictly chronological account of the move-
ment of the text from one topic to another, and back again. The graph
represents the dynamics of the text. It reveals the points at which argu-
ments are introduced, interrupted, resumed, and repeated. It plots the
movement between the major topics of the essay as the movement occurs
chronologically. The graph is a concrete representation of topic continu-
ity in the text. For purposes of discussion, however, this dimension of the
72 Lesley Farrell
analysis is conceived of as a continuum, one pole of which is "very linear"

and the opposite pole of which is "very digressive". Following Clyne
(1987) texts are characterized as "linear", "slightly digressive", or "very
digressive". Texts have been deemed to be "slightly digressive" if:
(a) Some propositions are not dependent on the overarching proposition
(macroproposition) of the segment of the text in which they are situ-
ated; and/or
(b) Some propositions do not follow the macroproposition on which
they depend; and/or
(c) Some segments are inserted inside another text segment on a different
topic.
If one or more of these patterns persist throughtout the text it is deemed
to be "very digressive". If one or more of these patterns are evident in
segments of the text, but do not persist throughout the text, then it is
deemed to be "slightly digressive". If, on the other hand, none of these
conditions apply, a text is deemed to be linear. Although the terms "lin-
ear" and "digressive" may denote negative or positive rhetorical features
in specific contexts, in this discussion the terms are considered neutral;
"linear" is not intended to be a code word for "good", just as "digressive"
is not intended as a code word for "bad".
The second representation of each text is the tree chart. The tree chart
(an example is provided in Appendix B) provides a static rather than
a dynamic representation of the text. It is concerned with conceptual
dependency and is intended to provide a diagram of the dependency rela-
tionships between propositions. The tree chart is a static representation
of the relationships of conceptual dependency between propositions of
the text. It is developed by identifying the macroproposition of the text
and arranging subsequent propositions in their order of dependence. The
tree chart provides a map of the development of the different topics and
illustrates the extent to which each topic is developed and the relationship
of topics to each other. It provides the basis on which judgments about
relative subordination and co-ordination are made. The measure of de-
gree of co-ordination is a measure of the extent to which the overarching
propositions are of the same order.
The dimension of symmetry is a judgment of the extent to which each
of the topic segments is developed. A symmetrical text is one in which
topics are developed at similar length; an asymmetrical text is one in
which some topic segments are developed at relatively greater length
while others are comparatively underdeveloped.
The final category for analysis of the student texts is labelled "continu-
ity". While each of the preceding categories for analysis is concerned with
aspects of continuity, there are also specific features of the discourse
which contribute to continuity. These include the use of "bridging senten-
ces" designed to link one topic with another and "topic sentences" de-
signed to introduce the next topic for discussion.
The final point I need to make with regard to the analytical framework
is concerned with the question of objectivity. The analysis presented in
this paper has been developed by a member of the discourse community
under investigation; it represents a series of categories, and a series of
judgments, more likely to be made by members of that community than
by members of other cultural or social groups. Any form of linguistic
analysis requires that linguistic phenomena be categorized. Often the cul-
turally and socially specific nature of the categories, and of the categori-
zation process, is obscured by a patina of "objectivity" laid down by the
discursive practices of linguistic research. When the focus of the analysis
is cultural variation, however, attempts to declare the categories devel-
oped for analysis, or the analytical process, to be "objective", or "cultur-
ally universal", are not credible. This is the point that Brodkey (1992)
makes when she emphasises that a careful account of context is the only
way in which researchers into language can avoid "naive empiricism"
while doing useful empirical work and acknowledging that all research is
partial, that it is "both an incomplete and interested account of whatever
is envisioned" (1992: 298). The subjectivities of the researcher are clearly
at work in this study. This is not only an inevitable characteristic of this
analysis, it is essential to the study. Because of my background as a "suc-
cessful" product of mainstream education, this analysis inevitably pro-
vides a graphic representation of a dominant reading of the texts. It does
not, however, provide an idiosyncratic representation of these texts. This
is because, where possible, initial decisions have been checked with the
student writers, with students' subject teachers, or with other subject
teachers who, while not familiar with the work of the student, were famil-
iar with the subject matter of the text, the curriculum, and the examina-
tion.
3.3. A summary of the analysis

This analysis of the underlying written discourse structure of Hang's and
Tran's essays reveals an identifiable default pattern which is set out in
Table 1.
74 Lesley Farrell
Tablel. Summary of analysis: Hang and Tran
Text Linearity Symmetry Hierarchy Continuity
Text 1.1 slight digress asymmetrical co-ord/subord topic/repetition

Text 1.2 slight digress asymmetrical co-ordinated topic/repetition
Text 1.3 linear asymmetrical co-ordinated topic/enumeration
Text 1.4 linear asymmetrical co-ord/subord topic sentences
Text 1.5 linear asymmetrical co-ord/subord topic/enumeration
Text 1.6 linear asymmetrical co-ordinated topic sentences
Text 1.7 linear symmetrical co-ordinated topic/enumeration
Text 1.11 digressive asymmetrical co-ord/subord topic sentences
Text 1.14 linear asymmetrical co-ordinated topic sentences
Text 1.15 linear symmetrical co-ordinated topic/advanceorganiser
Text 1.17 linear symmetrical co-ordinated topic sentences
Tabulated in this way, it is apparent that the qualities of "asymmetry"

and "linearity" tend to appear together in these texts. Fourteen of the
seventeen texts analysed are judged to be "linear", and only one is catego-
rized as "digressive"; fourteen of the texts are judged "asymmetrical",
and only three are categorized as "symmetrical". With regard to hierar-
chical structure, the situation is more complex. Half the texts analysed
are judged to be "co-ordinated", with the balance of the texts exhibiting
both "co-ordinated" and "subordinated" structures. No text is catego-
rized as "subordinated". The pattern identified occurs equally in Hang's
and in Tran's texts; it is not linked to an individual writer or a specific
subject.
In summary, Hang's and Tran's underlying text structure is identified
as predominantly "linear", and "asymmetrical", and either "co-ordi-
nated" or a combination of "co-ordinated" and "subordinated". Topic
sentences, enumeration, and, to a lesser extent, repetition are the strate-
gies generally used to achieve continuity. This pattern persists in over
70 per cent of the texts analysed and occurs in both subject areas.
In some important respects this pattern conforms with the underlying
written-discourse structure taken to be evidence of academic achievement
in the examinations under investigation. It is apparently only with regard
to "symmetry" that these texts diverge in a significant way from the un-
derlying discourse organisation taken by the Examiners to be evidence of
academic achievement. This divergence is the more obvious because it
seems to defy expectations. It is generally the case that linear texts which
are primarily co-ordinated, are also symmetrical. Typically, writers of
texts structured in this way begin by identifying arguments, deal with the
arguments one at a time, and then conclude, so producing a linear, co-
ordinated, and symmetrical text. It is not surprising, then, that in the
Reports of the Examiners, "asymmetry" is taken to be evidence of the
incomplete development of some aspects of the argument. It provides
an effective, and apparently legitimate, means of discriminating between
otherwise similar texts. The legitimacy of the criterion of symmetry rests
on the assumption that asymmetry in a text is caused by the candidate's
failure to develop a topic segment. If asymmetry can be attributed to
some other cause then the legitimacy of the criterion of symmetry must
be called into question.
3.4. An interpretation of the analysis

The Examiners in this study, by their own report, interpret texts in the
light of unexamined assumptions about the (apparently unambiguous)
way in which discursive practice reflects academic achievement. They
base their judgments about relative academic achievement on variation
in discursive practice. Each essay marked in the examination is judged to
be a relatively successful, or relatively unsuccessful, attempt to produce
a linear, co-ordinated, and symmetrical text which realises the valued
qualities as "literateness", "relevance", and "politeness" in the highly spe-
cialized discourse of the examination.
In this section, I propose an alternative interpretation. I argue that
Hang's and Tran's texts may be driven by different understandings
about what constitutes an appropriately "literate", "relevant", and "po-
lite" text in the context of this examination. In generating their texts
it may be that Hang and Tran simultaneously comply with, and sub-
vert, the text structures they have been taught to adopt, and in doing
so challenge some of the cultural values implied in the discourse
structures valued in the examination. I will discuss the texts under the
criteria the Examiners select as providing the most effective means
of discriminating between candidates: "literateness", "relevance", and
"politeness".
76 Lesley Farrell
3.4.1. Literateness
The requirement for a literate text is a requirement for a linear, sequen-
tial, and analytical text. Hang's and Tran's linear and co-ordinated texts
generally meet the requirements for linearity and sequence. It is in the
area of "analysis" that their texts diverge, and it is this divergence that
results in the asymmetrical structure which is characteristic of their texts.
Typically, Hang and Tran begin their essays by rephrasing the exami-
nation question, sometimes directly engaging with it by commencing "I
agree t h a t . . . " . This formulaic introduction is followed by a series of
literal definitions of the terms appearing in the task. Sometimes terms
are defined abruptly, without the formulaic rephrasing of the question
serving as a preamble, and these definitions provide the scaffolding for
the rest of the essay. The definitions that they provide are textbook defini-
tions and often recalled word for word. Where texts include introductory
comments they are brief, serving only to mark out the terrain to be dis-
cussed in the rest of the essay. What follows is an essentially co-ordinated
text in which each paragraph begins with a topic sentence and the topic
sentence is followed with items of information about the topic.
Undergirding the requirement that texts be linear, co-ordinated, and
symmetrical is the requirement that they be "analytical". The outcome
of "analysis" in this context is a clearly articulated position in relation to
the examination question. While Hang and Tran must give the impression
that they have carefully considered all the arguments pertaining to the
question, they must clearly argue that one position is, on balance, super-
ior to all the other positions they have canvassed.
It is, however, likely that, in developing a schemata to interpret and
generate texts in this examination context, Hang and Tran will draw at
least in part on Confucian traditions, on concepts of knowledge and un-
derstanding which place emphasis on the value of considering apparent
oppositions together in order to develop a more complete understanding
of any issue (Bond 1991; Hofstede 1991). From such a perspective, the
requirement that one position must be defended, and other positions re-
jected, may be difficult to imagine and accommodate. Similarly, the abil-
ity to argue in favor of one position, and oppose alternative positions,
may not seem to be obvious evidence of academic achievement; instead
it may be interpreted as arrogant intransigence.
An analysis of Hang's and Tran's texts suggest that they are designed
to achieve different purposes, and consequently adopt different struc-
tures, from those their teachers, acting as de-facto Examiners, expect.
Hang and Tran each produce several texts which present and elaborate
opposing views but do not resolve the opposition in the text. In doing so
they generate texts which are judged by their teachers as failing to meet
some of the criteria associated with "literateness" in the context of this
examination.
Text 7.11 (Appendix C) provides a useful illustration of the way in
which Tran's teacher interprets an essay in which he presents two appar-
ently contradictory opinions which are not resolved at the conclusion of
the text. The bulk of the text focuses on the argument that legislation
against drunk-driving is effective because it reduces road deaths. In this
branch of the argument Tran marshals arguments and facts to establish
that drunk-driving is linked to road fatalities, and that legislation can
control road fatalities. The contrary argument is put in the branch of the
argument dealing with young people. Tran argues that young people
often find legislation against drunk-driving unreasonably restrictive and
so ignore it. Tran's text does not conclude with a statement evaluating
the effectiveness of legislation in the control of drunk-driving. Instead it
finishes with an apparently unrelated point about new legislation limiting
the number of passengers a probationary driver might carry. Thus there
is no resolution of the apparent conflict in the text.
Tran's teacher interprets Tran's essay as presenting two conflicting
points of view, a personal position and a public position. He advises Tran
to argue in favor of the position of which his teachers would approve:
The aim is to pass the essay, sometimes to do so you have to put your
personal opinions aside and write what the marker (namely, year-12 teach-
ers) wants to hear. This is called "politics" and is something you have to
learn.
Discuss the effectiveness of educational programs e. g. programs in schools,
those very emotional ads on tv and radio. How about a change in the
Australian drinking habits e. g. most drinking now occurs at home with
family and friends or while drinking and eating in restaurants. How about
low-alcohol beer etc, has this helped?
In this response Tran's teacher has interpreted Tran's text, from his own
cultural perspective, as presenting two conflicting points of view, a per-
sonal view and a public view. He is used to young people rebelling against
authority and so he reads the essay as an expression of rebellion and
cautions Tran against expressing anti-authority views in his essay. He
asks that Tran provide a resolution which supports a publicly appropriate
position. This is certainly wise advice, if Tran is to succeed in his exami-
nations he must present himself as a responsible young person. The ad-
vice may, however, be based on a misinterpretation of Tran's purpose
78 Lesley Farrell
in presenting opposing arguments in this essay. In order to propose an

alternative interpretation of the text, it is helpful to read it in the light of
the other texts that Tran and Hang write in preparation for the examina-
tion.
Tran's essay on drunk-driving legislation is not an isolated example
provoked by an emotional topic. In the essays analysed here, Hang and
Tran routinely place contradictory propositions next to each other with-
out supporting one position and rejecting others. In an essay on alterna-
tive voting systems, for instance, Tran on the one hand puts the case that
the preferential system of voting is a fair one, and on the other hand
presents the view that it is not fair. Hang adopts a similar pattern in her
essay on the Australian system of government. She develops the case
that Australia has a unitary system of government while simultaneously
presenting the case that Australia has a truly federated system. In evaluat-
ing this essay, Hang's teacher requires that she present the approved opin-
ion in her essay. In response to a sentence which occurs about half way
through the essay, "So, our system even though it is moving towards a
unitary system is in fact not unitary because residual powers are still in
effective use", Hang's teacher has commented, "Hang, I think this state-
ment, which clearly states your position, should have been included in
the introduction." This statement carries no special weight in the essay,
however, and Hang's position remains unclear at the end of the essay.
Hang's teacher is identifying the line of argument that Hang should have
taken in the essay, not the line of argument that she did take. Hang's
teacher reinforces this message when she comments on her essay on
States' Rights: "Previously you said the states lost power over these areas!
You are aware of all the major issues, but have not taken a clearly distin-
guishable line in your essay. There are also contradictions that need to
be dealt with."
For a text to be understood as "literate" in the specific context of the
public examination under discussion here, it must adopt a logo-centric
approach to argument. When it does not do so, Examiners, and teachers
acting as de-facto Examiners, interpret the text as failing to meet the
obvious structural requirements of the examination. The text is judged
deficient in "structure" and these structural deficiencies are taken to indi-
cate academic deficiencies, especially the inability to "analyse", to present
and defend an argument. These structural deficiencies provide potent
discriminators in the examination. The analysis presented here suggests
that, at least in some contexts, the underlying text structure in which
oppositional propositions are placed next to each other is a genuinely

alternative structure rather than a deficient one, and that it may realise
an alternative cultural orientation to the way that oppositions should be
regarded in intellectual inquiry. The demonstrated capacity to argue one
case over another may be regarded, therefore, as a measure of academic
achievement which draws upon cultural values which do not apply uni-
versally in the broader, multi-ethnic Australian community.
3.4.2. Relevance
Relevance has been identified as a central criterion by which candidates
are ranked in this examination. This analysis suggests that Hang and
Tran generally meet the requirement for relevant texts as they are defined
by the Examiners and interpreted by their teachers. Certainly, their teach-
ers do not generally comment that aspects of their texts are irrelevant;
their comments are more often concerned with ways the texts might be
elaborated rather than ways in which they might be focused and limited.
3.4.3. Politeness
The discriminators which cluster around the criteria of politeness are
concerned with the ways in which the relationship between the candidate
and the Examiner is mediated through the examination script. Examiners
read personal qualities from the underlying discourse organisation of the
examination essays and so they make judgments about individual candi-
date's "independence", "originality", "spark", or "stolidity". These judg-
ments are made on the basis of the way in which the candidates position
themselves in relation to the examiner, position themselves in relation to
examinable knowledge in general, and position themselves in relation to
the specific content under examination in an individual examination task.
Vietnamese commentators, living in Australia, make the point that it
is generally inappropriate for students in Vietnam to assume equality,
insert personal views, or argue an independent case in academic settings
(Do Quy Toan 1989; Nguyen Xuan Thu 1988). More generally, they em-
phasize that community harmony is a central value and direct statements
of opinion are understood to threaten the cohesiveness of the group.
Core values like these must undergo constant reinterpretation and refor-
mulation by individuals in specific social contexts, and this is especially
the case in multi-ethnic contexts like Australian schools. Nevertheless, it
is reasonable to speculate that Hang's and Tran's texts may be shaped by
alternative understandings of the appropriate relationship to be initiated
with the Examiner and the appropriateness of directly expressing opin-
ions.
80 Lesley Farrell
The underlying discourse structure of Hang's and Tran's texts is

marked by asymmetry. One rhetorical strategy, employed frequently by
both Hang and Tran, is the introduction of a major question at the end
of the text. This strategy contributes significantly to the asymmetry iden-
tified in the texts because the questions are only posed, they are neither
elaborated upon nor answered. So, one branch of the argument remains
comparatively underdeveloped. These questions have the effect of refrain-
ing the discussion which has gone on before, deflecting attention from
the argument proposed, and reducing the prominence of the statement
of a point of view that has been made. In response to the task: "All that
remains of our federal system is the name. In fact it is unitary. Discuss."
Hang concludes: "The important question remains, was the Constitution
intentionally written to favour the Commonwealth???"
The question, emphasised with three question marks, serves to reframe
the preceding discussion. Hang's teacher comments: "Why introduce such
a major question in the last sentence?"
Similarly, in another essay on the Australian Connstitution, Hang ends
her essay with: "The question remains, did the authors of the Constitu-
tion intend to use Section 128 effectively or was it written to prevent
change?"
Tran uses a similar technique in his essay on the preferential system
of voting. In this essay he concludes his text by introducing, but not
developing, a discussion of gerrymandering.
3.4.4. Summary
Hang and Tran present texts which meet the explicit demands of the
Examiners in several important respects. They produce texts which are
co-ordinated and linear and in doing so meet the needs of the Examiners
to have information organised in familiar ways. In other important re-
spects, however, their texts deviate from the patterns expected and valued
by the Examiners.
The analysis presented here suggests that the texts reflect in their un-
derlying discourse structure attempts to accommodate the demands of
the examination, when these demands are made explicit, and to realize
and give expression to the complex cultural values called into play for
the individual student in the context of this examination.
4. Cultural values and judgments about

academic achievement:
Some reflections from this study
Hang and Tran have satisfied many informal assessment procedures to

reach the stage where they are candidates for the tertiary entrance exami-
nations discussed here. They have demonstrated that they can accommo-
date many of the requirements of academic achievement that their school
imposes; if they could not meet these requirements they would not be
permitted to present themselves for the examination. However, the prag-
matic requirement that they achieve a rank order of students demands
that the Examiners search for differences in underlying written-discourse
structure in order to distinguish between candidates and so distribute
university places. It is this requirement that determines the precise discur-
sive practices taken to be evidence of academic achievement in any given
instance of this examination. When competition is tight, relatively subtle
differences in underlying discourse structure are magnified. As Hang's
and Tran's teachers demonstrate in their written comments on the essays,
variation in written discourse structure, which may be the result, as
Trueba suggests, of conflicting cultural values, is taken to be transparent
evidence of inadequate academic achievement. Difference becomes defi-
cit.
82 Lesley Farrell
Appendix Β
~ ϊ ο S
Ο CS
« « «
-ΙΛ
φ. - S -
νΟ
Tf ΙΛ
—Λ—in ΙΛ
2
" —C
ΟN
f* 00 ,-ι
τ- C4
ΙΟ «
C
8
ΙΓ>
σν
-ro • -a—a
.Ο ~ (Ν
·*· Τ
.(Μ
-σ\
Χ
<υ
α
ο
"ο
t j > —g;ν —«η (Ν
t —in
c
1>
o.
Ρ
mn " T
-cs •
I $ —<?> —<*>
•Ift
-{Q-S-fc-H
-co· "δ
ε
I
84 Lesley Farrell
Appendix C
"Because the legislation is ineffective, society will just have to accept the fact that a large
number of road users will die as a result of drinking and driving." Discuss.
Alcohol has been linked with road deaths ever since cars were introduced. Recently
drunk driving has had a major impact on the whole community. About 40% of the drivers
killed on our roads are drunk drivers and all of those are over the legal limit of .05. About
half of those drivers killed are aged 18-24. The effects on drink and driving is very serious
and often fatal because alcohol affects all drivers.
Alcohol affects a person's judgement which means that the driver has trouble judging
speed, both his/her own speed and that of others. Alcohol gives a person a false sense of
confidence and this means that a person will take risks that he/she would not normally
take. Alcohol also makes it hard for a person to do more than one thing at a time. For
example, a person can concentrate on the road, but what happens when something suddenly
happens like a pedestrian 'leaps' out from a car and the driver won't be able to stop in
time. If you are already tired alcohol can add to your sleepiness. It also affects a person's
sense of balance and that is important if that person is a motor cyclist.
The change in legislation over the last 20 years includes laws passed in May 1984 prohib-
iting learner drivers and probationary drivers and drivers without a licence to have any
alcohol in their blood. On 1 March 1987 the zero alcohol limit was extended to those on
their second year of their probationary licence. Until 1974 police were allowed to just stop
drivers and breath test them. But in 1974 legislation was introduced which enabled police
to hold random breath testing blitzes. In the same year legislation was also introduced so
that if a person is admitted to hospital as a result of a motor accident, that he/she must have
a blood test done in order to detect the presence of alcohol. These laws were introduced in
order to reduce the level of drink driving incidents on our roads and from statistics it has
shown that the government has succeeded it its main aim. But the laws are only effective
if the drivers abide by them. Most younger drivers think the laws are too strict and unfair
especially to their age group. They expect the law to be a 'little easy' on them. E. g. most
young people believe that the .05 law is a little strict because it is, often. I mean who is just
going to drink up to .05 when people drink it is to get drunk, or what's the use? The two
year probationary limit is also unreasonable according to young drivers because it is too
long and they all tend to want to drink after their first year. These beliefs are all based on
surveys held with young drivers. But the more older and experienced drivers tend to also
disagree with the .05 limit because they have no fun, just drink a small amount of alcohol.
It is not a fair assumption that the problem of drink driving can only be overcome by
tougher laws because if they are too tough drivers will only get fed up and just keep break-
ing the laws. When me and my friends discuss the new proposals, we get really emotional
about it because we believe that the new proposals are unfair towards us. Especially propos-
als that Ρ platers are only allowed to carry one passenger in the car. We think that this is
unfair because when you do get your licence you tend to want to drive your mates around.
Yeh I know that if there are more passengers in the car that more people will get injured
or even killed, but don't experienced drivers have accidents too? We will just have to be
careful, that's all. We all said to each other that if that proposal comes through that we
wont obey it because it is unrealistic. What if there is an emergency and we need to drive
people to the hospital or something? If the government wants to get its point across I
suggest that they try to make the community more about the risks and penalties of drink
driving instead of scaring people with tougher laws.
Some current changes to the law are that people over the age of 16 are able to go for
their learner's permits and this is effective because it enable drivers to have more experience
before they actually drive and other proposals include no V 8s and more than one passenger
for Ρ platers these are also effective because V 8s go fast and speed is dangerous whether
resulting in accident or not and the 1 passenger proposal is unfair but effective because that
reduces the road fatalities because there are less people in the (car) driven by the less
experienced Ρ plater.
References
Bond, Michael
1991 Beyond the Chinese face. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Bordieu, Pierre
1971 "Systems of education and systems of thought", in: Michael Young (ed.),
Knowledge and control. London, Collier-Macmillan. 189—207.
Bruner, Jerome
1991 Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Brodkey, Linda
1992 "Articulating poststructural theory in research on literacy", in: Richard
Beach, Judith Green, Michael Kamil and Timothy Shanahan (eds.), Multidis-
ciplinary perspectives on literacy research. Illinois: Urbana: National Council
for the Teaching of English: 293—318.
Cazden, Courtney
1988 Classroom discourse. The language of teaching and learning. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Clyne, Michael
1987 "Cultural differences in the organisation of academic texts", Journal of Prag-
matics 11: 211-247.
Do Quy Toan
1989 "Notes on education in the traditional culture of Vietnam", Journal of Viet-
namese Studies 1,2: 13 — 17.
Farrell, Lesley
1994 a Making the grade: A study of the writing in English of non-English speaking
background students in the final year of schooling. [Unpublished Ph. D. the-
sis. Monash University, Melbourne.]
1994 b Making Grades. Unpublished paper delivered to the Australian Association
for Research in Education Conference, Newcastle, Australia, November,
1994.
Ferdman, Bernado
1990 "Literacy and cultural identity", Harvard Educational Review, 60(2).
Gee, James Paul
1992 The Social Mind. New York: Berin and Garvey.
Givon, Talmy
1983 Topic continuity in discourse: A quantitative cross-linguistic study. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
1989 Mind, code and context: Essays in pragmatics. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erl-
baum and Associates.
86 Lesley Farrell
Halliday, Michael A. K.
Halliday, Michael A. K. and Ruqayia Hasan
1976 Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
Havelock, Eric
1963 Preface to Plato. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hofstede, Gert
1991 Cultures and organisations: Software of the mind. London: McGraw Hill.
Janney, Richard W. — Horst Arndt
1993 "Universality and relativity in cross-cultural politeness research: a historical
perspective", Multilingua 12: 13—50.
Kaplan, Robert
1972 The anatomy of rhetoric: Prolegomena to a functional theory of rhetoric. Phila-
delphi: Center for Curriculum Development.
Kalantzis, Mary, Bob, C o p e - D i a n a Slade
1989 Minority languages and dominant culture. London: The Falmer Press.
Kintsch, Walter
1974 The representation of meaning in memory. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kintsch, Walter—Teun Van Dijk
1978 "Towards a model of text comprehension and production", Psychological Re-
view 85: 363-394.
McClelland, James, David E. Rumelhart, and the Parallel Distributed Process Research
Group
1986 Parallel distributed processing. Exploration in the microstructure of cognition.
Vol2. Psychological and Biological models. Cambridge, Mass.: Bradford
Books/MIT Press.
Meyer, Bonnie
1977 "The structure of prose: Effects on learning and memory and implications
for educational practice", in: Rand Anderson, R. C. Spiro, and W. E. Mon-
tague (eds.), Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge. Hillsdale, N. J.: Law-
rence Erlbaum, 179-200.
Nguyen Xuan Thu
1988 "Understanding Vietnamese students: A focus on their passive attitude",
Journal of Vietnamese Studies: 19—25.
Reid, William
1993 "Literacy, orality and the functions of the curriculum", in: Bill Green (ed.),
The insistence of the letter: Literacy studies and curriculum theorizing. London:
The Falmer Press, 13-26.
Rumelhart, David
1975 "Notes on schema for stories", in: Daniel Bobrow-Allan Collins (eds.), Rep-
resentation and understanding. New York: Academic Press, 211-236.
Schank, Roger, Robert Abelson
1977 Scripts, plans, goals and understandings. An inquiry into human knowledge
structures. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sperber, Dan, Deidre Wilson
1986 Relevance, communication and cognition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Trueba, Henry
1990 "The role of culture in literacy acquisition: an interdisciplinary approach to
qualitative research", Qualitative Studies in Education 3.1: 1 — 13.
Van Dijk, T e u n - Walter Kintsch
1983 Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York: Academic Press.
Language culture, language awareness,
and writing curricula in Polish schools
Urszula Zydek-Bednarczuk
1. Introduction
The notion of language culture has several different meanings. On the
one hand, it is viewed as an independent branch of linguistics; on the
other, it is associated with social activity, with practical language use,
and with language policies. In Poland, too much attention has been paid
to practical activities aimed at creating norms, and not enough to theoret-
ical study of the dynamics of the development of the contemporary Polish
language.
This article discusses the theoretical aspects of the Polish understand-
ing of the notion of language culture, and compares them with the prac-
tice in this field. The discussion of these issues will make reference to a
survey on the language awareness of a typical Polish speaker. Polish
school curricula will also be evaluated for their coverage of the teaching
of language culture, which includes instruction in the language system
(i. e., in the theoretical foundations of language culture) as well as prac-
tice in the communicative skills that are correlated with the ability to
construct correct texts. The ultimate goal of this chapter is to shed light
on attitudes toward the teaching of academic texts in Polish as a native
language.
2. Language culture: an ambiguous term
The notion of language culture may be considered from three different

perspectives: (a) as the activity aimed at perfecting language skills; (b) as
the level of command of a given language; or (c) as a separate branch
of linguistics. Language culture aims, in the first place, to establish the
contemporary language norms. Therefore, the understanding of this no-
tion has been associated with the correct use of language forms that are
consistent with the language custom - i. e., with the usage of the edu-
90 Urszula Zydek-Bednarczuk
cated speakers of the language. The research material obtained in this

way enables linguists to describe language norms and to present the basis
for their propagation. The definition of language culture presented above
is not exhaustive in view of the theories of language communication.
Language is always used to some purpose. If language is supposed to be
an effective tool for every language user, each user must possess a certain
level of language awareness and a defined attitude toward the language
he uses. Strictly defined language norms are not sufficient. Apart from
norms presented in prescriptive dictionaries, which refer to the compo-
nents of language systems, we also possess natural internal norms that
can be described as the language instinct. Taking into consideration all
these facts, we may agree that the notion of language culture may be
interpreted in both a narrow and a broad way.
The narrow meaning of this term was presented by Halina Kurkow-
ska. In her opinion, language culture is "the activity aimed at perfecting
the language and developing the skills to use it in a correct and effective
way" (Buttler—Kurkowska-Satkiewicz 1971: 58-59) 1 . In the broad
sense, the term "language culture covers the rules of language behavior,
the ability to use them, the knowledge of these rules and abilities, and
also the cognitive activities focused on broadening this knowledge - in
other words, the theoretical and practical knowledge and the ability to
apply this knowledge in practice, for example in teaching" (Gajda 1995:
55).
Grucza offers a very interesting understanding of language culture,
including in his definition:
(a) practically relevant knowledge derived from pure knowledge;

(b) practical knowledge, derived directly from practice and proved in the
reductive way, i. e. based on pure knowledge (which is primary to
the practical one);
(c) a practical language activity, undertaken with a clearly defined pur-
pose - for example, language advice, or teaching a specific language
skill. (Grucza 1983: 393-394, 405)
The definitions of language culture presented above show that the con-
cept itself is ambiguous, and that it is difficult, sometimes even impos-
sible, to combine "pure knowledge with the practical activity, especially
in those cases when the definitions related to prescriptive rules are not
associated with the optimal social effectiveness of communication" (Pu-
zynina 1995: 20-30).
Language culture in Polish schools 91
3. Language norms and their functioning

"Language norm" is one of the most important notions for an under-
standing of language culture, and is connected with both the theory and
the practice of mastering language skills. The theoretical concepts associ-
ated with the norm attempt to determine its scope and method of codifi-
cation. A notion of prescriptive linguistics has even been introduced (Bu-
gajski 1993). To grasp the notion of language culture, it is important to
understand the relationship between the system and the norm. According
to Saussure's theory, a norm may be placed in contrast with either lan-
guage or parole. The solution to this problem can be found in the works
of the Prague School, where a norm consists of language units and the
rules for using them, which function in a given period of time, are sanc-
tioned in a given speech community, and are binding for all of its mem-
bers. Those available language units are either the only correct forms or
coexisting parallel variants. The norm is ever changing (Miodek 1983: 7).
According to Hjelmslev (1979: 14-16), the relationship language-
schema, language-norm, and language—usage are not related to Saus-
sure's parole. It is the norm that assumes the existence of certain usage
and the speech act, not the other way around. The norm, the usage, and
the speech act are closely interrelated and can be viewed as the usage in
which norm is an abstract concept and the speech act a concrete perfor-
mance. In other words, the system is realized through the usage. The
usage, in turn, consists of a set of possibilities, out of which one is chosen
for the particular speech act.
The model of schema-norm-usage-speech act has stirred up certain
controversies among the Polish specialists dealing with the notion of lan-
guage culture. They were more prone to accept Coseriu's theory, in which
"a norm is a set of language units and rules approved by a given society,
which determine the number of possibilities of combining those units into
texts" (Buttler-Kurkowska-Satkiewicz 1971: 18). System, norm, and
text are the three levels that define the culture of language. If we were to
accept such an understanding of a norm, we would have to accept that
a typical native speaker would associate it with a set of rules that define
clearly what is correct and what is incorrect. Schools have shown a sim-
ilar attitude toward the concept of a norm. In practice, the norm is often
replaced by the instinct, which is shaped on the basis of observation and
imitation of other speakers (i. e., on the basis of usage). If every utterance
must conform to the norm, and the norm refers to the description of
literary language, the norm will not be easily translated by an individual
language user into a different language variety. If this is how the language
norm is perceived, individuals mark their own individuality in colloquial
speech by breaking the norm or applying its variants.
The problems with the norm in the framework of language culture
show directly that its practical and theoretical aspects are not equally
important. A typical Polish user regards a norm as a set or rules, but
those rules do not take into account the possible varieties of the Polish
language. As a result, there is a great disparity between the norm to
be acquired by a pupil and the pupil's language behavior in different
communicative situations.
4. Language awareness of speakers and language culture
In view of the many different ways of understanding the language norm,

a survey has been carried out to evaluate the language awareness and
language culture of a typical language user. The attitudes of the adult
population toward language culture (including prescriptive linguistics
and the standard norms) have also been covered by the study. The sample
consisted of 500 people. The study was based on a questionnaire con-
sisting of 12 main questions and a dozen or so subsidiary questions that
functioned as testing questions and 'lie detectors'. The questions were
structured so that they could be understood by all respondents, no matter
what their educational background. The questionnaire comprised both
closed-ended and open-ended questions. The interviewers also discussed
selected issues with the respondents. The data collected consisted of writ-
ten answers to the questions and recorded interviews on the topics cov-
ered by the questionnaire.
The study was carried out in 5 different groups, each consisting of 100
respondents. The main differentiating feature among respondents was
education, followed by age and sex. The first group consisted of respon-
dents with primary education: final-year pupils of primary schools, first-
year students of vocational schools, and elderly people between 58 and
62 years of age. The professional group consisted of workers and students
of evening technical schools. The third group comprised final-year pupils
of secondary grammar schools and first- and second-year students. The
fourth group consisted of respondents with higher education - teachers
with MA degrees and engineers. The last group (advanced higher educa-
tion) consisted of research workers and teachers at the Silesian universi-
ties. The age ranged between 15 and 62 years. With respect to sex, the
aim was to maintain a relative balance between the two sexes in all the
groups studied. The data were analyzed statistically on the basis of the
frequency of occurrence of a given feature (respondent's opinion on a
given issue) in the respective groups determined by three evaluative vari-
ables: education, sex, and age.
5. Findings
In what follows I shall concentrate on the respondents' performance in

addressing the issues of our immediate interest here. This includes the
understanding of such notions as language culture, language norm, and
culture of speech. I shall omit the remaining questions; for the sake of
order, though, let me exemplify their character. Some of the questions
probed the respondents' awareness of lexical changes in the Polish lan-
guage; others asked for evaluation of the language of mass media and of
political debates in the Polish parliament; still others explored the peo-
ple's attitudes to proficiency in public speaking.
Question 7 was a multiple-choice question referring to the understand-
ing of the notions "culture of speech" and "language culture". The re-
spondents chose the following answers: Language culture means only
correctness (6 percent), communicativeness (6 percent), correctness com-
bined with communicativeness and respect for the speaker (87 percent),
and I don't understand the notion (about 1 percent). Graduates of voca-
tional schools as well as people with secondary, higher, and advanced
higher education usually chose the third response. The respondents' ex-
planations of their choices were recorded on tape. The same question
comprised the issue of respondents' attitudes toward vulgarisms in lan-
guage. Ninety-four percent "were shocked" with vulgarity, no matter
what their sex or education. It was mentioned that vulgarisms are more
shocking in the language of women than of men.
Question 8 was related to the previous question and referred to the
choice of the most important criterion for the correctness of utterances.
Forty-two percent of respondents thought the correctness criteria should
be adjusted to the level of the hearer and the situation. Thirty-six percent
chose the option of combining grammatical correctness with text logic
and text coherence, and also with the avoidance of vulgar words. Respon-
dents pointed out that the criterion of grammatical correctness is not
sufficient in itself.
Questions 9 and 10 dealt with the problem of choosing correct lan-

guage patterns. Ninety percent of people with higher and advanced
higher education rely on different kinds of dictionaries and lexicons. The
lower the level of education, the fewer people consult prescriptive sources
of information. Graduates of primary and vocational schools prefer to
ask other people for help.
To the questions "who should teach the proper way of speaking?"
and "how should we choose between standard and colloquial forms to
construct utterances?" the respondents answered that parents and schools
are responsible for teaching language correctness to the same extent
(87 percent). In the recorded conversations respondents often mentioned
the huge role of mass media in improving language correctness and
television's failure to fulfill this role. Ninety percent of university employ-
ees and 70 percent of teachers, but only 19 percent of pupils from voca-
tional and secondary schools believed that the standard norm should be
binding in all situations. The same people in the previous question an-
swered that both school and parents are responsible for equipping a
young person with the knowledge and skills required for the standard
correctness. As many as 80 percent of those interviewed thought a collo-
quial norm is acceptable in certain situations, for example in informal
situations and in personal contacts. Pupils from vocational schools
thought this norm should be popularized because "this is how the major-
ity of the society speak". The older people thought replacement of the
standard norm with the colloquial variety would be unacceptable.
The last question referred to the significance of language in people's
lives. In the group with primary and vocational education, 90 percent of
respondents noticed that language helps one to find a job and facilitates
contacts. The lack of proper knowledge of language can be an obstacle
in getting a job. People with secondary, higher, and advanced higher edu-
cation believe that the accomplished use of language gives confidence,
facilitates contacts, and is necessary when talking to other people in busi-
ness situations.
6. Survey evaluation
The analysis of the data and the positive atmosphere in which the study
was carried out confirmed our working hypothesis that there is a social
need to carry out such surveys in the society and to update the data
already available with respect to those issues. The respondents showed a
positive attitude toward the survey; they made emotional comments

about language correctness, they were willing to express their views on
the language. The model of a cross-section questionnaire survey sug-
gested by Krystyna Urban (1991: 7 - 2 1 ) has also proved to be very effec-
tive. This can be attributed to the subconscious willingness of the people
to discuss issues concerning their native language. The educational back-
ground did not have any influence on the respondents' attitudes.
In the nature of questionnaire surveys certain factors cause additional
difficulties. When interpreting the results, we should always bear in mind
that we are dealing with opinions about the facts rather than with the
facts themselves. Following Reichman (1968: 329):
When expressing an opinion, the respondent is in a way revealing part of
his own self to the interviewer ... if the respondent were asked the same
question an hour later or on the following day, he or she might give a
different answer. The opinions can change every second, especially with
respect to the issues which the respondent finds unessential or uninterest-
ing. You should also bear in mind that he may give false answers. They
can result from purposeful euphemisms or certain mental behaviors.
Vulgarisms are shocking for 90 percent of graduates of vocational

schools, but maybe they think they should be shocked by them, especially
in the context of a survey on language awareness. Was it really the case
that during the interview all the respondents already had precise opinions
on, for example, the standard language? This question, formulated in a
similar way, raised serious doubts among the members of the Warsaw
Scientific Society. Jadwiga Puzynina mentioned this fact in her work:
"What you can derive from this is the fact that apart from the representa-
tives of the humanities, people do not feel a necessity to differentiate
between the language of unofficial meetings, i. e. colloquial Polish, and
the official, formal language used in public" (Puzynina 1990: 661).
Taking into account potential dangers arising inevitably from the
method of a questionnaire survey, I have received an affirmative answer
to the main question, "Does language awareness exist in the modern
society?", only in an indirect way. Another problem is how many people
should be included in the sample. A sample of 500 respondents seemed
sufficient to me, but it would be risky to apply the results to the whole
society. The analysis of the data has proven that when evaluating certain
phenomena, a contemporary Polish speaker would like to rely on certain
accepted authorities, including scientific, didactic, literary, institutional,
and social. This is demonstrated by the large volume of correspondence
received by J. Miodek concerning the problems of language correctness.
The findings of this survey are consistent with the results obtained
by Urban (1991: 7 - 1 9 ) , Puzynina (1990: 640-672), and Cegietta (1995:
46-54). In those works too the respondents stressed the role of the stan-
dard language and the responsibility of schools and parents to teach pu-
pils to express their ideas in speech and writing in a correct and effective
way. The respondents often expressed concern that they could not speak
the language properly. They were also aware that in official situations,
for example when talking to their superiors, the standard forms were
necessary. This opinion was based exclusively on the advantages arising
from good speech. Language was often treated in a very practical, instru-
mental way, and language awareness was associated with the following
advantages deriving from language correctness: I am better evaluated,
more respected, it is easier to handle any problem, I gain confidence and
respect, people have a better opinion of me than of somebody who cannot
express his ideas in a proper way. The opinion that this desired knowledge
of language should be taught at school was shared by the respondents
between 15 and 30 years of age, while older people with higher and ad-
vanced higher education, especially teachers, believed that the parents
should be responsible for teaching standard language forms. Respon-
dents rarely mentioned "the real intelligentsia" which could serve as the
model for language correctness. Those interviewed often explained that
due to the social and cultural transformations, the language authority of
the so-called "old intelligentsia" had diminished.
The question about language authorities caused a lot of confusion.
Those respondents who spoke improperly chose well-educated people as
their language authority: i. e., linguists and people who are likely to pos-
sess a profound knowledge about the language, namely teachers of Po-
lish. However, they could not give the characteristic features of the lan-
guage of their authorities. The respondents with a wider language aware-
ness - a group with higher and advanced higher education — mentioned
dictionaries, handbooks, and lexicons they consider sources of language
correctness. They also mentioned the objectivity, reliability, scientific
level, and accessibility of linguistic information. The respondents also
interpreted the terms language culture and speech culture differently. Some
respondents with secondary education, and some representatives of the
humanities with higher and advanced higher education, said that stan-
dard variation was associated with grammatical correctness and the free-
dom to choose it or not in official and unofficial situations. The respon-
dents from other groups associated speech culture with communicative-
ness and respect for the other person - "such a person will be able to
talk to everybody".
The survey suggests the following major observations:

(1) There is a certain level of language awareness in Polish society.
Among people with lower education, it is associated with the practical
and instrumental functions of language. In the case of educated people,
it is connected with knowledge of the language and with its system-build-
ing, communicative, and aesthetic functions. For the first group of peo-
ple, the awareness consists in the language ability to cope in various situa-
tions; for the latter it consists in the language skill to speak and write
properly.
(2) The changes occurring in the language as a result of the social and
cultural transformations are perceived as a threat to the language by
the older sector of the society. The younger generations believe that the
admission of foreign words into Polish is required by changing times.
(3) The people feel that linguists and teachers should be considered
the language authorities.
(4) Education plays a decisive role in shaping language awareness.
(5) Age (not correlated with education) plays a major role in choosing
the models of language correctness and in giving preference to the stan-
dard variety over the colloquial.
(6) Sex plays a secondary role in shaping language awareness.
In search of the method of teaching standard variation, considerable
attention was paid to the role of the school. The school curriculum and
handbooks presently in use were analyzed to determine whether the
school is capable of meeting the goals set by the respondents in the sur-
vey.
6. Language culture at school

Issues of language culture have been included in the curricula of the
primary and secondary schools 2 . The primary aims of education include
the correct and effective use of language in speech and writing. The topics
selected for teaching are concerned with precisely defined knowledge and
skills, and are related to those primary education aims. The primary
school curriculum covers the functional teaching of grammar and deals
with the issues of prescriptive norms — for example, the rules of accentu-
ation, inflections of verbs such as to know, to understand, to go in different
tenses, spelling and pronunciation of nasal vowels, noun declensions with
special attention paid to the nominative case of the plural form and the
genitive case of the singular and plural forms (Pisarek-Zgolkowa 1990 a:
8 - 3 6 ) . The focus is on prescriptive correctness, and attention is paid to

knowledge of rules and principles. Apart from learning about the lan-
guage, students complete exercises in speaking and writing. These exer-
cises refer to selected forms of utterances, such as story-telling, descrip-
tion, summary, report, characteristics, essay, and so on. Each form of
utterance is followed by the appropriate exercises focused on vocabulary,
phraseology, grammar and style, composition, spelling, and punctuation.
The curriculum stipulates that there should be a feedback reaction be-
tween the processes of learning about the language, especially between
the shaping of language correctness and the speaking and writing exer-
cises (that is, the exercises related to building different text-types).
The curriculum does not cover the issues of text structure, its adjust-
ment to the situation, the relationships between the speaker and the
hearer, or the aims of the communication. The curriculum is focused on
the ready-made pattern, which in the process of realization is not always
transformed into creative knowledge about text-building within the rules
of grammatical and communicative correctness. In the primary school
language culture is less important than teaching about the system — that
is, about the standard variation derived from handbooks or dictionaries.
The communicative skills related to the social effectiveness of communi-
cation are left aside. In the surveys that studied the effects of shaping
language culture, attention has usually been focused exclusively on the
mistakes made by the pupils. Those mistakes were analyzed in relation
to the knowledge of the language system, and were divided into three
groups: syntax, inflection, and vocabulary. There are very few works deal-
ing with the analysis of text coherence, in relation to coherence indicators
and semantic coherence, creativity in building the text as a form of utter-
ance, and in the adjustment of language forms to the communicative
situation. The primary school curriculum is focused on the standard lan-
guage variety, and only this norm is evaluated positively.
In secondary school, the issues of language culture appear in the syl-
labi (see Note 2, 1990 b) and handbooks of the first and fourth years. The
first-year pupils deal with the problems of language communication. A
wide definition of language culture and speech culture is proposed.
As we already know, the word "language" in the phrase "language culture"
has many different meanings. Therefore, within the scope of language cul-
ture we can distinguish:
(1) concern for the language code as protecting a given language from
hybrid forms, funny names, and clumsy words, and from altering the gram-
matical system of this language without a real need for a change
(2) concern for the way in which we express ourselves so that our texts
are produced in a clear and aesthetic form — with the appropriate pauses,
intonation, accents, and speech volume adequate for a given moment; this
is the culture of speaking.
(3) the striving to make our utterances, our texts correct and aestheti-
cally successful. (Dubisz—Nagajowa—Puzynina 1986: 87)
The authors of the student's book also paid attention to the fact that
utterances should be formed in a clear, correct, noncontradictory way
and should be adjusted to the situation and the hearers. They should
become part of high-quality communication. This is the culture of utter-
ances, also referred to as "speech culture".
The theoretical part is accompanied by interesting practical exercises
that help students to acquire the skill to communicate properly in dif-
ferent situations. To give an example, pupils are supposed to complete the
sentences in a text containing elliptical sentences; to correct the coherence
indicators; to find different methods of reaching coherence used in the
text; to find examples of noninformative, clumsy sentences; and to ex-
plain the meanings of foreign words.
The best solution for the secondary-school curriculum is to combine
the issues of language communication and language culture. Teaching
should focus on practical exercises and on presenting appropriate lan-
guage behavior that covers both the ability to function correctly within
the language and the communicative ability. This would be a guarantee
of communicative success. The syllabi discussed above are fulfilled to
varying degrees. The teachers complain about overloaded syllabi, the do-
minance of the cognitive aims, too few hours per week. In the secondary
school they usually do not cover the whole language syllabus. The conclu-
sions arising from the analysis of language awareness clearly show that
the school is responsible for education in this field. The issues of language
culture should therefore be included in the first year of the secondary
school. In the fourth year, the syllabus refers to the notion of language
culture understood as a linguistic science. Pupils get acquainted with the
following phenomena occurring in present-day Polish: (a) the tendency
to reduce effort; (b) the tendency toward clarity and precision; (c) the
tendency toward enrichment of the vocabulary; and (d) the tendency to-
ward the enrichment of one's own language (Buttler—Satkiewicz 1990:
36).
Pupils also learn about the criteria for language correctness and the
methods used by linguists to establish and codify the standard forms. At
this point, pupils learn about the notion of variants from the norm and
100 Urszuia Zydek-Bednarczuk
the freedom to choose one of two or more forms, each being correct, for
example in the case of the nominative and genitive cases of some Polish
nouns (tapczana or tapczanu 'coach', postaci or postacie 'characters' etc.).
The choice of available exercises is relatively limited, which limits stu-
dents' opportunities to refine their skills. Besides, in the fourth year,
which is the year of final exams, such broad material is fated to fail
anyway. As with the first-year pupils, literature topics are more important
than linguistic ones. Teaching the issues of language culture to children
and young people and shaping their views on the norm and its function
in the social communication is useful, but only with respect to the theo-
retical issues.
The school experience has shown many inadequacies of the curricula.
It is important to change the way the language is treated. In primary
schools, it is treated as a model, ideal pattern, which is practically impos-
sible for the pupils to follow. In secondary schools, there is much more
theory than practical information on the different levels of the norm -
ranging from the optimal, ideal one used in writing to a more colloquial
one used in speaking but still correct in certain situations. In shaping
language culture at school, we should begin with the theoretical issues
and then pass on to the active use of language in its different varieties,
taking into account the requirements of language skill and correctness.
This conclusion has been confirmed by the results of the survey on lan-
guage awareness in the field of language culture.
Note
1. The translator, Katarzyna Dragan, is also responsible for the English translations of all
quotations from Polish-language sources.
2. 1990a Program szkoly podstawowej. Klasy 4.-8. [The curriculum for the primary
school, classes 4th to 8th]. Warsaw: MEN.
1990 b Program liceum ogölnoksztalcqcego oraz liceum zawodowego i technikum [The
curriculum of the secondary grammar school, vocational school and technical
school]. Warsaw: MEN.
References
Bugajski, Marian
1993 J^zykoznawsto normatywne [Prescriptive linguistics], Warsaw: Wydawnictwo
Naukowe PWN.
Bugajski, Marian (ed.)
1995 Norma jgzykowa w polszczyznie [The language norm in the Polish language],
Zielona Gora: Wydawnictwo WSP im. J. Kotarbmskiego.
Buttler, Danuta—Halina Kurkowska—Halina Satkiewicz

1971 Kultur a jqzyka polskiego. Zagadnienia poprawnosci gramatycznej [The culture
of the Polish language. The issues of grammatical correctness], Warsaw:
Panstwowe Wydawnictwa Naukowe.
Buttler, Danuta-Halina Satkiewicz
1990 Jgzyk i my. Podrgcznik do j^zyka polskiego dla klas I szkol srednich [Lan-
guage and we. The handbook of the Polish language for the 4st class of sec-
ondary schools]. Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne.
Cegiella, Anna
1995 "Polska norma w epoce przemian - ο spolecznym uwarunkowaniu dzialal-
nosci normatywnej" [The Polish norm in the period of transformations: on
the social conditioning of prescriptive activities], in: Walery Pisarek-Halina
Zgolkowa (eds.), 4 6 - 5 4 .
Dubisz, Stanislaw-Maria Nagajowa-Jadwiga Puzynina
1986 Jqzyk i my. Podrgcznik do jgzyka polskiego dla klasy I szkol srednich [Lan-
guage and us. The handbook of the Polish language for the 1st class of the
secondary schools], Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne.
Gajda, Stanislaw
1995 "Ο pojfciu kultury jfzyka dzis" [On the notion of culture of language today],
in: Walery Pisarek-Halina Zgolkowa (eds.), 54-63.
Grucza, Franciszek
1983 Zagadnienia metalingwistyki. Lingwistyka - jej przedmiot, lingwistyka stoso-
wana [The issues of metalinguistics. Linguistics - its object, applied linguis-
tics], Warsaw: Paήstwowe Wydawnictwa Naukowe.
Hjemslev, Louis
1979 " 'Langue' i 'parole'", in: Halina Kurkowska-Adam Weinsberg (eds.), 9 - 1 7 .
Kurkowska, Halina-Adam Weinsberg (eds.)
1979 Jqzykoznawstwo strukturalne. Wybor tekstow. [Structural linguistics. A selec-
tion of texts], Warsaw: Pahstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
Miodek, Jan
1983 Kultura jqzyka w teorii i praktyce [The culture of language in theory and
practice]. Wroclaw: Wydawnictwa Uniwestytetu Wroclawskiego.
Pisarek, Walery—Halina Zgolkowa (eds.)
1995 Kultura jqzyka dzis [The culture of the language today], Poznan: Wydaw-
nictwo KURPISZ.
Puzynina, Jadwiga
1990 "Kultura slowa w oczach czlonkow Warszawskiego Towarzystwa Nauko-
wego" [The speech culture in the opinion of the members of the Warsaw
Scientific Society], Poradnik Jqzykowy 9 - 1 0 : 640-672.
1995 "O niektorych kontekstach kulturowych normalizacji jfzyka we wspolczesnej
Polsce" [On some cultural contexts of the prescriptivism of the language in
contemporary Poland], in: Walery Pisarek-Halina Zgolkowa (eds.), 2 0 - 3 0 .
Reichman, W. Jan
1968 Drogi i bezdroza statystyki [Good and devious paths of statistics]. Warsaw:
Pa0stwowe Wydawnictwa Naukowe.
Urban, Krystyna
1991 "Wzorce jfzykowe w opinii spolecznej" [Language patterns in social opinion],
Socjolingwistyka 10: 7—21.
The signs of a new time: academic writing in
ESP curricula of Ukrainian universities
Tatyana Yakhontova
1. Academic writing instruction in Ukraine:

the current situation
Academic writing plays a crucial role in the dissemination of scientific

knowledge, being the main and most effective means of communication
within the sphere of scholarship. Not surprisingly, it has been included
in the curricula of universities and colleges as the discipline that facilitates
the process of students' obtaining degrees and moving into the appropri-
ate research communities. Academic writing constantly attracts the atten-
tion of educationists and applied linguists, who focus on different meth-
odological approaches to its instruction as well as on the concrete meth-
ods of teaching and the ways of improving writing curricula. In many
countries, specific attention is being paid at present to nonnative speak-
ers' problems in research writing in English, which is further establishing
itself as the predominant language of world science and research.
Despite its worldwide popularity, academic writing instruction has
never been a part of Soviet education, which traditionally was and still
is based on nonwritten forms of knowledge acquisition, control, and eval-
uation. Consequently, academic writing in Russian, Ukrainian, or other
native languages has never been taught in the former Soviet Union, and
our graduate students and beginning scholars have to master these skills
by following only intuitive prompts or the advice of their supervisors or
more experienced colleagues. At present, however, the democratic trans-
formation of the post-Soviet society is stimulating new educational views
and approaches, which are gradually appearing in Ukraine and other ex-
Soviet republics.
The intellectual life of Ukraine is marked at present by the recently
established cultural interaction and affiliation with the pan-Western
world. With the fall of the "iron curtain" Ukrainian researchers have at
last gotten an opportunity to join the world community of scholars. Such
forms of contact in the sphere of scholarship as participation in different
conferences, research visits, and direct exchange of ideas through publica-
104 Tatyana Yakhontova
tions have become a reality for the intellectuals of Ukraine and other
countries of the former Soviet Union. This process of scientific communi-
cation between scholars who for so many years had been separated by
ideological barriers has become mutual, stimulated not only by the desire
of ex-Soviet scholars to become active members of international research
communities, but also by the growing interest of their Western colleagues
in different phenomena of the postimperial development of the former
Soviet Union.
Many of our scholars understand now that publications in English are
the primary means of presenting their ideas and establishing contacts
with their colleagues abroad. The predominance of English as an interna-
tional language of science and research is realized by every Ukrainian
scholar; consequently, publication of journal articles, or at least confer-
ence abstracts, in English is treated as a matter of prestige and a prerequi-
site for promotion at universities and other academic institutions. At the
same time it is becoming evident that any collaboration in the interna-
tional sphere of scholarship requires the development of cross-cultural
awareness of the norms and conventions of the academic cultures in-
volved in the interaction. The comprehension and acquisition of these
norms form a necessary framework for adequate communication; there-
fore, English academic discourse, based on Anglo-American cultural
preferences, inevitably has to be acquired by nonnative research writers
(at least to a certain degree) who wish to enter the world science market.
From this point of view Ukrainian scholars are at present in a less advan-
tageous position than many of their foreign colleagues — nonnative Eng-
lish speakers who have already mastered the conventions of academic
writing in English. For researchers in Ukraine the way to the mainstream
of world science, only recently opened, is obstructed by a number of
interlinked cognitive and linguistic problems determined by the scholars'
limited awareness of the norms and conventions of research writing in
English.
The current situation in Ukrainian scholarship reflects the new atti-
tudes toward English as a means of scientific communication. For exam-
ple, the editorial boards of many Ukrainian academic journals require
that scholarly articles be accompanied by abstracts in English. Different
conferences or symposia choose English as one of their working lan-
guages and welcome the publication in English of at least part of the
proceedings. Linguists and lecturers in English at Ukrainian universities
are in the first rank facing these new demands: two recent major linguis-
tics conferences — TESOL-Ukraine (Vinnitsya, 1996) and IATEFL-
Academic writing in Ukrainian universities 105
Ukraine (Odessa, 1996) — were conducted in English from the first to

the last word. All these new measures are stimulating and helpful to a
certain extent; at the same time it has become clear that those Ukrainian
scholars who make a serious decision to write their papers in English
need more specific, purposeful training. Certainly, a number of research-
ers have already become successful contributors to international periodi-
cals (mostly those who work in close collaboration with their Western
colleagues); but the majority of scientists confess that they have difficulty
conveying their ideas in English, although they consider their level of
English competence to be generally adequate. At the same time most
scholars realize that the help of nonnative translators in Ukraine will be
insufficient or, sometimes, entirely inadequate for the author's purposes,
since it is almost impossible to find a translator equally familiar with both
the general conventions of academic writing in English and the particular
domain of research. The assistance of highly qualified native professional
revisers is also doubtful, partly because it is difficult to find them, and
partly because of the expense. The only way out of this situation seems
to consist in specific academic writing instruction, which would raise the
scholars' awareness of the peculiarities of English research texts and help
them to convey and exchange their ideas in the form appropriate to their
target audience.
This problem, quite new for Ukrainian foreign language pedagogy,
requires a theoretical framework as well as the consideration of potential
strategies for its realization, which, in my opinion, depend on the proper
identification of the types of difficulties Ukrainian researchers are likely
to meet. In April 1996 I interviewed twelve graduate students in Mechan-
ics and Applied Mathematics departments who planned to participate in
international conferences and were trying to write the abstracts of their
presentations in English. My questions concerned the problems that were
arising during the writing process. The analysis of the students' answers
has shown that their main difficulties involved the rhetorical structure
and overall linguistic organization of research texts; writers felt fewer
apprehensions at the level of vocabulary (especially terminology) and
syntactic patterns. I identify these difficulties as unawareness of genre
conventions, and therefore assume that a genre-centered approach, which
makes use of genre as a key concept, may offer a successful strategy for
coping with the problems in academic writing.
2. A possible approach to teaching academic writing to

Ukrainian researchers
In recent years genre has become a popular category of pedagogy and

foreign language teaching; furthermore, the current theory of genre,
based on its reconception as a social, goal-oriented, contextualized, and
culture-specific phenomenon, has been developed since the 1970s within
such applied spheres as educational linguistics, professional writing, and
English for Specific Purposes. Genre theory, in both its theoretical and
applied aspects, has become the focus of research interest for a number
of international scholars working in the fields of ESP and scientific dis-
course (Berkenkotter-Huckin 1993; Bhatia 1994; Duszak 1994; Swales
1990), composition studies (Devitt 1993; Freedman 1993; Kay 1994), pro-
fessional writing (Olsen-Huckin 1990; Myers 1995; Yates-Orlikowski
1992), and contrastive rhetoric (Mauranen 1993; Ventola-Mauranen
1991).
The merit of the work of the representatives of the above fields lies in
its applicability to concrete educational tasks - in particular, to teaching
academic writing. However, the instruction materials and strategies they
have elaborated (such as Swales-Feak 1994) are usually designed either
for native speakers or for nonnative speakers who live and study in An-
glophone milieus (e. g., foreign students at U. S. universities), a situation
very different from that of Ukrainian scholars.
I think, therefore, that the approach to teaching academic writing to
Ukrainian scholars must take into account the specific conditions under
which the researchers will receive their training. Insofar as these condi-
tions are marked by the absence of the direct linguistic impact of the
English-speaking world, the problem of verbal shaping of research genres
and their text-linguistic structure becomes vitally important for such out-
siders as Ukrainian academics. At present genre is more frequently re-
ferred to as a social and rhetorical construct than as a functional linguis-
tic phenomenon with a standardizing power. Still, every genre possesses
— or more precisely speaking, is realized through - formal features (ob-
vious enough, to different degrees in different genres), which can be speci-
fied. Generic socio-rhetorical constraints are naturally associated by non-
native speakers with these specific linguistic aspects, and enculturation -
the adoption of the beliefs and values of a culture, as a necessary part of
genre acquisition - becomes primarily a linguistic process for neophytes,
isolated from appropriate language environments.
Thus, I view the approach to teaching English academic discourse as

genre-centered, based on the concept of genre as the form of the textual
realization of discourse, and cognitive linguistic, which emphasizes the
linguistic aspect of academic genres comprehension and acquisition, ex-
tremely important for nonnative speakers.
This approach must also involve the contrastive analysis of cultural
differences between English and Ukrainian academic discourses. It is gen-
erally assumed that writing is influenced culturally; the rhetorical pat-
terns and verbal strategies of a writer are shaped and limited by the
values and beliefs of the cultural community to which he/she belongs.
Therefore, the analytical comparison of the rhetorical structure of native
and target research texts will lead learners to an understanding of culture-
specific preferences and differences in academic written discourse, and
will steer them to appropriate choices in writing. Moreover, such an
analysis must include the comparison of certain linguistic structures that
will raise learners' cross-cultural awareness of how genre constraints op-
erate in different languages, and will stimulate the development of their
skills of selection and expression.
Thus, the third significant feature of the approach described here (the
first and second being its genre-based and cognitive linguistic character)
consists in its orientation toward the comparison of academic genres of
target and native languages as an unavoidable stage in the process of
genre teaching and learning.
The approach I am suggesting here can take the form of a two-level
model of teaching, which reflects Bakhtin's view of genre as simulta-
neously a static and a dynamic phenomenon. Bakhtin, the author of the
original genre theory, which anticipated the present-day reconceptualiza-
tion of genre, treats genres as the forms of speech utterances, which are,
as he says, "mandatory" (Bakhtin 1986: 80) and free at the same time.
Bakhtin wrote that genres "... have a normative significance for the
speaking individuum, and they are not created by him but are given to
him. The single utterance, with all its individuality and creativity, can in
no way be regarded as a completely free combination of forms of lan-
guage" (1986: 80-81).
The nature of genre, therefore, is simultaneously static and dynamic:
genre is a model, or a schema, because through its normativity and regu-
larity it serves as an example for constructing new utterances of the same
kind; but any newly born utterance inevitably modifies the model, adding
to it some new individual features and therefore turning the schema into
a creative process. Proceeding from this view of genre as a functional
entity with a dual nature, I see the model of teaching academic discourse
as the practical two-level realization of Bakhtin's genre dichotomy, with
the first level devoted to the mastery of genres as normative schemata,
and the second dedicated to the development of the skills of their free
and creative use.
2.1. Teaching academic genres as "mandatory schemata"

The first level of the model, devoted to the prescriptive teaching and
learning of research genres, may be subdivided into three steps. The first
step of this level is dedicated to extensive genre reading, i. e., the reading
and genre analysis of English and Ukrainian research texts. The aim of
contrastive genre analysis consists here in showing the interconnection
between the communicative orientation of genre and its contextual place-
ment in different cultures, as well as their impact (and manifestations) on
various levels of rhetorical, content, and overall linguistic structure of
the compared texts. Certainly it will be a kind of pedagogically oriented
analysis, which can best be elaborated by linguists and then used by
teachers as guidelines (and sometimes prompts) for those involved in the
process of learning.
The important task of this step is highlighting the obligatory text-
linguistic elements that encode the most essential rhetorical and content
aspects of genre, such as the aspects of text cohesion — reference and
theme, or dominant patterns of transitivity or modality. This task some-
times entails some threat of losing sight of the interconnection between
content and formal generic structures; but this possible danger may be
neutralized by the gradual movement of comparative analysis from
broader cognitive linguistic units (mentioned above) to smaller lexico-
grammatical features of English research texts. The pedagogical success
of such an analysis will largely depend on the teacher's guidance, which
should foster the individual analytical activity of learners by helpful
prompts rather than indicate or prescribe separate patterns. The analysis
could result in singling out the most typical textlinguistic features based
on obligatory generic elements, which would be practiced during the next
step.
The second step is devoted to various preliminaries to the composition
of research texts. They may include: (1) some activities traditional for
TEFL practice, such as paraphrasing, filling the gaps, or reordering
larger structural units; (2) exercises on matching (or finding) English-
Ukrainian or Ukrainian-English equivalents of certain patterns; and (3)
more complicated tasks, which involve, perhaps, linguistic changes

(choices) related to text cohesion or other aspects of the overall structure
of research texts.
On acquiring basic generic structures, learners can start composing
(under a teacher's guidance) the metatexts of research genres. The empha-
sis of this third step should be more on technique of composing and
writing than on a final product. The learners can imitate a model text,
which could be either artificially constructed with the purpose of exempli-
fying this or that research genre or chosen from authentic texts. Explora-
tion of models I regard as a tool for acquiring the necessary linguistic
"skeletons" of genres which could serve as a basis for developing the
cognitive linguistic skills needed to make adequate choices; they will be-
come the focus of the second level, devoted to teaching and learning
genre as a dynamic reproduction of the conventional schemata.
2.2. Teaching academic genres as "creative processes"

At this level (consisting of two steps) learners will try to prove themselves
as individual and creative writers able to express their ideas through a
certain generic code. They therefore have to develop such skills of writing
as will help them to overcome the conflict between the original and the
conventional in every genre and turn it into a liberating, meaningful
force. The role of the teacher at this stage gradually changes from explicit
instructor to unobtrusive and unassertive advisor of the dominant activ-
ity of the stage - extensive individual writing with an emphasis on the
final product.
At the first step of this stage the learners can make use of the "jigsaw
technique" (St. John 1987: 118), which consists in "lifting" expressions
from authentic papers, combining them, and adding some of the writer's
own material. From the first point of view, the jigsaw strategy may seem
close to text modeling, but its essential difference lies in the fact that the
authors themselves choose what they consider to be most appropriate for
their individual texts. This approach is productive for nonnative writers,
who always feel the lack of linguistic-stylistic resources; the "jigsaw tech-
nique," by supplying verbal material, will "soften" to a certain extent
language constraints and enrich the learners' linguistic potential.
This level must be crowned by the second step, devoted to extensive
individual writing based on the generic patterns acquired at the prescrip-
tive level.
3. Academic writing in ESP curricula of Ukrainian

universities: possible results and consequences
The cognitive linguistic approach and teaching model described above

will serve as the necessary framework and basis for the course of aca-
demic writing in English to be introduced at L'viv State University. This
course will be a part of the ESP curriculum, which has until now been
focused mostly on translation and certain aspects of oral professional
communication. The introduction of such a subject as academic writing
(for graduate students, and probably in the form of a special intensive
course for mature scholars) will definitely require a number of consider-
able theoretical and practical efforts on the side of teachers and linguists,
the majority of whom have never been trained in writing and composition
in foreign languages. However, despite the possible problems and efforts
required, teaching English academic genres will undoubtedly yield a
number of valuable results.
It will facilitate the process of scientific communication between
Ukrainian and Western scholars and benefit the specific interests of
Ukrainian researchers in their attempts to join the world academic com-
munity. It may also stimulate the development of genre-based pedagogy
in Ukraine, applicable to teaching genres of Ukrainian, which is at pre-
sent establishing itself as the official language of the newly independent
state and needs substantial support.
At the same time the exploration of English academic genres will have
broad cognitive consequences, as the process of mastering genres of any
foreign language instills in the learners the knowledge of a new culture.
Since English research genres bring awareness of the pan-Western aca-
demic culture that dominates world science and research, they are of
particular importance for our scholars at this time, when Ukrainians are
defining themselves as an open society. Academic writing instruction,
therefore, will provide Ukrainian intellectuals with the universal means
to enter into a cross-cultural dialogue in the sphere of scholarship, which
will help them to become active and recognized members of international
scientific communities.
The expansion of scholarly communities, in its turn, will intensify the
process of cultural interaction, which benefits the interests of various
states and nations and is necessary for harmonious development of the
contemporary post-totalitarian world.
References
Bakhtin, Mikhail
1986 Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Berkenkotter, Carol-Thomas Huckin
1993 "Rethinking genre from a sociocognitive perspective", Written Communica-
tion 10 (4): 475-509.
Bhatia, Vijay
1994 "Generic integrity in ESP", in: Rosemary Khoo (ed.), 4 9 - 6 2 .
Devitt, Amy
1993 "Generalizing about genre: new conceptions of an old concept", College Com-
position and Communication 44: 573—586.
Duszak, Anna
1994 "Academic discourse and intellectual styles", Journal of Pragmatics 21: 291 -
313.
Freedman, Aviva
1993 "Show and tell? The role of explicit teaching in the learning of new genres",
Research in the Teaching of English 27, 3: 5—35.
Gunnarsson, Britt-Louise-Ingegerd Bäcklund (eds.)
1995 Writing in academic contexts. TeFa no. 11. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet.
Kay, Heather L.
1994 "Genre: the view from the classroom", in: Rosemary Khoo (ed.), 6 3 - 7 9 .
Khoo, Rosemary (ed.)
1994 LSP: Problems and prospects. (Anthology 33.) Singapore: RELC.
Mauranen, Anna
1993 Cultural differences in academic rhetoric. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Myers, Greg
1995 "Disciplines, departments and differences", in: Britt-Louise Gunnarsson - In-
gegerd Bäcklund (eds.), 3 - 1 1 .
Olsen, Leslie-Thomas Huckin
1990 "Point-driven understanding in engineering lecture comprehension", English
for Specific Purposes 9: 33—47.
St. John, Maggie Jo
1987 "Writing processes of Spanish scientists publishing in English", English for
Specific Purposes 6: 113 — 120.
Swales, John M.
Swales, John M.—Christine Feak
1994 Academic writing for graduate students. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press.
Ventola, Eija (ed.)
1991 Functional and systemic linguistics: approaches and uses. (Trends in Linguistics
55.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Ventola, E i j a - A n n a Mauranen
(ed.), 457-492.
Yates, Joanne-Wanda Orlikowski

1992 "Genres of organizational communication: A structurational approach",
Academy of Management Review 17: 299—326.
Developing awareness of the rhetorical
and linguistic conventions of writing a thesis
in English: addressing the needs
of EFL/ESL postgraduate students
Linda Cooley and Jo Lewkowicz
1. Introduction
For most postgraduate students, writing a thesis is a unique experience.
It is considerably more demanding linguistically than any writing they
were expected to produce at the undergraduate level. This is particularly
true for many science and technology students who, as undergraduates,
were not required to write lengthy essays. Yet, at least until comparatively
recently, it seemed to be assumed that students accepted for a research
degree had the linguistic competence to produce a thesis without any
specific instruction in writing. Brown (1994: 92), describing his doctoral
dissertation writing experience in the 1970s, notes that he "learned how
to do it by osmosis". His own thesis was modeled on the theses he had
read of those a year or two ahead of him. Little was then known about
the writing difficulties postgraduate students are likely to encounter, and
only recent research into the reasons students fail to complete research
degrees has brought problems with writing to the foreground (for more
details, see for example DEET 1988 and Dunkerley and Weeks 1994).
Students' writing problems may not be recognized by supervisors, who
are, naturally, selected on the basis of their expertise within the domain
the student wishes to investigate and are not, generally, language special-
ists. Understandably, most postgraduate research supervision focuses on
helping students to improve their research techniques and to develop
within their particular academic field. Even where supervisors do recog-
nize that writing problems exist, they may not be aware of the source of
the difficulties, or they may not feel competent to deal with linguistic
issues. Though Brown (1994) argues in favor of supervisors deliberately
managing students' writing to help ensure lucidity and encourage comple-
tion, it must be recognized that such management will only be effective
if supervisors have the language expertise and students have the language
skills to act on the advice given. Where such conditions do not hold,
alternative solutions must be sought.
114 Linda Cooley and Jo Lewkowicz
One situation in which such conditions are unlikely to be fulfilled is

in a university where, although English is the medium of instruction, the
majority of students and many of the faculty are speakers of English as
a second (L 2) or foreign language (FL). This is precisely the situation in
the University of Hong Kong (UHK). Approximately 90 percent of re-
search students are required to submit their thesis in English (the remain-
der are studying for degrees in Chinese or Chinese History). Yet most of
these students (at least 70 percent), and many of their supervisors (about
50 percent), are L 2 speakers, predominantly Cantonese speakers from
Hong Kong. Many of the students will have studied for their first degree
in English; however, over the last four years there has been a considerable
increase (from 5 percent to 14 percent of the total postgraduate popula-
tion) in the number of Putonghua-speaking students from mainland
China with no experience in English at the tertiary level. It seems only
reasonable to assume that, as the demands of producing a dissertation
are great even for those students operating in English as a first language
(L1), the problems encountered by those undertaking a research degree
in an L 2 or FL will be even greater; and for those students writing in
non-language-specific areas like science and engineering, whose experi-
ence of extended writing is probably limited in any language, the difficul-
ties will be greater still.
A growing awareness among faculty at the university that writing diffi-
culties did indeed exist, together with dissatisfaction expressed by the
Committee on Higher Degrees with the English standards in theses, led
the School of Research Studies at U H K to request that the English
Centre carry out a large-scale study, the main aim of which would be to
identify the writing needs and difficulties of postgraduate students at the
university in order to devise a diagnostic instrument for fine-grained
analyses of student writing and to develop cost-effective remediation stra-
tegies.
The process of identifying the needs and difficulties is explained in
detail in this chapter. The diagnostic instrument devised and the remedia-
tion strategies arising from the study are also described. The findings of
the study are, naturally, given the context in which the study was carried
out, most immediately applicable to the Hong Kong situation; however,
this should not be seen as a limitation of the study, for it is not unreason-
able to presume that many of the growing number of postgraduate stu-
dents throughout the world working in English as an L 2 or FL will share
some or all of the problems of writing a dissertation their Hong Kong
counterparts are experiencing.
Addressing the needs of EFLIESL postgraduate students 115
2. Background literature
Our review of the literature focused on two areas we thought might yield
useful background information relating to the area of our study: post-
graduate students' writing difficulties, and forms of assistance offered to
overcome these difficulties. The results of our search in both areas are
briefly summarized in this section.
Our investigation of the literature relating to postgraduate students'
writing difficulties found that although there has been extensive research
into academic writing at the undergraduate level (see, among others,
Braine 1995; Hamp-Lyons 1991; Johns 1990, 1993, 1995), comparatively
little has been reported pertaining directly to thesis writing and the diffi-
culties postgraduate students are likely to encounter. The studies that
have been reported have shed some light on the question of the audience
to whom the students should address their writing and the "pseudocom-
municative nature" of the thesis writing task (Shaw 1991: 194), the diffi-
culties science postgraduates encounter while writing (Shaw 1991), and
faculty expectations of postgraduate students' written work — not neces-
sarily theses (Casanave and Hubbard 1992). But none of these studies
was felt to be sufficiently comprehensive to provide a basis upon which
to build a writing course for postgraduate students. Even the study by
James (1984: 100), which categorized L2 and FL graduate students' writ-
ing problems into three areas on a scale of "communicative damage" -
that is, those that frequently led to a breakdown of meaning, those that
led to a blurring of meaning, and those that distracted the reader but did
not interfere with meaning - was considered too limited.
An investigation of the literature describing the forms of assistance
with writing available to postgraduate students revealed that a variety of
solutions to writing difficulties are presently being offered. One form of
assistance is the self-help text. The number of such texts on thesis writing
has mushroomed in recent years (see, for example, Phillips and Pugh
1987; van Wagenen 1991). These, however, are often very general in na-
ture and again assume that students have the linguistic competence
needed to act on the advice given. By addressing the whole spectrum of
students, from the humanities to medicine and from the social sciences
to law, they tend to cover the research features of thesis writing and the
psychological approach to the whole process rather than the linguistic
and discoursal features that students wishing to improve on the clarity
of their own writing need to master. Even where a text is addressed to a
specific discipline, as in the case of Hamilton (1990), who is writing for
architecture students, little of the advice deals with discourse features

other than in the most general of terms.
More specific help is sometimes available to postgraduate students in
the form of courses run by writing specialists. Whether these are compul-
sory, and at what stage in the writing process students may avail them-
selves of such courses, depends on institutional constraints and conven-
tions: in British style universities, for example, taught-course components
for research students are still rare (and usually voluntary), whereas in
American style universities they are a regular feature. Where courses are
offered, they are often run for students at the beginning of their postgrad-
uate program before they have started writing their theses, and frequently
they address a wide range of writing issues, many related to classroom
assignments. Courses described in the literature, including those by Johns
(1993), Silva et al. (1994), Benson and Heidish (1995), Frodesen (1995),
and Swales (1995), deal with a variety of genres such as constructing a
research paper, summary writing, writing critiques and problem-solution
texts - all necessary for students taking taught courses as part of their
postgraduate studies. (See for example the results of a survey run by
Casanave and Hubbard [1992] at Stanford University on the types of
writing assignments given to doctoral students in their content courses.)
Few courses, however, deal with writing the thesis itself. Two notable
exceptions are a course designed by Richards (1988), which placed em-
phasis on the dissertation as an extended and self-contained whole, and
a program described by Dudley-Evans (1995) at the University of Bir-
mingham to raise students' awareness of the rhetorical and linguistic con-
ventions in journal articles and theses.
Another means of addressing student writing problems, and perhaps
one of the most effective, is the one-to-one consultation between post-
graduate student and writing specialist. This allows students to improve
their writing while working on their thesis without undertaking addi-
tional work, which students are often loath to do. Students discuss draft
proposals or parts of their thesis with a consultant and then try to put
into effect the changes and improvements agreed upon. Such a service,
however, although it could hardly fail to be of great value to students, is
not a cost-effective method of addressing the growing demand for help
with thesis writing, as it can only provide help for a very small proportion
of the student body. In most academic institutions resources are limited
and compromises have to be made. In such circumstances it would ap-
pear necessary to provide programs that can deal with fairly large groups
of students. Such programs need mainly to help raise students' awareness
of what is expected of them, and can also, perhaps, provide a "common

language" for students and writing consultants in future interactions.
In the case of UHK, apart from the one-to-one writing consultation
service already offered by the English Centre to postgraduate students at
the university, none of the other courses described in the literature seemed
wholly appropriate for the Hong Kong context; therefore, it was decided
that in order to devise a program the researchers would have to carry
out a discoursal analysis of samples of research students' writing in tan-
dem with a comprehensive investigation of faculty perceptions of student
writing difficulties and student perceptions of their own writing difficul-
ties.
3. The study
The study was undertaken at the University of Hong Kong during the
1994-1995 academic year. At the time there were approximately 1,200
postgraduate students registered for research degrees (that is, M. Phil,
and Ph. D. degrees), across nine faculties: Architecture, Arts, Dentistry,
Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science, and Social Science.
As mentioned above, the study took a three-pronged approach. Infor-
mation was gathered from an analysis of writing samples, from supervi-
sors, and from research students themselves. The writing samples were
extended pieces of postgraduate students' writing. These were analyzed
by the researchers, all teachers with considerable experience in teaching
English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The samples were taken from
two sources: those submitted to the English Centre by students taking
advantage of the existing consultation service, and those submitted as
part of a Core Competencies Project being run at the University. It is
important to note here that although the writing samples from students
using the consultation service were from students who perceived them-
selves as having difficulties with writing in English, those from the Core
Competencies Project were from students who did not necessarily have,
or perceive themselves to have, writing difficulties.
Simultaneously, supervisors' perceptions of the extent and nature of
students' writing difficulties were elicited through a series of structured
interviews conducted by the research team. The sample of supervisors
was drawn from all nine faculties of the university, and was divided ap-
proximately equally among supervisors whose L 1 is English and those
for whom English is an L 2 or FL. Students' perceptions of their own

writing difficulties were elicited through a questionnaire sent to all re-
search students on the database as of the beginning of December 1994.
3.1. Researchers' perceptions of students' writing difficulties

The researchers on this project undertook a detailed analysis of extended
samples of students' writing from a range of academic subjects. The aims
were to identify problems in the writing that caused difficulties for read-
ers and to see whether the problems were common across academic disci-
plines. All the samples analyzed were 10-20 pages in length since, from
our experience working with postgraduate students, it was clear that we
would need to look at problems beyond the sentence and paragraph level.
The analysis revealed four major areas of difficulty, each of which can
be divided into several subcategories, but none of which can be consid-
ered discrete. The major categories, in order of importance, were labeled:
overall communicative success, substantiation, discourse elements/fea-
tures, and editing. It is worth noting here that those elements that most
often caused a real communication breakdown, rather than temporary
confusion or irritation, for us as readers were at the macro level, and not
at the micro level of the word or sentence. In this respect our findings
are in line with James's (1984: 100) categorization of problems in terms
of "communicative damage".
The most serious problems identified were those related to the overall
communicative success of a piece of writing in terms of clarity of purpose,
the extent to which the appropriate audience was addressed, the overall
organization of information presented, and the consistency and suitable
balance of argument. Problems at this level most often accounted for
unclear meaning and frequently led to a breakdown of communication.
Problems with substantiation included students' failure to position
their own arguments in relation to the literature and/or evidence, and
their failure to create what Swales (1987: 56) refers to as their own "re-
search space". For example, it was often difficult to distinguish when the
students were referring to their own work and when they were referring
to the work of others. And, when the work of others was cited, it was
not always clear what purpose the citations were to fulfill other than to
act as proof that the writer had read widely. A further problem in this
area was that students sometimes made claims for their own findings that
were far too strong given the evidence presented; they were not suitably
tentative regarding the implications of their findings.
Addressing the needs of EFL/ESL postgraduate students 119
The third category of difficulties identified, those related to discourse

features, was concerned with how information was distributed and how
relationships between concepts and entities were introduced, developed,
and tracked. Common problems at this level included students' failure to
signal through adequate signposting techniques where the discussion was
leading; failure to develop a topic fully, resulting in readers having to
jump back and forth to recreate the development for themselves; and
trouble with grammatical or lexical choices resulting in writing that
lacked precision and often confused and irritated the reader.
The final category was that of editing. At this level the concern was
for local grammatical forms, spelling, punctuation, and the mechanical
entry of bibliographic references. Such problems were the easiest to iden-
tify and label, yet they were rarely, if ever, seen to impede understanding.
One final point worth noting at this stage is that some or all the above
problems were found in all the samples the researchers analyzed. The
prevalence of the problems depended much more on the students lan-
guage proficiency than on the discipline within which they were studying.
3.2. Supervisors' perceptions of writing difficulties

The interviews conducted with supervisors confirmed the scale of the
writing problems at the university. Of the 105 supervisors interviewed,
which represents about 20 percent of all supervisors, 92 (88 percent) per-
ceived that one or more of the students they were supervising at the time
had a problem with language.
The frequency with which the various problems were identified by
supervisors was collated and categorized initially at about the halfway
stage, when 46 of the total 105 supervisors had been interviewed. This
interim analysis placed the difficulties into the following seven groups:
surface structures, logical development, style, lexis, unclear meaning, lack
of precision, and lack of conciseness.
The first four of these were easily categorized into distinct groups; the
last three, however, were more problematic, since it was difficult to decide
whether they should form distinct groups or be considered subsets or
indeed combinations of the other categories without knowing the source
of each problem. In fact, unclear meaning, lack of precision, and lack of
conciseness could all result from stylistic and lexical problems. But there
could be other explanations for meaning being unclear or for a piece of
writing lacking precision or conciseness. Unclear meaning, for example,
as has been suggested (see section 3.1 above), may arise from inappropri-
ate grammatical choices, poor clause structure, and misuse of cohesive

devices as well as from the use of unsuitable style or lexis. Lack of con-
ciseness could result from the same difficulties; on the other hand, it
may arise because students believe that presenting an argument verbosely,
using complex structures and vocabulary, displays the appropriate level
of sophistication for reporting research. Without examining individual
instances of what supervisors considered ambiguous, failing to express
intended meaning or being too verbose or imprecise, it was impossible to
be sure of exactly what they meant.
Recognition of this difficulty led the interviewers in the second stage
of the survey to seek greater clarification from supervisors as to the
source of the students' problems. Thus, for example, "They don't seem
to be able to get across exactly what they want to say" was finally iden-
tified by one supervisor as a lexical problem arising from what he consid-
ered to be the students' inadequate vocabulary.
By the end of the study, therefore, when all the supervisors had been
interviewed, the researchers had decided that the three categories of un-
clear meaning, lack of precision, and lack of conciseness should not be
included as separate elements in a final analysis, as the source of each
problem was certainly to be found within other identified problem areas.
Table 1 presents the final analysis of identified problems; a fifth category
referring to grammatical problems that obscure meaning has been added
to the original four categories.
The problem area most frequently identified related to logical develop-
ment (Table 1). Here supervisors were concerned with students' failure to
organize their ideas, present a logical argument, and maintain coherence
over longer stretches of discourse. In other words, they were concerned
with those problems that fall into the category "overall communicative
Table 1. Percentage of supervisors who identified each of the major problems: final analy-
sis (n = 92 a )
Problem identified Percentage
Logical development 40
Grammar: surface structures 38
Style 34
Lexis 32
Grammar: obscuring meaning 20
a
Of the 105 supervisors interviewed, 13 considered that their students did not have prob-
lems writing in English.
success" in the researchers' analysis of texts (see section 3.1 above). But
in line with the findings of Casanave and Hubbard (1992), the problem
of logical development seems to have been much more of a concern for
supervisors in the arts and social sciences than in science and medicine.
This may at first suggest that students in science and medicine are linguis-
tically more competent. A more likely explanation, however, and one
compatible with the researchers' findings, is that the structure of scientific
writing, which tends to be more formulaic than writing in the arts and
humanities, superimposes a logical development to which students tend
to adhere. Students in the humanities and social sciences, on the other
hand, must rely more heavily on their use of language to present a cogent
argument.
The next most frequently mentioned problems were categorized as sur-
face structures — i. e., local grammatical problems (Table 1). They were
noted consistently by supervisors across all faculties, though somewhat
less frequently by those supervising in the Arts Faculty. Although fre-
quently mentioned, problems with surface structures were not generally
considered to be very serious. Some supervisors drew attention to the
fact that such errors as misuse of the definite article or incorrect subject/
verb agreement are irritating but rarely obscure the intended meaning.
This is in keeping with the observations of the researchers in their analy-
sis of texts (see section 3.1 above) as well as James's (1984) findings. The
frequency with which they were mentioned, therefore, is most probably
due to the fact that supervisors, being for the most part non-language
specialists, are likely to find such errors easiest to pinpoint.
A second category of problems connected to grammar is that related
to those grammatical features, such as incorrect clause structure or wrong
tense, where errors can actually obscure meaning. Although such prob-
lems were referred to by a considerably smaller proportion of supervisors
than were the other four categories, the researchers felt it a large enough
proportion to merit consideration as a separate problem area (Table 1).
It should be noted here that these two grammatical areas were the
only categories of problems identified by supervisors where L 1 speaking
students were considered not to have difficulties; all other problems noted
were common to both L 1 and L 2 students.
Supervisors in all faculties, although to a lesser extent in engineering,
also frequently called attention to problems relating to style (Table 1).
Some appeared to think that students used inappropriate, unscientific,
and unacademic style because they were not sufficiently familiar with the
literature and other dissertations in their field. There is, however, little
evidence for this (see for example studies by Parkhurst 1990 and Shaw
1991 that discuss students' strategies for dealing with reading as a means
of improving style). More likely, students are confounded by the different
styles they encounter during the course of their studies, and they find it
difficult to distinguish between what is and is not academically appropri-
ate for a thesis.
The final problem area mentioned by supervisors was that of lexis
(Table 1). This area is in some ways related to the question of style, since
here too supervisors were concerned with levels of appropriateness and
formality. Many felt that students were using vocabulary that was too
informal, and hence, inappropriate, or that their vocabulary was too lim-
ited. It is interesting to note that the supervisors in engineering, who had
rarely noted style as a problem, did consider lexis to be such. (There is
some question, however, as to whether some supervisors made a clear
distinction between poor style and poor lexis.) This may be because su-
pervisors in the Faculty of Engineering were more concerned with student
writing problems at the sentence rather than the discourse level, or be-
cause students' vocabulary outside their knowledge of technical terms is
indeed very restricted. This idea seems to be supported by Shaw (1991),
who noted that students reported few difficulties with subject-specific
technical terms but frequent difficulties with semitechnical vocabulary
and words with multiple meanings.
No breakdown by faculty of problems identified has been given here,
although there were some differences (as noted) in the proportion of su-
pervisors who identified different problems across faculties. A more de-
tailed identification of discipline-specific problems may well be worth
pursuing in the future, but it was beyond the scope of this study; and, as
mentioned earlier with regard to the researchers' analysis of student texts
(see section 3.1 above), problems appeared to be common across all facul-
ties, although to varying degrees. The findings suggested that students in
all disciplines could benefit from a course that covered the problem areas
identified by supervisors; it was, therefore, on this basis that the research
team proceeded with the development of writing workshops.
3.3. Students' perceptions of writing difficulties

A total of 362 questionnaires were returned and analyzed, representing a
response rate of approximately 30 percent. The analysis showed that only
17 percent of students considered themselves to be having no difficulties
with their writing. The remainder were experiencing varying degrees of
difficulty. A total of 26 percent perceived themselves as having serious

difficulties using English in written communication, although it is not
possible to know, of course, how different students interpreted serious in
this question. The figure of 26 percent may seem rather low in light of
the fact that the majority of these students were L 2 writers, some with
little experience of extensive writing in English, and in light of the large
proportion of supervisors who felt their students had problems with writ-
ing (see section 3.2 above); but it can perhaps be explained by the fact
that 34 percent of the respondents were in their first year of study. They
may not actually have produced much in the way of writing directly
connected with their dissertation; consequently, they may have been bas-
ing their assessment of their difficulties on earlier writing of essays and
lab reports, and may well have been unaware that there could be other,
as yet unencountered, difficulties posed by the nature of a thesis.
The students' own perceptions of their difficulties seem to confirm the
findings from the analysis of texts and the interviews with supervisors.
Of the language difficulties identified by the students, the most common
were: organization of ideas and argument, style, and expressing thoughts
in English. It is clear that there is a considerable overlap with the cate-
gories identified by the supervisors and researchers. Grammar and sen-
tence structure were also noted, but by far fewer students. Editing as a
problem was mentioned by only three students. This may initially seem
somewhat surprising in light of the frequency with which surface struc-
tures, which could easily be corrected by editing, were mentioned by su-
pervisors; but it could well be that students know supervisors do not
see these problems as major, feel that they can always simply employ a
proofreader to correct their errors, or, indeed, may not be aware that
such problems exist in their own writing - which suggests one reason
why these problems might persist.
A total of 26 percent of the student respondents expressed an interest
in proposed writing workshops; on the question of what they would like
to see included in such workshops, students noted organization of ideas,
style, referencing, writing the literature review, and general sentence- and
paragraph-level writing skills. These categories corresponded, naturally
enough, with those areas of writing in which they perceived they had the
most difficulties.
4. The development of the Diagnostic Assessment Profile
Having identified the main areas of writing difficulty, the research team
set about looking at how the information could be used to inform the
development of cost-effective remediation strategies. The scale and nature
of the problems identified indicated that there were many common areas
of difficulty that might best be dealt with through a series of workshops.
But in addition to these, there would continue to be a need for a more
individualized consultation service where students could receive feedback
on their writing. To maximize the benefit gained from both programs, it
was recognized that the two needed to be complementary, building on
each other rather than existing as totally separate entities.
To this end the Diagnostic Assessment Profile was developed. The pri-
mary purpose of the profile was to give students detailed, structured feed-
back on the strengths and weaknesses of their writing in the one-to-one
consultation service, but in order to widen its applicability it was also
used as the basis for developing a series of writing workshops for stu-
dents.
The profile has been reproduced in Figure 1. An important feature of
this profile is that it maintains the four main categories identified from
the analysis of students' writing. It starts by assessing the overall impres-
sion of a given piece of writing in terms of communicative success, then
looks at the area of substantiation before moving on to more discrete
items of linguistic choice, such as topic development within a paragraph,
cohesive features, and the choice of appropriate lexis, and finally assesses
the more mechanical aspects of writing that need editing. The profile
does not, however, have a separate category or subcategory of style —
an area of writing difficulty identified by both supervisors and students.
This is because it was felt that inappropriate style was the result of other
factors such as incorrect grammatical choices, and simply informing stu-
dents that the style of their writing needed to be changed would be unin-
formative and unhelpful.
The use of the profile as an organizational basis for a series of work-
shops has helped to ensure that the workshops focus on those linguistic
and textual aspects of thesis writing that have been identified as causing
problems for the students.
Figure 1. Diagnostic Assessment Profile (page 2)a
I. OVERALL COMMUNICATIVE SUCCESS
[ ] Purpose Comments:
[ ] Audience (explicitness)
[ ] Organisation
[ ] Consistency of argument
[ ] Balance
II. SUBSTANTIATION [How well own assertions are substantiated (through argument
and/or evidence) and how supporting material is incorporated into the work]
[ ] Use of sources Comments

[ ] Status of claims
[ ] Citations
III. DISCOURSE ELEMENTS/FEATURES [How information is distributed and rela-

tionships between concepts and entities are introduced, developed and tracked]
[ ] Signposting Comments:
[ ] Topic development
[ ] Clause structure
[ ] Cohesion
[ ] Grammatical choices
[ ] Lexis
IV. EDITING
[ ] Local grammatical forms Comments:

[ ] Spelling
[ ] Punctuation
[ ] Word forms
[ ] Bibliography
a
Page 1 of the DAP gives personal data of the student and the type of writing sample
diagnosed, and summarizes the main strengths and weaknesses.
5. The thesis-writing workshops
The workshops developed around the Profile have now become a regular
feature in the School of Research Studies. Each series of voluntarily
attended workshops consists of 6 three-hour sessions run over periods
varying from 1 to 3 weeks. The main aim of the workshops is to develop
the students' awareness of good thesis writing practices so that they will
be able to approach the writing of their dissertation with more confi-
dence.
Some evidence that lack of confidence, or indeed fear, could be hinder-
ing students in the process of preparing to write about their research had
actually come from the questionnaire distributed to students at the outset
of the study. In answer to the question concerning what difficulties they
were experiencing in writing their dissertation, perhaps the most fre-
quently mentioned problem was one that may not immediately seem to
be a problem of language: getting started. While 30 percent of the stu-
dents noted that they had moderate problems in this area, a further
31 percent acknowledged considerable to extreme difficulties. There may
be several explanations for this reluctance, or inability, to actually begin
writing, including the idea that the research process is clearly divided into
two stages: data collection and writing up - a term Brown (1994: 102)
describes as "insidious". This concept is becoming increasingly discred-
ited as researchers begin to realize that "writing is not something to be
done when the research is finished: it is an integral part of the research
itself' (Brown 1994: 102). This message is one the workshops try to stress
in the hope that by encouraging the students to put their newfound
awareness into practice at an early stage of their research, the final disser-
tation writing process will be made less daunting.
Feedback from the students about the workshops has been most posi-
tive. By the end of the third series of workshops, 77 participants had
completed a course evaluation; of these, 70 stated that they would recom-
mend the workshops to friends. All but one of the 77 considered the
workshops relevant to their own writing needs. The use of the Profile as
the organizing principle for the workshops was considered by the major-
ity of students (87 percent) either moderately or very useful, and those
writing consultants on the one-to-one writing support service who are
also tutors on the workshops have found that use of the Profile in the
workshops has given the students and themselves a "common language"
arising from the students' newly acquired awareness of discourse struc-
tures.
5. Conclusion
It would appear that it is not uncommon for postgraduate students to

experience considerable problems with writing. The most serious prob-
lems result from a failure to organize and structure the thesis in a way
that allows the reader to understand the communicative purpose of the
writing. As they only become apparent on reading extended samples of
text, these problems are the most difficult to identify, and hence to ad-
dress.
Students at the outset of their research studies may not always be
aware of the type of problems they will face. Once they begin writing,
however, many experience difficulties at various levels, and they may
need detailed guidance as to how they can go about improving their
writing. A first step is for them to be assisted in developing an awareness
of sound thesis writing practices. This can be achieved through conscious-
ness-raising courses or workshops, but these should not be seen as a
substitute for working with individuals. They can only provide the foun-
dations on which students can build.
The postgraduate student workshops at the University of Hong Kong
are attempting to provide such a foundation. Using a Diagnostic Assess-
ment Profile based on discourse areas identified as problems in student
writing as the organizing principle, the workshops have proven able to
raise awareness of thesis writing issues relevant to a wide range of stu-
dents in a cost-effective manner. It is hoped that with this increased
awareness of the linguistic and rhetorical conventions of writing a thesis
in English, EFL/ESL postgraduate students will be able to deal more
effectively with the problems they encounter, and will be encouraged to
"get started" on writing their thesis at an early stage in their research.
This can only benefit both students and supervisors, and should not only
make the final thesis writing process less frightening, but also produce
more communicatively successful theses.
References
Belcher, Diane-George Braine (eds.)

1995 Academic writing in a second language. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Benson, Philippa—Peggy Heidish
1995 "The ESL technical expert: writing processes and classroom practices", in:
D. Belcher-G. Braine (eds.), 313-330.
Braine, George
1995 "Writing in the natural sciences and engineering", in: D. Belcher-G. Braine
(eds.), 113-134.
Brown, Robert
1994 "The 'big picture' about managing writing", in: Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt-Yoni
Ryan (eds.), 90-109.
Burgess, Robert D. (ed.)
1994 Postgraduate education and training in the social sciences. London: Jessica
Kingsley Publishers.
Casanave, Christine Pearson-Philip Hubbard
1992 "The writing assignments and writing problems of doctoral students: faculty
perceptions, pedagogical issues, and needed research", English for Specific
Purposes 11: 33-49.
Connor, U l l a - A n n Johns (eds.)
1990 Coherence in writing: research and pedagogical perspectives. Alexandria, VA:
TESOL.
DEET [Department of Education and Training]
1988 Report on progress of postgraduate award holders: 1979 cohort. [Canberra:
APDS.]
Dudley-Evans, Tony
1995 "Common-core and specific approaches to the teaching of academic writing",
in: D. Belcher-G. Braine (eds.), 293-312.
Dunkerley, David-Jeffrey Weeks
1994 "Social science research degrees: completion times and rates", in: Robert G.
Burgess (ed.), 149-166.
Frodesen, Jan
1995 "Negotiating the syllabus: A learning centred, interactive approach to ESL
graduate writing course design", in: D. Belcher-G. Braine (eds.), 331-350.
Hamilton, Alaine
1990 Writing dissertations. London: RIBA Publications.
Hamp-Lyons, Liz (ed.)
1991 Assessing second language writing in academic contexts. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
James, Kenneth
1984 "The writing of theses by speakers of English as a foreign language: the re-
sults of a case study", in: Ray Williams-John Swales-John Kirkman (eds.),
99-113.
Johns, Ann
1990 "Coherence as a cultural phenomenon: employing ethnographic principles in
academic milieu", in: Ulla C o n n o r - A n n Johns (eds.), 209-226.
1993 "Written argumentation for real audiences: suggestions for teacher research
and classroom practices", TESOL Quarterly 27: 75-90.
1995 "Teaching classroom and authentic genres: initiating students into academic
cultures and discourses", in: D. Belcher-G. Braine (eds.), 277-291.
Parkhurst, Christine
1990 "The composition process of science writers", English for Specific Purposes
9: 169-179.
Phillips, Estelle-Derek Salman Pugh
1987 How to get a Ph. D.: a handbook for students and their supervisors. Milton
Keynes: Open University Press.
Richards, Rebecca
1988 "Thesis/dissertation writing for EFL students: an ESP course design", English
for Specific Purposes 7: 171-180-
Shaw, Philip
1991 "Science research students' composing processes", English for Specific
Purposes 10: 189-207.
Silva, Tony-Melinda Reichelt-Joanne Lax-Farr
1994 "Writing instruction for ESL graduates: examining issues and raising ques-
tions", ELT Journal 48: 197-203.
Swales, John M.
1987 "Utilizing the literatures in teaching the research paper", TESOL Quarterly
21 (1): 4 1 - 6 8 .
1990 Genre analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1995 "The role of the text book in EAP writing research", English for Specific
Purposes 14: 3 - 1 8 .
van Wagenen, R. Keith
1991 Writing a thesis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Williams, R a y - J o h n Swales-John Kirkman (eds.)
1984 Common ground: shared interest in ESP and communication studies. (ELT
Documents 117.) Oxford: Pergamon.
Zuber-Skerritt, Ortrun—Yoni Ryan (eds.)
1994 Quality in postgraduate education. London: Kogan Page.
Mind your metaphors!
Historical and theoretical notes toward
a constructivist theory of metaphor
in scientific communication
Heinz L. Kretzenbacher
1. On metaphor in general
To put it bluntly: Achilles is not really a lion, nor has he ever been one.
But if that is the truth, why do we not accuse anybody who tells us
Achilles was a lion of being a liar? Well, of course, we understand the
metaphor, and we are perfectly able to understand it metaphorically. Met-
aphors go without saying, and that is what really prevents us from seeing
them as mere stylistic ornaments: metaphors take us immediately to the
core of what we mean by "meaning".
Since I do not think it necessary to discuss the history of metaphor
theory in this context - and, above all, since I consider it impossible to
summarize the last 2,000-odd years of discussion in that field 1 — I just
want to epitomize some characteristics of metaphor I shall need for my
further explanations. If we accept Max Black's theory (cf. 1983 a [1954],
1983 b [1977]), we no longer explain metaphor by substitution or compar-
ison, but by interaction between two dynamic systems of meaning. In
this understanding, metaphors are not thought to work on the basis of
analogy or likeness; on the contrary, the analogies appear through the
metaphorical process. The lion metaphor, for example, makes us see both
the characteristics of a lion in Achilles and the characteristics of an an-
cient hero in a lion at the same time. This implies, of course, that meta-
phors are not just isolated lexical phenomena, but phenomena of textual
semantics as well as semantic field phenomena. 2
2. Metaphor and argumentation in the history

of philosophy
So much - or so little - for the general theory of metaphor. In everyday

language metaphors are an everyday phenomenon. But what about seien-
132 Heinz L. Kretzenbacher
tiilc communication? Since scientific communication is supposed to be

rational argumentation, style in general, and especially the stylistic tool of
metaphor, has always been in a difficult position in scientific philosophy.
Thomas Aquinas says of philosophical discourse: "Ex tropicis locutioni-
bus non est assumenda argumentatio [you cannot get any line of argu-
ment out of tropological speech]".3 Denis Diderot, assuming a philosoph-
ical tone in his "Lettre sur les sourds et let muets", alludes to the French
proverb "comparaison n'est pas raison" by stating: "Je reviens au ton de
la philosophie ä qui il faut des raisons et non de comparaisons". 4 Max
Black ironically summarizes the ban philosophy has laid on metaphor in
the mock-Mosaic commandment: "Thou shalt not commit metaphor"
(Black 1962: 25; cf. Weinrich 1980: col. 1181).
Since the early days of the Royal Society, a deep mistrust of language
has ruled the sciences. The stylistic ideal of perspicuity attainable by com-
munication in a "plain style" derives from the idea that "there can be
no doubt that science is in many ways the natural enemy of language",
as Savory's motto has it (1967). The following quotation from Thomas
Sprat's programmatic History of the Royal Society has become famous,
if not notorious, in this respect:
Who can behold, without indignation, how many mists and uncertainties,
these specious Tropes and Figures have brought on our Knowledg? How
many rewards, which are due to more profitable, and difficult Arts, have
been still snatch'd away by the easie vanity of fine speaking? For now I am
warm'd with this just Anger, I cannot with-hold my self, from betraying
the shallowness of all these seeming Mysteries; upon which, we Writers and
Speakers, look so bigg. And, in few words, I dare say; that of all the Studies
of men, nothing may be sooner obtain'd, than this vicious abundance of
Phrase, this trick of Metaphors, this volubility of Tongue, which makes so
great a noise in the World. ... It will suffice my present purpose, to point
out, what has been done by the Royal Society, towards the correcting of
its excesses in Natural Philosophy·, to which it is, of all others, a most pro-
fest enemy. They have therefore been most rigorous in putting in execution,
the only Remedy, that can be found for this extravagance: and that has
been, a constant Resolution, to reject all the amplifications, digressions,
and swellings of style: to return back to the primitive purity, and shortness,
when men deliver'd so many things, almost in an equal number of words.
They have exacted from all their members, a close, naked, natural way of
speaking; positive expressions; clear senses; a native easiness: bringing all
things as near the Mathematical plainness, as they can: and preferring the
language of Artizans, Countrymen, Merchants, before that, of Wits, or
Scholars. (Sprat 1958 [1667]: 112-113, original orthography)
Metaphors being a very specific linguistic phenomenon, it is no won-

der they have been seen as the most fiendish enemy of scientific thought.
A constructivist theory of metaphor in scientific communication 133
Some fine studies show very convincingly how the ideal of a plain style
was made to fit in the traditional stylistic ideal of nuda Veritas5 'naked
truth' as well as in the contemporary Puritan rhetoric of antirhetoric in
England. 6
Of course, the new "Natural Philosophy" of the seventeenth century
was eager to be free of three very powerful and very word-oriented con-
temporary epistemologies: of the allegorical way of religious thinking by
clerics as well as by laymen (cf. among others, L. Kretzenbacher 1983),
of the word-oriented argumentation of scholasticism, and last but not
least, of the extremely metaphorical hermetic sciences such as alchemy
(cf. Vickers 1992). Thus Natural Philosophy had very good reasons to
be on the side of things and not of words in the old ideological antago-
nism of res vs. verba;1 hence the motto of the Royal Society: Nullius in
verba.8
3. Perspicuity vs. opacity: res vs. verba
But it is just this shortened version of Horace's nullius addictus iurare in

verba magistri9 that shows us a deeper, a semiotic reason for what could
be called the still reigning metaphoroclasm in the sciences. The com-
municative ideal of perspicuity has its roots in the fundamental episte-
mological conviction that you can first perceive things directly and then
represent them in a perspicuous language (cf. Kretzenbacher 1995). But
if language is an arbitrary system with a semiotic character of its own,
it inevitably comes between the human being that perceives a thing and
the thing being perceived. The everyday linguistic phenomenon of meta-
phor makes this problem obvious. Since the earliest semiotic theories a
sign has been defined as aliquid, quod stat pro aliquo, something that
stands for something else (cf. Eco 1988: 43). This being an excellent
definition for metaphor as well, metaphors are perfect examples of the
semiotic character of language. Thus showing the emperor to be stark
naked in his new clothes, metaphorical communication is a challenge -
or, to put it ideologically, a menace to every single epistemological sys-
tem founded in the conviction that the world can be perceived by itself
without any linguistic medium. Every such system must use the optical
metaphor of a perspicuous language, whether it is the empiricism of
Boyle, the positivism of historians such as Leopold Ranke, or modern
materialism.
As a consequence of such thinking, metaphor could be considered

simultaneously a main reason and a main example of the opacity of lan-
guage, because any linguistic expression has a stylistic value in addition
to its pure informational value: Thus it seems trivial to state that meta-
phor is on the side of words. Has metaphor not always been considered
as an element of ornatus by stylistics and by its predecessor rhetoric all
the way back to Quintilian and Cicero? The duty of metaphor is to dress
res. Thus the characterization of metaphor as ornatus makes it part of
the old topos of "style as the clothes of thought" (cf. Müller 1981: 52 ff.),
all the more since Cicero himself draws an analogy between the history
and function of metaphor and the history and function of dress (cf. Bar-
celo 1982: 137).
4. Metaphor and world: res et verba
But there is the philosopher Joaquin Barcelo, who draws our attention
to a momentous turn in the history of ideas about metaphor. The Latin
ornatus is a translation of the Greek kosmos, which first of all means
'order' (being an antonym of chäos), and then "well-ordered whole of
everything that there is, in one word: 'world'" (Barcelo 1982: 136). It
seems that this link between metaphor and the world of res was severed
not by the Latin rhetoricians, but soon after them, and except for a very
few scholars like Giambattista Vico (cf. Verene 1982), was only reestab-
lished by modern psychology and philosophy of cognition, philology -
horribile est dictu! — proudly marching in the rearguard. 10
Next to the simile metaphor is the most important linguistic expression
of analogy. Analogy is the cognitive means of sorting out the continuum
of sensations we are constantly receiving. That is to say, metaphor is a
proper linguistic expression of the world we perceive. Consequently, it can
be given a greater task in the culturally determined field of action we call
sciences than the heuristic function it is most generously granted. The
metaphor taboo in science, an obvious example of the stylistic taboos in
science, is an ideological heritage from the early times of modern science,
silently handed down from generation to generation of scientists. But
while it had an important function to fulfill then, it keeps getting in the
way of scientific progress in our time, if you consider the scientific efforts
of all the stylistic taboo-breakers, from Friedrich August Kekule, who
broke the metaphor taboo, to James Watson and Francis Crick, who
broke the narrative taboo, and to Benoit Mandelbrot, who keeps breaking
the ego taboo (cf. Weinrich 1989; Kretzenbacher 1994, 1995, 1996).
5. Objectivity or responsibility?
After this praise of style in general and of the metaphor in particular, are
we supposed to return to Buffon's 1753 judgment, "Le style est l'homme
meme"?11 Buffon's words had a considerable impact not only on the
French, but also on the German theory of style in science, when they
were translated three years later by Johann Georg Hamann to the Ger-
man form: "der Styl ist der Mensch selbst ganz und gar". 12 To decide
this, we shall have to look at the context of Buffon's words in his Acade-
mie Franâise address. He stays within the antagonism of res vs. verba
by first mentioning the things (les choses). The latter, maintains Buffon,
do not guarantee fame for a scientific work, neither the quantity of
knowledge, nor the most spectacular facts, nor even the novelty of dis-
coveries: "Ces choses sont hors de l'homme, le style est l'homme meme".
But if metaphor - and style - by themselves are matters of the world,
res, simply by being linguistic phenomena, the antagonism res vs. verba
is not to be saved by any means. Buffon can only give us — via Hamann
- "den Menschen selbst ganz und gar", who is able to "aufheben" this
antagonism in a dialectical way.13 "Truth" - and this is a fundamental
epistemological decision I have to make - truth is primarily a matter of
subjectivity as well as style. This is, by the way, not just a personal opin-
ion of mine, but a position held by several theorists of science (e. g.,
Sundaram 1985). But if the "things" of science are as personal as the
"words", and if, on the other hand, the rule de singularibus non est sci-
entia still applies, then there is nothing left but the intersubjective power
of language to enable us to communicate science and thus make it valid
in a scientific sense. Paradoxically, it is the opacity of style that makes us
see that.
The loss of the concept of objectivity in the sciences will not inevitably
lead us to boundless subjectivity, which would mean the loss of any scien-
tific liability We can avoid that by remaining aware of the personal basis
of all scientific perception, and conscious of the personal responsibility
of all players in the linguistic game (in the meaning of Wittgenstein's
"Sprachspiel") of science. The additional costs of this responsibility are
fully compensated by our resurgent trust in natural language as a medium
of scientific thought and communication. Language does not disguise
truth. On the contrary, language used in a responsible way is the best
possible way of constructing anything that looks like "truth". The specific
value of metaphors in this scientific construction of "truth" has, to my
knowledge, only been analyzed in two cases yet (Czucka 1988, 1993;
Kretzenbacher 1996) but my experience was that it has been much more
easily accepted by natural scientists than by philologists. Thus I do not
consider it a mere coincidence that Eckehard Czucka cites Werner
Heisenberg, who shows a deep insight into the cognitive function of lan-
guage in science:
Wir wissen, daß jedes Verständnis schließlich auf der gewöhnlichen Sprache
beruhen muß, denn nur dort können wir sicher sein, die Wirklichkeit zu
berühren; und daher müssen wir skeptisch sein gegen jede Art von Skepsis
hinsichtlich dieser gewöhnlichen Sprache und ihrer wesentlichen Begriffe.14
Notes
1. Very helpful for historical studies in metaphor theory are Hans Blumenberg's study of
1960 and Harald Weinrich's article in Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie (1980).
For the general theory of metaphor, cf. (among others) the volumes edited by Andrew
Ortony (1979), Anselm Haverkamp (1983), and Helmut Arntzen and Franz Hunds-
nurscher (1993), or the still very interesting study of Jürgen Nieraad (1977). Some more
recent and more specialized works are Schöffel (1987) and Baier (1988).
2. Cf. Harald Weinrich's (1976: 276-290) theory of the Bildfeld. This theory was recently
analyzed again by Dietmar Peil (1993), with a critical approach.
3. Expos, super Boeth. de Trin., prooem., q. 2, a. 3 ad 5; cf. Weinrich 1980: col. 1180.
4. "Lettre sur les sourds et let muetsl", (Euvres compl. 1, Paris 1875, 368; cf. Weinrich
1980: col. 1180.
5. Traced back to Lactance by Blumenberg (1960). Cf. also Müller 1981: 57 ff.
6. Cf. Jones 1930, Srigley 1988, Hüllen 1989. Cahn (1991: 38-39) reminds us that this
antirhetoric was presented in a metaphorical way and thus was rhetorical itself.
7. For the history of this antagonism, cf. Howell 1946 and Fattori—Bianchi 1982.
8. With a characteristic delay, in Germany the English stylistic ideal of perspicuity was
discussed mainly in the Age of Enlightenment, when it had to compete with the French
traditional topos of style as the clothes of thought - cf. H. L. Kretzenbacher 1992,
forthcoming.
9. Ep., 1,1,14. This use of Horace himself as a master makes the motto quite paradoxical
- cf. Cahn 1991: 36.
10. Cf. Ickler 1993, who continues to defend a position abandoned quite a long time ago
by the other academic disciplines mentioned, stating "daß Metaphern in Fachtexten
stilistische Mittel ohne kognitive Konsequenzen sind" (Ickler 1993: 108).
11. Buffon 1954 [1753]: 503. For the historical and epistemological context of BufTon's
words cf. Müller 1981: 40 fT.
12. Hamann 1952 [1776]: 424. For Hamann's interpretation of buffon, cf. Trabant 1991.
13. It seems obvious that I am incapable of translating Hegel's polysemous verb aufheben
— and so is the Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, which proposes to sublimate
(erroneously written "sublate"), to absorb, and to supersede all at the same time (Fulda
1971: 619).
14. Heisenberg, Physik und Philosophie (first published in 1959), quoted in Czucka 1988:
383.
References
Arbeitsgruppe "Wissenschaftssprache" (ed.)

1992 Historische Wissenschaftssprachforschung. Zwei Referate eines Kolloquiums.
Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin.
Arntzen, Helmut-Franz Hundsnurscher (eds.)
1993 Metapherngebrauch. Linguistische und hermeneutische Analysen literarischer
und diskursiver Texte. Münster and New York: Waxmann.
Baier, Michael
1988 Die metaphorische Textkonstitution. (Erlanger Studien 75.) Erlangen: Palm
und Enke.
Barcelo, Joaquin
1982 "Die Erkenntnisfunktion der Metapher", in: Ernesto Grassi-Hugo Schmale
(eds.), 135-145.
Black, Max
1962 Models and metaphors. Ithaca, Ν. Y.: Cornell University Press.
1983 a [1954] "Die Metapher", in: Anselm Haverkamp (ed.), 55-79. [First published in
English in 1954.]
1983 b [1977] "Mehr über die Metapher", in: Anselm Haverkamp (ed.), 379-413. [First
published in English in 1977.]
Blumenberg, Hans
1960 "Paradigmen zu einer Metaphorologie", Archiv für Begriffsgeschichte 6:
7 - 1 4 2 , 301-305.
Buffon, George—Louis Leclerc de
1954 [1753] "Discours prononce ä l'Academie Franfoise par Μ. de Buffon, le jour de
sa reception" [1753], in: (Euvres philosophiques de Buffon. Texte etabli et pre-
sente par Jean Piveteau avec la collaboration de Maurice Frechet et Charles
Bruneau, 500-504. (Corpus general des philosophes fransais - Auteurs mod-
ernes 41,1). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Cahn, Michael
1991 Der Druck des Wissens. Geschichte und Medium der wissenschaftlichen Publi-
kation. (Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Ausstellungskataloge 41.).
Berlin: Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz; Wiesbaden: Reichert.
Czucka, Eckehard
1988 "'Photographische Bilder' als Metaphern des Unsichtbaren. Literaturwis-
senschaftliche Fragen zur Wissenschaftsprosa am Beispiel von Wilhelm Con-
rad Röntgens 'Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen'", in: Norbert Oellers (ed.),
380-400.
1993 "X-Strahlen oder die Sichtbarkeit des Wirklichen. Metaphorik und Wis-
senschaftssprache in Röntgens 'Eine neue Art von Strahlen'", in: Helmut
Arntzen-Franz Hundsnurscher (eds.), 13-59.
Eco, Umberto
1988 Über Spiegel und andere Phänomene. Munich and Vienna: Hanser.
Eichinger, Ludwig M. (ed.)
forthcoming Von der Rhetorik zur Stilistik. Stillehren im 18. Jahrhundert. In preparation.
Fattori, Marta—Massimo Bianchi (eds.)
1982 Res. IIP Colloquio Internazionale del Lessico Intellettuale Europeo, Roma,
7—9 gennaio 1980. Atti. (Lessico intellettuale Europeo 26.) Rome: Ed. dell'
Ateneo.
Fulda, F.
1971 "Aufheben", in: Joachim Ritter-Karlfried Gründer (eds.), col. 618-619.
Grassi, Ernesto-Hugo Schmale (eds.)
1982 Das Gespräch als Ereignis. Ein semiotisches Problem. Munich: Fink.
Hamann, Johann Georg
1952 [1776] "Über den Styl" [Königsberger Zeitungen, Beylage zum 6.-10. Stück
1776], in: J. G. Hamann, Sämtliche Werke. Historisch-kritische Ausgabe von
Josef Nadler. Bd4: Kleine Schriften 1750-1788, 419 - 4 2 5 . Vienna: Th.
Morus-Presse im Verlag Herder.
Haverkamp, Anselm (ed.)
1983 Theorie der Metapher. (Wege der Forschung 389.) Darmstadt: Wis-
senschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Howell, A. C.
1946 "Res et Verba: Words and things", ELH. A Journal of English Literary His-
tory 13: 131 —142.
Hüllen, Werner
1989 "Their manner of discourse". Nachdenken über Sprache im Umkreis der Royal
Society. Tübingen: Narr.
Ickler, Theodor
1993 "Zur Funktion der Metapher, besonders in Fachtexten", Fachsprache 15:
94-110.
Janich, Peter—Nikolaos Psarros (eds.)
1996 Die Sprache der Chemie. 2. Erlenmeyer-Kolloquium zur Philosophie der Chemie.
Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.
Jones, Richard F.
1930 "Science and English prose style in the third quarter of the seventeenth cen-
tury", Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 45: 9 7 7 -
1009.
Kretzenbacher, Heinz L.
1992 "Zur Stilistik der Wissenschaftssprache im 18. Jahrhundert", in: Arbeits-
gruppe "Wissenschaftssprache" (ed.), 41-60.
1994 " 'Just give us the facts!' The connection between the narrative taboo, the ego
taboo and the metaphor taboo in scientific style", Lingua e Stile 29: 115-
130.
1995 "Wie durchsichtig ist die Sprache der Wissenschaften?", in: Heinz L. Kretzen-
bacher-Harald Weinrich (eds.), 15-39.
1996 "Geschlossene Ketten und wirbelnde Schlangen — Die metaphorische Dar-
stellung der Benzolformel", in: Peter Janich-Nilolaos Psarros (eds.), 187-196.
forthcoming "Über Kleidung, Nacktheit und das durchsichtige Gewand des Stils. Zur
Stilistik der Wissenschaftssprache im 18. Jahrhundert", in: Ludwig M.
Eichinger (ed.).
Kretzenbacher, Heinz L . - H a r a l d Weinrich (eds.)
1995 Linguistik der Wissenschaftssprache. (Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin,
Forschungsberichte 10.) Berlin and New York: de Gruyter.
Kretzenbacher, Leopold
1983 Wortbegründetes Typologie-Denken auf mittelalterlichen Bildwerken. Zur
Ecclesia-Synagoga-Asasel (Sündenbock)-Szenerie unter dem "Lebenden
Kreuz" des Meisters Thomas von Villach, um 1475. (Bayerische Akademie der
Wissenschaften, Phil.-hist.-Kl., Sitzungsberichte 1983.3.) Munich: C. H. Beck
in Komm.
Lutzeier, Rolf Peter (ed.)

1993 Studien zur WortfeldtheorielStudies in lexical field theory. (Linguistische Ar-
beiten 288.) Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Mittelstraß, Jürgen—Günter Stock (eds.)
1992 Chemie und Geisteswissenschaften. Versuch einer Annäherung. Berlin: Akade-
mie Verlag.
Müller, Wolfgang G.
1981 Topik des Stilbegriffs. Zur Geschichte des Stilverständnisses von der Antike bis
zur Gegenwart. (Impulse der Forschung 34.) Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft.
Nieraad, Jürgen
1977 'Bildgesegnet und bildverflucht'. Forschungen zur sprachlichen Metaphorik.
(Erträge der Forschung 63.) Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Oellers, Norbert (ed.)
1988 Germanistik und Deutschunterricht im Zeitalter der Technologie. Selbstbestim-
mung und Anpassung. Vor träge des Germanistentages Berlin 1987. Bd. 2: Poli-
tische Aufgaben und soziale Funktionen von Germanistik und Deutschunterricht.
Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Ortony, Andrew (ed.)
1979 Metaphor and thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peil, Dietmar
1993 "Zum Problem des Bildfeldbegriffs", in: Rolf Peter Lutzeier (ed.), 185-202.
Ritter, Joachim-Karlfried Gründer (eds.)
1971 Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Bd. 1: A-C. Darmstadt: Wis-
1980 Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Bd. 5: L-M. Darmstadt: Wis-
Savory, Theodore Horace
1967 The language of science. (Rev. ed.) (The Language Library.) London: Deutsch.
Schöffel, Georg
1987 Denken in Metaphern. Zur Logik sprachlicher Bilder. Opladen: Westdeutscher
Verlag.
Sprat, Thomas
1958 [1667] History of the Royal Society, ed. by Jackson I. Cope and Harald Whitmore
Jones [London 1667]. Repr. St. Louis, Mo.: Washington University.
Srigley, Michael
1988 "The lascivious metaphor: The evolution of the plain style in the seventeenth
century", Studia Neophilologica 60: 179-192.
Sundaram, K.
1985 "Objectivity and the language of science", Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wis-
senschaftstheorie 16: 334—340.
Tessman, Rita Mae
1986 Problems of objectivity: Vague writing in the physical sciences. Ann Arbor,
Mich.: University Microfilms International.
Trabant, Jürgen
1991 "Le style est l'homme meme. Quel homme?", Comparatio 2—3: 57-72.
Verene, Donald Phillip
1982 "Rhetorik und Phantasie - Topik und Metapher", in: Ernesto G r a s s i - H u g o
Schmale (eds.), 147-152.
Vickers, Brian
1992 "Alchemie als verbale Kunst: die Anfänge", in: Jürgen Mittelstraß-Günter
Stock (eds.), 17-34.
Weinrich, Harald
1976 Sprache in Texten. Stuttgart: Klett.
1980 "Metapher", in: Joachim Ritter-Karlfried Gründer (eds.), col. 1179-1186.
1989 "Formen der Wissenschaftssprache", Jahrbuch 1988 der Akademie der Wis-
senschaften zu Berlin: 119—158.
Systems of reference in intellectual discourse:
a potential source of intercultural stereotypes
Vittorina Cecchetto and Magda Stromska
It is impossible to write without labelling oneself.

- Roland Barthes
1. Introduction
This paper investigates strategies employed by authors of scientific dis-
course 1 to make reference to themselves as well as the means used to
address the audience (the listener or the reader). We consider the system
of reference in scientific discourse both as a direct result of the rhetoric
of science and as a display in terms of power and solidarity. We then
compare the reference systems used in intellectual discourse in various
languages and identify the differences and interferences in this area as
possible sources for cultural stereotypes of different nationalities.
2. Rhetoric of science and subjectivity
The linguistic means of self-presentation of the speaker and the forms

used by the speaker to address the listener constitute a coherent system
of reference in a given discourse universe. This observation, also true for
scientific discourse, was investigated by Stroihska (1992). However, the
reference strategy choices made by authors of scientific texts depend on
several interrelated factors that differ from those influencing the choice
of forms of address in everyday communication. Scientific texts belong
to a general category of intellectual discourse (cf. Duszak 1994) and show
a relatively high degree of formalization specific to scientific communica-
tion in a given discipline. This discipline-specific discourse organization
is in turn influenced to a high degree by the more general rhetoric of
science.
European intellectual discourse is deeply rooted in Greek rhetoric, and
more precisely in the Aristotelian tradition of rhetoric. Aristotle's rhetoric
was conceived as the art of "giving effectiveness to truth", in contrast to
142 Vittorina Cecchetto and Magda Stroinska
sophistic rhetoric developed as an art of "giving effectiveness to the

speaker" (Baldwin 1928: 3). Despite Aristotle's efforts to fight the sophis-
tic style of rhetoric, it is the latter that survived as part of general Anglo-
Saxon education. The Aristotelian tradition, on the other hand, could
survive only where the search for truth was declared a major goal, and
this characteristic often applies to sciences, although with differing de-
grees of relevance for the various disciplines.
One of the properties distinguishing scientific from nonscientific com-
munication is the apparent lack of subjectivity in scientific discourse. Its
nature is philosophical rather than pragmatic, but it should be considered
in more detail because of linguistic implications. Since most instances of
naturally occurring communication are egocentric and since subjectivity
is a natural feature of any speaker- or situation-dependent discourse, we
should really be speaking of varying degrees of subjectivity. In fact, some
philosophers argue that the human mind naturally "applies a constant
subjective perspective to the world" (McGinn 1983: 69), the property of
being "constant" referring to the invariant linguistic meaning of indexical
expressions that build up the "logic of context", as McGinn puts it (1983:
69).2 In everyday communication subjectivity is quite common; it may
also be an inherent element of the structure of some literary works (on
subjectivity in literary texts cf. Jay 1984; on apparently impersonal narra-
tion cf. Banfield 1982, Chafe 1994). In most science disciplines, however,
subjectivity is regarded as a vice. Bertrand Russell, who adopted a ratio-
nal approach to science, expressed this as follows: "Scientific knowledge
aims at being wholly impersonal, and tries to state what has been discov-
ered by the collective intellect of mankind" (Russell 1946: 17).
We find a similar observation phrased more recently by McGinn: "Sci-
ence aims for 'neutrality' in its depiction of the world: it should not be
possible to read off from a scientific theory any peculiarities of its pro-
pounder" (1983: 111). McGinn also further develops the concept of the
necessary subjectivity of perception and contrasts it with the objectives of
scientific inquiry: "It is a closely connected point that perception cannot
represent the world as it is (entirely) 'independent' of the perceiver - but
just this is what scientific description aspires to achieve" (1983: 111).
McGinn reproposes the idea expressed by Russell in terms closer to
those of a linguistic description. He concludes that the representation of
the world by humans can be "innocent" of subjective elements if it is
presented in a nonindexical mode (on indices and identity cf. Fiengo-
May 1994). The nonindexical mode of presentation is connected with the
Systems of reference in intellectual discourse 143
condition of dealing only with the "primary qualities" of objects - i. e.,

with those properties that do not consist in the objects' disposition to
produce sensory experiences in perceivers, a distinction that goes back to
the philosophy of Locke.
The "desire to escape from subjectivity", as Russell (1946: 17) put it,
may lead some scientists, especially those adopting the positivistic ap-
proach, to make the language they use as impersonal as possible (we use
the term "impersonal" here as the opposite of "subjective"). Thus, they
eliminate, or at least try to eliminate, everything that may be considered
subjective and therefore nonscientific - i. e., first of all any direct refer-
ence to themselves and to when and where the text was produced. The
reason for this is the attempt to emphasize the generality of the results
presented in the text, the fact that the results are independent of any
particular time, place, and person. Unless explicitly told otherwise, the
reader may assume that the text published at a given time is up-to-date,
relevant, and valid for that time. As a result of the interplay of all these
factors, there are many examples of scientific texts with hardly any in-
stances of direct - that is, first person singular — self-reference of the
author. Dates and geographical locations are often substituted for the
subjective, deictic here and now and other "egocentric particulars" in Rus-
sell's terminology. Since tense is also a deictic category, the general pre-
sent tense is a preferred convention in theoretical writing.
The requirement to be impersonal or neutral - i. e., not to be sub-
jective - remains a natural rhetorical imperative for most sciences. To a
certain extent, it may again be derived from Aristotle's principle of giving
effectiveness to truth and thus shifting the author into the background.
We shall argue that scientists who write in a more individualistic manner
may do so not only to overturn the standard rhetoric of science but also
to add self-metamessages to the text and to attribute a certain attitude
on the part of the audience for themselves.
3. Self-reference and impersonal narration
We turn now briefly to consider subjectivity and self-reference in lan-

guage with a rich philosophical tradition. Philosophical theories of first-
person sentences concentrate on the intentional character of reference
and the subjective character of human knowledge (cf. Evans 1982). The
apparent idiosyncrasy of certain first-person-related statements is the
central point in much of the philosophy of mind, solipsism, scepticism,

private language theories, and other doctrines. The philosophical ap-
proach to self-reference, however, has little interest in real-language data,
basing itself mostly on the properties of isolated sentences and the philo-
sopher's intuitions about language. Thus, it is of limited relevance for the
analysis of discourse phenomena; we therefore mention only briefly the
theoretical points of the philosophical analysis of self-reference.
First-person sentences may be considered "direct attribution" of a cer-
tain property to the speaker by the speaker (cf. Chisholm 1981: 27). The
properties speakers most commonly attribute to themselves are those that
are "empirically certain" for them - i. e., "immune to error through
misidentification" (Evans 1982: 215). These are mostly the speaker's
states of mind and other mental self-ascriptions, such as thinking, feeling,
or believing.
In the context of scientific communication and intellectual discourse
in general, we shall be interested mainly in those states of mind related
to beliefs and knowledge. It is possible, for example, to distinguish several
epistemic levels for accepting or rejecting a proposition,which involves a
decision about its truth value. "Being evident" is the level that distingu-
ishes knowledge from true belief that is not knowledge (cf. Chisholm
1981: 76 ff.; on the semantic status of "know" and "believe" cf. Wierz-
bicka 1972; on cognitive vocabulary cf. Boguslawski 1981). In some disci-
plines of science, most obviously in mathematics, we may assume that
what the author says is "beyond reasonable doubt" for him (Chisholm
1981: 78), and he may prove, according to the codified rules of mathe-
matical reasoning, that he is right. For less formalized disciplines, we
may make the weaker assumption that the author is obeying the Gricean
maxim of quality: he says what he believes to be true and he has evidence
to support his position. The restricted context of scientific communica-
tion brings a new quality into the discussion of subjectivity in discourse.
The linguistic question that interests us here is: if it is possible to
achieve successful self-reference using devices other than first-person sen-
tences, how is this done, and what effect does it have on the audience?
One of us has argued (Stroiriska 1992, 1993) that in the specific context
of scientific communication, indefinite descriptions can be successfully
used to identify objects in the universe of that discourse (cf. Strawson
1959 for contrary arguments). In this paper, we shall analyze how the
impersonal requirement imposed by the rhetoric of science competes with
the natural desire to assign roles in intellectual discourse.
4. Indirect self-reference
The principles of scientific rhetoric advise against the use of first person
singular. The pronoun /, although the most economical, is not the only
possible way of expressing self-reference (cf. Coval 1966). Therefore, au-
thors who avoid first person singular may still exploit other possibilities
offered by the syntax of the language they use. Of particular importance
in this regard is the fact that the language is used in a pragmatically and
semantically restricted domain (cf. Kittredge-Lehrberger 1982), which
may influence the referential properties of some expressions.
When we analyze scientific discourse here, a distinction has to be made
between the spoken and the written variety. We believe that one of the
major differences between the two is the fact that in spoken discourse the
speaker does not have to stick to one set of address forms throughout
the entire act of communication, and may switch from direct to indirect
reference strategies. He needs to be coherent only within the limits of
smaller chunks of discourse. In the case of a written text, the author for
stylistic reasons commits himself to either the direct or the indirect system
of reference at the beginning of the text, and is likely to follow the initial
pattern throughout the entire text. Thus, the scope of referential coher-
ence is much larger here.
We have said that in each language the author has at his disposal a
number of linguistic means to refer to himself. In a language like English,
the pronoun I, in the case of a single author or speaker, is the most
natural choice, and would be preferred in any natural, direct communica-
tion. If there is more than one author or if the speaker represents a group,
we would be considered the means of direct self-reference.
Other Indo-European languages possess means to remove reference to
the acting participants from the sentence structure — the passive, the mid-
dle voice, pseudo-reflexives, indefinite pronouns in subject position, and
other language-specific ways of presentation that make no mention of the
agents involved in the actions and events described. There have been two
major approaches to the analysis of impersonal constructions - one sees
their function in object promotion, the other in subject demotion. Both
functions of impersonal constructions find application in scientific dis-
course: the former in order to focus on the scientific questions, the latter
in order to make the author invisible. What distinguishes various kinds
of impersonal constructions and impersonal expressions is, we believe, the
degree of recoverability of the agent responsible for the action.
Cross-linguistic studies show that most languages tend to represent
events and actions in an egocentric, speaker-oriented way - i. e., to give
human agents a special syntactic status (cf. Benveniste 1948, 1966). In

Indo-European languages, expressions used to refer to human agents typ-
ically coincide with grammatical subjects of action verbs. Since Subject-
Verb-Object is the neutral word order in most of these languages, the
grammatical subject further coincides with the topic (we adopt here the
definition of topic as the first constituent in the clause, often correspond-
ing to the "given" information - Halliday 1967/1968). We may therefore
assume that an unmarked, neutral syntactic construction, used to de-
scribe an action performed by the speaker, would have a self-referring
expression as the subject (in topical position) of the appropriate action
verb. In English and German, for example, the unmarked choice would
be a fully specified active clause. In Italian and Polish, on the other hand,
the self-referring pronoun would typically be dropped from the syntactic
structure, but the reference to the speaker would still be fully recoverable
from the first person singular/plural form of the predicate. The argument
of the verb that is coreferential with the subject of the active clause may
be demoted to another position in the clause (e. g., to the prepositional
object position in a passive construction), or it may be omitted (becoming
a chömeur 'unemployed'). The removal of the acting participant may be
associated with the simultaneous promotion of the object to the subject
position (as in some passive and pseudo-reflexive constructions), but this
is not always the case. Some passive paraphrases may retain the same
sentence organization as other active constructions, as for instance the
German /nan-construction. The subjectless impersonal constructions in
Slavic languages, on the other hand, simply lack grammatical subjects.
Except for the expressions that describe the forces and phenomena of
nature, such as the English it rains, German es regnet, French il pleut,
Polish pada, Italian piove, Spanish llueve, etcetera, impersonal construc-
tions in Indo-European languages are usually licensed only for verbs that
prototypically refer to human actions. The necessary involvement of a
human agent can therefore be inferred from the knowledge of the subca-
tegorization frame of the predicate. Furthermore, in the restricted domain
of scientific communication, most predicates that are used in an imper-
sonal way describe either the transfer of knowledge or other actions that
can be attributed to the author (speaker) and/or the audience (reader) (cf.
Stroiriska 1992 for a more detailed discussion). With such a discourse-role
assignment, the reference of the unspecified participants can be established
quite easily by the listener (reader), as "reference assignment involves the
retrieval or construction of a mental representation which is incorporated
into the proposition expressed" (Blakemore 1992: 71).
As "choice always implies meaning" (Macaulay 1994: 90), any selec-

tion of a referring technique, both in the case of self-reference and in the
case of forms of address, will convey self-metamessages about the
speaker. The agents responsible for carrying out the actions described
may be omitted because they are known and thus the specification would
be redundant; alternatively, they may be left unspecified to conceal some
information from the audience. This style of writing was strongly criti-
cized by George Orwell. Orwell
particularly disliked the use of the passive voice, since it leaves unstated
who is responsible. There is nothing wrong with using the passive voice
where mention of the agent responsible would be redundant or irrelevant.
... It is when the passive is used to avoid responsibility that it becomes
illegitimate. Six hundred people were made redundant at the Smith works last
week makes it seem as if this just happened without human intervention. In
actual fact, some powerful, rational, warm-blooded human beings sat
down and decided to fire six hundred people. The use of the passive can
give the impression of an impersonal, if not inevitable, force. A similar
impression can be created by the use of nominalizations as in The dismissal
of six hundred workers at the Smith works was announced yesterday. ...
Again the use of a word such as dismissal conceals the agency of the man-
agers, supervisors, or directors who made the decision to dismiss the
workers. Passives and nominalizations are very common where the intent
is to soften the impact of some unpleasant information. This frequently
occurred during the Gulf War of 1991 in the briefings given by U. S. mili-
tary personnel. (Macaulay 1994: 105—106)
In addition, Macaulay 1994 refers to the intended meaning of some

other impersonal/"responsibility-shielding" expressions frequently used
in research reports: for instance, It is believed that, which, translated into
plainer English, really means Ί think'; It is generally believed that... 'My
friends think so too'; It has long been known that... Ί didn't look up the
original references'; Three of the samples were chosen for detailed study
'The others made no sense'; and so on (Macaulay 1994: 105).3
In the following sections, we analyze how the use of referring strategies
diverting from the standard impersonal narration can convey messages
about the author.
5. Scientific discourse as social interaction
The scientific exchange of thoughts, like all instances of human com-

munication, takes place in a specific situational context and obeys certain
rules and conventions different from those that apply to everyday conver-
sation. The context of the communication (the setting, the participants,

their knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes) as well as group-
and situation-specific rules of linguistic behavior always influence the
form of discourse and constitute that aspect of linguistic analysis that
belongs to the domain shared by pragmatics and sociolinguistics.
We view scientific discourse as an instance of social interaction be-
tween authors and their audience. Both the author and the audience in
scientific communication shall be understood not as isolated individuals
or groups of individuals, "but as social agent[s], located in a network of
social relations, in specific places in a social structure" (Kress 1989: 5).
In our analysis, we employ the performance model proposed by GofTman
(1959), where the speakers (authors) are perceived as presenting them-
selves to the audience (performing) in a specific way in order to give a
particular impression of themselves and to define, as well as control,
the communicative situation according to their goals. While in everyday
communication it may not always be true that the speakers control the
impressions others have of them, in the case of written scientific discourse
we may ascertain that the degree of control is indeed relatively high.
Goffman explains that
regardless of the particular objective which the individual has in mind and
of his motive for having this objective, it will be in his interest to control
the conduct of the others, especially their responsive treatment of him. This
control is achieved largely by influencing the definition of the situation
which the others come to formulate, and he can influence this definition
by expressing himself in such a way as to give them the kind of impression
that will lead them to act voluntarily in accordance with his own plan.
(1959: 3 - 4 )
In the case of scientific communication, authors will normally give the

impression of being very knowledgeable in the field. They may want to
be recognized or accepted as experts and may therefore wish to have the
text recognized as authoritative. We believe that it is primarily the system
of self-reference and address forms that is used, consciously or not, to
achieve this particular goal. Furthermore, different cultures may use dif-
ferent linguistic means to achieve the same objective.
However, in intellectual discourse, authors express themselves in a par-
ticular way also "because the tradition of [the] group or social status
require this kind of expression" (Goffman 1959: 6). The rhetoric of sci-
ence is a filter superimposed on "the set of potentials and possibilities
within the whole language system" (Kress 1989: 5) that the authors have
at their disposal.
6. Pronouns of power and solidarity in scientific texts
Forms of self-reference and forms of address constitute a complex system

that may be used to display attitudes of power and/or solidarity (cf.
Brown-Gilman 1960; Brown-Levinson 1987) among the participants in
a communication event (cf. Burke-Porter 1987 for a more general dis-
cussion on the use of pronouns in the social history of language). While
it is customary to regard forms of address in greetings or summons as a
display of positive or negative politeness (cf. Chaika 1989: 60 ff.), it is
less obvious whether the system of reference employed in written dis-
course, for example in a scientific text, might serve the same purpose.
Forms of self-reference as well as means of referring to the other partici-
pants in the communication event (the immediate audience, the general
scientific community, etc.) are often highly grammaticalized and, as such,
not always perceived as playing an active role in forming attitudes and
not easily analyzed. This is particularly true in scientific or formalized
communication, with its inherent rhetoric of either institutional imper-
sonality or individual invisibility (Kress 1989: 57).
In her 1979 paper, Robin Lakoff, who analyzes politeness from the
Gricean maxims point of view, gives two rules of pragmatic competence:
(1) be clear, and (2) be polite. The second rule may then be decomposed
into three subrules: (1) don't impose, (2) give options, and (3) make the
partner feel good. Watts et al. (1992: 5 ff.) note that subrule (1) corres-
ponds to "formal/impersonal politeness", while subrules (2) and (3) corre-
spond to "nonformal" and "intimate" politeness respectively. This means
that the impersonal style of presentation in scientific and intellectual dis-
course gives the author's views in an authoritative way, but without im-
posing them on the audience. We shall briefly discuss what happens when
the author of a scientific text uses direct, rather than indirect, reference.
One might expect that use of direct reference might achieve a more
informal effect, possibly even of intimacy with the audience. This may
have undesired results. On the one hand, the use of first person singular
for self-reference may be considered too informal and improper, i. e.,
not scientific or professional enough. On the other hand, the direct self-
reference may be considered an imposition of one's subjective view on
the audience; that is, it may be seen as authoritative, assertive, even arro-
gant. There seem to be two factors that influence the reader/listener's
perception on this matter. First, it is important who the authors are: if
they are acknowledged authorities in the field, their direct self-reference
will be assumed to be an instrument of stressing their own contribution
(cf. Chomsky's system of self-reference). If they are not acknowledged

experts their direct style will be considered as simply ill-fitting intimacy.
The second factor is the cultural norm of the reader/listener. For a Pole,
a German, or an Italian, the Anglo-Saxon direct style of presentation
may be considered improper and arrogant. "Perceptions of politeness are
likely to differ across cultures, sometimes quite alarmingly, and it is of
crucial practical significance that we should know how to predict the
kinds of communication breakdown that are likely to arise from such
conflicting perceptions" (Watts et al. 1992: 15). In modern international
scientific thought-exchange, scientists communicate more and more
across cultures, and in such intercultural communication, "more so than
in other types of communication, face-threatening acts and their redress
do not operate on the inter-individual level alone, but - by process of
attribution and stereotyping - tend to have consequences for higher
levels of social organisation as well" (Knapp-Potthoff 1992: 203).
7. Sources of stereotypes
Since the general rhetoric of science has been standardized across most
Western scientific communities, the same filter of desired objectivity will
be superimposed on individual language systems. The same filter working
on diverse systems of morphological and syntactic strategies will produce
different results. These results will then be individually evaluated by
speakers of each language according to national norms of politeness. If
patterns of one language are applied to another language, the resulting
structure may be grammatically unacceptable. On the other hand, a struc-
ture may be evaluated as grammatically correct but pragmatically wrong.
This is the case when native speakers of, say, Italian, Polish or German
use the impersonal style of presentation when speaking or writing in Eng-
lish. While the impersonal style is almost a required standard in scientific
discourse in those languages, it results in a style that is pragmatically
marked for speakers of English. Different cultures may be considered
different discourse communities. The transfer of standards of one culture
into a different language may result in the creation of cultural stereo-
types.4
Goffman (1959: 24) distinguishes between two kinds of stimuli that
shape our impressions of others, according to the function of the infor-
mation they convey: appearance and manner. Appearance may be under-
stood as referring to the stimuli that function to tell us of the performer's
(author's) social status and position in the social or, more narrowly, pro-
fessional hierarchy. In scientific texts, the appearance aspect can be re-
duced to the biographical information about the author, or even to the
author's name and affiliation. This information usually provides enough
background to determine the author's status and position in the field.
Manner may then be understood, according to Goffman (1959: 24), as
referring to those stimuli that function as a source of information about
the interaction role the performer will expect to play in the upcoming
situation. We naturally expect some consistency between appearance and
manner; that is, we expect, as Goffman put it, that "the differences in
social statuses among the interactants will be expressed in some way by
congruent differences in the indications that are made of an expected
interaction role" (1959: 24).
In the case of the scientific text, we are dealing with authors who,
usually by appearance, present themselves as experts and deliver a por-
tion of expert knowledge to the interested audience. Thus, by definition,
the performer "appears to be of higher estate than his audience" (1959:
25). If, however, the author who appears to be an expert acts in a manner
that is "unexpectedly egalitarian, or intimate, or apologetic" (1959: 25),
or goes too far in the display of power, appearance and manner contra-
dict each other and may create the feeling either that the author is not
an expert after all or that he/she is arrogant in treating his/her audience.
The conflict between appearance and manner may easily arise when the
native language and cultural traditions of the audience and the performer
are different. This could happen when authors use a language that is not
their native tongue and which they have learned without the appropriate
cultural background. They may apply their native standards of manner
to a message delivered in a language with different cultural norms. A
similar problem may arise in situations where authors use their native
language and norms of neutral manner consistent with their tradition,
but the tradition differs from that of the audience. Both situations may
result in the formation of national stereotypes based solely on inter/intra-
conflicting values of manner and appearance.
While this paper has looked at those rhetorical strategies of reference
that are cross-linguistic, more detailed analysis of language-specific im-
personal/"responsibility-shielding" expressions need to be undertaken in
order to ascertain the semantic load of each alternate. (In plainer English:
'We shall do this another time'.)
152 Vittorina Cecchetto and Magda Stromska
Notes
1. In this paper, we concentrate on written texts; in the later part, however, some observa-
tions will be made on the oral presentation of such texts.
2. Another property of scientific discourse that is related to the phenomenon of invariant
linguistic meaning of an expression is monoreferentiality of both scientific terminology
and other expressions used in scientific texts. The restricted context of a given discipline
of science, as well as the fact that most scientific texts deal with well-defined topics,
disambiguates potentially polysemous expressions (cf. Gotti 1991).
3. Sometimes a "personal reference" may be misleading, since it is certain properties of
objects or concepts that have been "personalized" or to which the "possibility of action"
has been attributed:
"We can divide 9 by 3 without a remainder.
9 can be divided by 3 without a remainder.
9 is divisible by 3 without a remainder.
The division of 9 by 3 leaves no remainder" (Gotti 1991: 100).
4. The problem of cultural stereotypes has been recently analyzed from a linguistic point
of view by Scollon and Wong Scollon (1995). They write: "a balanced cultural descrip-
tion must take into consideration the full complexity of cultural themes. When one of
those themes is singled out for emphasis and given a positive or negative value or is
treated as the full description, then we would want to call that ideology rather than
cultural description. A much more common term for such cultural ideological statements
is 'stereotyping'. ... stereotyping is simply another word for overgeneralization" (1995:
154-155).
References
Baldwin, Charles S.
1928 Medieval rhetoric and poetic (to 1400). New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.
Banfield, Anne
1982 Unspeakable sentences: Narration and representation in the language of fiction.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Barthes, Roland
1967 Writing degree zero. London: Jonathan Cape.
Benveniste, Emile
1948 Noms d'agent et noms d'action en indo-europeen. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve.
1966 Problemes de linguistique generale. Paris: Gallimard.
Blakemore, Diane
1992 Understanding utterances. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Bogustawski, Andrzej
1981 "Wissen, Wahrheit, Glauben: Zur semantischen Beschaffenheit des kognitiven
Vokabulars", in: Theo Bungarten (ed.), 54-84.
Brown, Penelope-Stephen C. Levinson
1987 Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press.
Brown, Roger-Albert Gilman

1960 "The pronouns of power and solidarity", in: Thomas A. Sebeok (ed.), 2 5 3 -
276.
Bungarten, Theo (ed.)
1981 Wissenschaftssprache: Beiträge zur Methodologie, theoretischen Fundierung
und Deskription. Munich: Wilhelm Fink.
Burke, Peter-Roy Porter (eds.)
1987 The social history of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chafe, Wallace
1994 Discourse, consciousness, and time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chaika, Elaine
1989 Language: The social mirror. New York: Newbury House Publishers.
Chisholm, Roderick M.
1981 The first person, an essay on reference and intentionality. Minneapolis: Univer-
sity of Minnesota Press.
Coval, Samuel C.
1966 Scepticism and the first person. London: Methuen and Co.
Darski, Jozef-Zygmunt Vetulani (eds.)
1993 Sprache — Kommunikation - Informatik. Akten des 26. Linguistischen Kol-
loquiums, Poznan 1991. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Dobrzyhska, Teresa (ed.)
1992 Typy tekstöw [Text types], Warsaw: Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of
Literary Studies.
Duszak, Anna
313.
Evans, Gareth
1982 The varieties of reference. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fiengo, Robert-Robert May
1994 Indices and identity. Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press.
Goffman, Erving
1959 The presentation of self in everyday live. New York: Anchor Books.
Gotti, Maurizio
1991 I linguaggi specialistici. Florence: La nuova Italia.
Green, Georgia M.
1989 Pragmatics and natural language understanding. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
1967/1968 "Notes on transitivity and theme in English", Journal of Linguistics 3:
37-87, 199-244; 4: 179-215.
Jay, Paul
1984 Being in the text: Self-representation from Wordsworth to Roland Barthes. Ith-
aca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Kittredge, R . - J . Lehrberger (eds.)
1982 Sublanguage, studies of language in restricted semantic domains. Berlin and
New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Knapp-Potthoff, Annelie
1992 "Secondhand politeness", in: R. J. Watts et al. (eds.), 203-220.
Kress, Gunther
1989 Linguistic processes in socioculturalpractice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kronfeld, Amichai
1990 Reference and computation, an essay in applied philosophy of language. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, Robin
1979 "Stylistic strategies within a grammar of style", in: J. O r a s a n u - M . Slater -
L. Adler (eds.), 53-80.
Macaulay, Ronald
1994 The social art: Language and its uses. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McGinn, C.
1983 The subjective view: Secondary qualities and indexical thoughts. Oxford: Clare-
don Press.
Orasanu, J . - M . Slater-L. Adler (eds.)
1979 Language, sex and gender. (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
327.) New York: Academy of Science.
Russell, Bertrand
1946 Human knowledge, its scope and limits. London: G. Allen and Unwin.
Scollon, Ron-Suzanne Wong Scollon
1995 Intercultural communication: A discourse approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
Sebeok, Thomas A. (ed.)
1960 Style in language. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.
Strawson, P. F.
1959 Individuals. London: Methuen.
Stromska, Magda
1992 "Styl bezosobowy a spojnosc referencjalna w dyskursie naukowym" [Imper-
sonal style and referential cohesion in scientific discourse], in: Teresa
Dobrzyhska (ed.), 15-25.
1993 "Interpretation of reference for syntactic null arguments", in: Jozef D a r s k i -
Zygmunt Vetulani (eds.), 201 -208.
Watts, Richard J.-Sachiko Ide-Konrad Ehlich
1992 Politeness in language. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Wierzbicka, Anna
1972 Semantic primitives. Frankfurt: Athenäum.
Part 2
Interpersonal meanings in
academic discourse:
The case of hedging
Modalization: Probability - an exploration into its
role in academic writing
Eija Ventola
1. Introduction
A good starting point for this article is the following quotation from a
guide book on academic discourse.
... scholarly writing should be free from bias. Speculation, if it is necessary,
should be clearly indicated by such words as may, possibly, and perhaps.
And things first mentioned as possibilities should not later be stated as if
they were facts. ... In advertising and politics, for example, it is usual to
use emotive language, instead of evidence, and to exaggerate and present
only the advantages of a product or selected facts that are in accordance
with party dogma. But scholars, seeking the truth, should avoid emotive
language and should present evidence for and evidence against — unless
they are asked to do otherwise. Where appropriate they should present a
variety of opinions, to show that they are aware of different interpretations
even if they conclude by supporting one point of view. (Barass 1984: 101)
On reading these instructions, one is bound to ask whether they actually
help novice academic writers to produce better texts. This paper is meant
as a more systematic linguistic exploration of such "speculative words"
as may, possibly, perhaps, etc., and their use in academic texts. The goal
is to offer scholars an opportunity to be "more human" in their "pursuit
of the truth". The readers will first be introduced to a framework within
which such expressions are seen as systematic choices of making interper-
sonal meanings. The paper will then discuss such meaning realizations in
texts produced by native and nonnative writers. Finally, some implica-
tions for foreign language teaching will be discussed - particularly the
features nonnative writers of English academic texts may find useful
when expressing their "speculations".
2. Theoretical framework
Such "little" words as may, possibly, perhaps, etc. belong to that area of
"meaning-making potential" that Halliday (1978: 187) calls an "interper-
sonal" function of language (the other two functions are the textual func-
tion and the ideational function, which includes both experiential and
logical mechanisms of meaning-making).
158 Eija Ventola
2.1. The interpersonal function of language

The interpersonal function allows us as communicators to choose, for
example,
(i) to offer a proposition, (ii) pitched in a particular key (e. g. contradic-
tory-defensive), (iii) with a particular intent towards you [the addressee]
(e. g. of convincing you), (iv) with a particular assessment of its probability
(e. g. certain) and (v) with indication of a particular attitude (e. g. regret-
ful). (Halliday 1978: 187-188)
The interpersonal function refers to "all use of language to express social

and personal relations" (Halliday 1973: 41). But this paper will focus
particularly on examining (iv) "assessments of probability" as a part of
the linguistic system, and on exploring their role in academic writing.
2.2. MOOD1
As already indicated in Halliday's quotation above, "assessments of prob-

ability" are seen as simultaneous choices of how to make interpersonal
meaning in a structure. The most important choice is that of MOOD. This
choice involves various parameters: the communicator has to decide (i)
whether the message has to do with information or with goods and ser-
vices - in other words, whether we are dealing with propositions or with
proposals; and (ii) whether s/he is in the role of a provider or of a con-
sumer of information/goods and services. These choices ultimately give
us the basic speech functions of human communication: on the one hand,
those of statements (proposition: giver of information) and offers (pro-
posal: giver of goods and services): on the other hand, those of questions
(proposition: demander of information) and commands (proposition: de-
mander of goods and services). (For details see Halliday 1985: chapter 4.)
2.3. POLARITY
Academic language basically deals with "propositions and giving infor-

mation" — with statements. As we saw from the quotation at the begin-
ning, academic language is ideally seen as making "yes-or-no state-
ments". In other words, the POLARITY of statements is either positive or
negative: either something "is so" or "is not so", depending on the evi-
dence shown. However, even in the name of "objectivity in science", it is
not always as easy to present such clear-cut "yes-or-no statements" as has
been suggested above. 2 Rather, we frequently find ourselves somewhere
between "yes" and "no".
Probability — its role in academic writing 159
2.4. MODALITY: Modulation and modalization

This "indeterminacy", the middle positioning, Halliday (1985: 335) calls
"the system of M O D A L I T Y " , and according to him it applies to both pro-
posals and propositions. When we discuss the M O D A L I T Y of proposals
(commands and offers), we are dealing with "modulation", and thus
speakers' obligations or readiness towards the action (or inclination). 3
But when we discuss the M O D A L I T Y of propositions (statements and ques-
tions), then we are dealing with "modalization", speakers' assessments of
probabilities and frequencies. 4 The difference between modulation and
modalization is apparent in the clauses in example 1 (from Halliday, in
Kress 1975: 189):
(1) (i) You must be very careful. = modulation: obliga-

Modality tion, readiness
(ii) You must be very careless. = modalization: prob-
ability, frequency
As already mentioned, this paper will concern itself only with type (1 ii)
clauses, those where the choice is [modality: modalization].
2.5. Modality: modalization: type, value, orientation

As indicated above, there are two types involved in modalization: prob-
ability and frequency. They are exemplified in (2):
(2) , .. . (i) probability: You must be very careless.

Modalization xtype ; ' ,. ΤΛ ,,
(n) usuality: You are not usually care-
less.
Thus, whenever communicators want to modalize their messages (i. e.,
make an assessment in terms of likelihood and frequency), they have to
make this choice. Our focus here will be on the choice of [modality:
modalization: probability].
But choosing which type of modalization we want to use is not
enough. We also have to decide how the intended meaning is positioned
on the cline of "indeterminacy" between "it is so" and "it is not so".
Halliday (1985: 337) labels this the choice of "value"; the basic choices
are [high/median/low]. The glosses for these values are, for example, cer-
tain/probable/possible. Auxiliary verbs, in turn, express value in the
following way: value [high] is realized by must, ought to, need, has to, is
160 Eija Ventola
to; [median] by will, would, shall, should:; and [low] by may, might, can,
could (for details, see Halliday 1985: 334-341). 5 The argument is that
there is a decrease in value in "probability assessment" as we move on
from statements (i)-(v), as in (3).
(3) (i) It is so.

(ii) high It certainly is so. It must be so.
Value (iii) median It is probably so. It should be so.
(iv) low It is possibly so. It may be so.
(v) It is not so.
While they are choosing what type of modalization expressions they

want to use and what kind of value they want to set to their message,
the communicators also have to decide on how explicitly they want to
commit themselves to the modalization of probability, i. e., what their
own orientation is to the likelihood of the message. In other words, they
can fully acknowledge that "this is their assessment", or try to "objectiv-
ize" the message, but they are not fully committing themselves to "yes/
no" alternatives, and therefore their message still operates within the
[modalization: probability] scale. The examples in (4) illustrate the scales
involved in the choice of orientation:
(4) (i) subjective: explicit I think that he will come.

Orientation ® subjective: implicit He will come.
(iii) objective: implicit He will probably come.
(iv) objective: explicit It is likely that he will
come.
2.6. Linguistic realizations of MODALITY

As can be seen from the examples above, linguistic realizations of the
choices of type, value, and orientation may be adjectival, adverbial, or
auxiliary verbs, the latter probably being the most common. But we must
not forget that these choices can also be realized by nouns through the
process of nominalization, e. g., "certainty", "probability", "possibility",
or even by full clauses, usually hypotactic clauses: "It is likely that ...",
"It is probable that ...".
2.7. Summary
Figure 1 summarizes the theoretical discussion so far.
The system of MODALITY allows native speakers of English to move be-
tween two opposite poles, positive and negative, in the English clause
Probability - its role in academic writing 161
— Obligation
Modulation
— Readiness
Modality
ι— Probability
— Modalization
1— Usuality
ρ High
Value Median
— Low
ρ Explicit
r- Subjective
I— Implicit
Orientation —•
— Explicit
Objective
— Implicit
Figure 1. MODALITY choices (see Halliday 1985: 3 3 5 - 3 3 7 ) .
structure. With this system the communicators are able to "modify" their
messages. In the case of propositions (statements and questions), this
modification (modalization) takes place with respect to the communica-
tors' assessments of probability and frequency. In the case of proposals
(commands and offers), the modification (modulation) takes place with
respect to the communicators' assessments of obligation and readiness
(or inclination). But type of MODALITY is only one of the choices the
communicators need to make. In addition, they have to tune the mes-
sages to the right level of value [high, median, low], and they have to
express their orientation to the messages [subjective/objective; implicit/
explicit]. Here the interest is on assessments of probability and its combi-
nation of value and orientation choices. The next section explains why
the author of the paper takes this present interest in [modalization: prob-
ability].
3. Probability and the genre of of scientific articles
The quotation with which this paper started stated that "scholarly writing
should be free from bias" and that "speculation, if it is necessary, should
be clearly indicated". But how do scholars follow such advice? How unbi-
ased are they?
162 Eija Ventola
3.1. Empiricist vs. contingent repertoire

Gilbert and Mulkay (1984) show that scientists are also "politicians",
and doing science is "practicing politics". They studied the formal aca-
demic writing of scientists and compared that to oral interviews carried
out with the same scientists. In the spoken discourse of the scientists, the
controversies between various schools and approaches prevailing in the
field were omnipresent. In the written discourse, the scientists put up a
front of "objectivity" by using what Gilbert and Mulkay (1984: 42) call
an "impersonal style" (avoidance of "we", avoidance of human agents;
minimization of researchers and their beliefs). The formal writing is gov-
erned by "empiricist repertoire".
Empiricist discourse is organised in a manner which denies its character as
an interpretative product and which denies that its author's actions are
relevant to its content ... it portrays scientists' actions and beliefs as
following unproblematically and inescapably from the empirical character-
istics of an impersonal natural world. (Gilbert—Mulkay 1984: 56)
The interviews displayed "speculative insights, prior intellectual commit-

ments, personal characteristics, indescribable skills, social ties and group
membership" (Gilbert-Mulkay 1984: 56) This type of discourse Gilbert
and Mulkay call a contingent repertoire, which views
scientists' actions no longer as generic responses to the realities of the natu-
ral world, but as the activities and judgements of specific individuals acting
on the basis of their personal inclinations and particular social positions.
(Gilbert-Mulkay 1984: 57)
If most of spoken scientific discourse is of the contingent kind, why are

scientists then encouraged or even required to write with the empiricist
repertoire? Especially since studies on ideology and language will eventu-
ally be able to detect the biased views and the "fallacy of objectivity" in
academic writing anyhow.
3.2. Hedging
In "writing science" must we necessarily follow the empiricist repertoire?
Why not allow the written scientific language to be "more human"? In
fact, when we study scientific discourse we do find that even experienced
scholars "speculate", at least to some degree. Experienced native writers
may have no problems in making the right linguistic choices for the kinds
of speculative meanings they want to express, but novice writers and

nonnative writers may need some guidance in realizing their speculations
appropriately. Linguists are expected to give them this guidance; in my
view, however, the help linguists have given writers has so far been very
vague.
Probability assessments and their linguistic realizations have usually
been swept under the carpet of "hedging" — a general category that cov-
ers all those linguistic expressions the meanings of which seem somewhat
hard to analyze and categorize. Markkanen and Schröder (1989: 171),
for example, list the following items in this category: "modal verbs,
modal adverbs and particles, the use of certain personal pronouns and
avoidance of others, the use of agentless passives and other impersonal
expressions as well as certain choices in the vocabulary". A similar kind
of approach is advocated by Banks (1993). Markkanen and Schröder
(1989, 1992; Markkanen 1989) largely associate hedging with face-saving.
Myers (1989) speaks of positive and negative politeness strategies. The
former include, for example, the use of pronouns, citations, attitudinal
expressions, joking, and giving credit to other writers; the latter include
hedging, impersonal constructions, and assertions of general rules. In
Myers's view, these writers consciously use these phenomena to carry out
their strategies. Markkanen and Schröder and Myers are, of course, cor-
rect. We are dealing not merely with a formal matter when we analyze
these types of phenomena in academic texts, but with what Halliday calls
the interpersonal function of language — that function of language that
ultimately is displayed in how interactant roles are realized in texts. In
that sense "hedging", "face-saving", and "positive/negative politeness
strategies" are all manifestations of the interpersonal function of lan-
guage. But when we analyze the realizations of the interpersonal function
of language in texts, we need to elaborate in much more detail how these
phenomena relate to the forms used. Too often too many kinds of factors
are brought together under a general "umbrella term", and thus the
meanings created are not analyzed explicitly enough. For example, the
use of the passive does not always signal the avoidance of expressing the
writer's presence; it may have to do with the thematic development of
the text. Further, the unit of analysis for hedging, etcetera seems still too
often to be the clause or the sentence. The focus is relatively local, not
global. But there are studies that also emphasize the importance and
value of generic approaches in the study of assessments of probability in
academic writing.
164 Eija Ventola
3.3. Genre and register

The notion of "genre" is linked with text instances that are of the same
type, driven by the same communicative purposes and portraying the
same kind of unfolding (generic global structure) as texts. It is a semiotic
notion; thus, it can only be realized through language. It is, metaphori-
cally speaking, "a computer program" that realizes texts and guarantees
that they will be recognized as belonging to the same type (see Ventola
1987: 6 6 - 8 1 and Swales 1990: 3 3 - 6 7 for a further discussion). Linked
with the notion of genre is another semiotic notion, that of "register".
Register refers to the contextuality of the text; how the text is made
appropriate for the context of communication. As the discourse develops,
communicators tune their messages according to the developments of the
subject matter, to the recipient of the messages, and to the channels of
communication they have available for sending the messages. The rela-
tionship between genre and register is that of "connotative semiotics"; in
other words, generic choices are realized by register choices, which in
turn are realized by linguistic choices turned into linguistic structures in
text instances.
Work on the relationship of generic structures and register choices in
various genres is already relatively abundant (see for example Ventola
1987; Martin 1992; Eggins 1994; and a slightly different generic structure
approach, "the move analysis" by Swales 1990 and Duszak 1994). But
less attention has been given to the relationship of generic structures,
register choices, and assessments of probability in academic writing.
Some important observations have, however, recently been made, al-
though the treatment of assessments of probability has tended to be
somewhat haphazard, and too frequently it has been covered only in
general terms under the heading of hedging. As Swales (1990: 136) notes,
we have some evidence "that the different sections [of a research article]
perform different rhetorical functions and thus require different linguistic
resources to realize those functions" (cf. the proposed links between
genre, register, and language above). The work by Adam Smith (1984;
summarized in Swales 1990), for example, is an indication of this fact.
She does not present a consistent consideration of assessments of prob-
ability, but rather considers such expressions as "may", "should", "pos-
sible", "certainly", etc., as "author's comments". Her results show that
authorial comments are mostly epistemic in character relating to the
"probability" of a proposition being true (i. e., modalization: prob-
ability); in half of the cases the author's comments were realized by modal
auxiliaries, and in the other half by adjectives and adverbs expressing

"probability" (15 percent) and by "attitudinal markers" (35 percent),
which again as a category is a somewhat mixed bag including adverbs
like surprisingly, a marked choice of a noun, a switch to the first person,
unusual metaphors, and so on. The author's comments were very high in
introductions and discussion sections of research papers, and very low in
methods and results sections (Adam Smith 1984, in Swales 1990: 136-
137).
The results of Adam Smith's work are interesting and important to
the teaching of academic writing, although a general criticism can be
made to the effect that the category "author's comments" is too much
of a "catchall". The different kinds of meanings and meaning-making
potentials in academic writing cannot be distinguished delicately enough
with it. But when we think of Adam Smith's work in relation to our
initial quotation, it seems the advice the quotation gives to academic
writers is somewhat misguided - authors should not generally avoid as-
sessments of probability everywhere in their text; rather, there seem to be
generic global elements where such assessments are more appropriate
than in other elements. Swales (1990: 136) also suggests that as far as "a
differential distribution of linguistic and rhetorical features across the
four standard sections of the research article" are concerned, we can di-
vide the generic global elements into "simple" and "complex" ones:
Methods and Results belong to the former, and Introduction and Discus-
sion to the latter. It also appears that the former require less redrafting in
the process of writing than the latter. Consequently, in teaching academic
writing the focus ought to be in training authors how to write the latter
elements effectively.
In spite of these interesting results from Adam Smith's work, it can
be concluded that research into academic writing and its expressions of
M O D A L I T Y , and more specifically [modalization: probability], is still a
vast, scarcely explored territory. The frameworks generally offered for
discussing modality are not clearly defined, and the links between the
formal and the global items are not systematically studied, partly because
the formal items are grouped into vague "pragmatic categories" and
partly because we still do not understand well enough the links between
the global and the local organization. In this respect, the theoretical
framework introduced in section 2 is proposed as a more effective and
more delicate way of categorizing M O D A L I T Y meanings and relating the
linguistic realizations found in the texts systematically to the proposed
meaning categories. The purpose of the network in Figure 1 is to capture
166 Ei ja Ventola
the potential for making meanings in terms of MODALITY. But even within
this framework too few analyses of texts have been conducted, particu-
larly in academic writing. More work is urgently needed in terms of relat-
ing the aspects of genre and register to the notion of MODALITY. Such
work would offer help to both novice native writers and nonnative writ-
ers.
No one is born as "an academic". Once you have been socialized into
this role, then as a native writer you presumably know how the MOD-
ALITY system functions in your own language and what the appropriate
linguistic realizations of it are. But academic contexts are complex for
newcomers, and the language used in these contexts often seems incom-
prehensible. Outsiders call the language "academic jargon". It is only
through elaborate processes of learning that even native speakers of Eng-
lish learn to write "good academic English", the kind of language fre-
quently advocated by those writers of academic writing manuals who
themselves have not had any linguistic training. In my view, we simply
do not yet know enough about the process of "writing a good academic
paper", and definitely have not been able to develop teaching of academic
writing to the necessary levels of explicitness and delicacy in linguistic
realizations. Most native speakers who have to produce academic texts
are, however, capable of coping with writing problems. More explicit
training, would perhaps also guarantee a chance for "the dropouts".
When we consider nonnative academic writing in English, trouble seems
to proliferate; in addition to other problems, nonnative writers also have
problems expressing assessments of probability.
4. [Modalization: probability] in academic papers written

in English by Finnish writers
In the Finnish academic context, the ability to write scientific papers in

English is "a must". If Finnish academics want their research work to be
known outside Finland, they will usually write an article about it in Eng-
lish (and to a certain degree in other languages as well). Yet Finnish
university education has paid relatively little attention to developing stu-
dents' abilities to write academic essays and papers in English. Only re-
cently have some voluntary courses in writing scientific English been ar-
ranged. Some universities, like the University of Helsinki, try to offer
some help to academics by providing them with a revision service — the
article will be checked for "language" by a native speaker of English. But
research (Ventola—Mauranen 1990, 1991) has shown that often native-

speaker revisions do not go far enough in improving the textual quality
of the text. The revisions tend to be localized to the clause level, and to
ignore the level of the text. Revision work is usually done by language
teachers as additional work; therefore the group as a whole lacks profes-
sional training in the activity of "editing and revision". But ultimately, it
is the Finnish writers who need the training. It is difficult to revise a
badly written text into a coherent, well-structured text. According to the
academic-writing research carried out in Finland, the areas where Finnish
writers need textual training most are: awareness of cultural differences
in writing, global and local structuring of texts, theme-rheme progression
patterns, reference as a system for indicating text participants and text
reference, connectors and metatext, unpacking heavy nominalizations,
and modality (see for example Mauranen 1993; Ventola 1992 a, 1992 b,
1993, 1994; Ventola-Mauranen 1990, 1991).
4.1. Overview of the [modalization: probability] problems

It is predictable that the English [modalization: probability] system causes
problems for Finnish writers at least to some degree, because the two
languages differ in their realizations of this meaning potential. It is not
necessary here to go over the details of the respective Finnish system of
MODALITY. Suffice it to note that MOOD and MODALITY in Finnish must
be considered more closely together, because one of the Finnish moods,
the potential (marked by -ne- in the finite verb of the verbal group),
realizes partly in the clause that particular meaning area covered by the
English [modalization: probability] choices. Consider the following exam-
ples (from Karlsson 1983: 145): Presidentti Husak saapunee huomenna
,President Husak will probably arrive tomorrow'. Hakulinen and Karls-
son (1979: 262) note further that epistemic modality [= modalization:
probability] has a lot of adverbial realizations. Since their focus is not
contrastive, they do not consider whether Finnish has more adverbial
realizations of epistemic modality than, for example, English, but if this
were the case, trouble would occur.
Thus, we can envisage at least the following types of problems with
which Finnish writers have to cope. To begin with, there is the problem
of fully understanding how the English MODALITY (and MOOD) elements
are constructed in the clause. Further, writers have to be able to distin-
guish the different meanings frequently created in English by using the
same linguistic realizations for modalization and modulation. Also, the
168 Eija Ventola
value (high/low/median) of certain modalization realizations may not be

the same in English as in their Finnish translations, and the willingness to
express orientation in the two languages may differ (objective/subjective;
implicit/explicit). Finally, even though the above-mentioned research by
Adam Smith seems to indicate that [modalization: probability] is a natu-
ral part of English Introductions and Discussions, this may not be true
when Finns write their papers in English. Let us see to what extent this
is true according to some initial research in the area. 6
The investigation covered 17 texts: 9 from the natural sciences, and 8
from the social sciences, education, and the arts. All the modalization
and modulation realizations in the articles were examined. (Occurrences
of modulation turned out to be few, and they are not the focus of this
paper.) The general trends, as far as [modalization: probability] is con-
cerned, will be discussed below: first let us consider the assumed links
between the global structures and linguistic expressions of [modalization:
probability] and the Finnish writers' individual choices for realizing prob-
ability.
The initial investigation showed a difference between the natural sci-
ence texts and the social sciences and humanities texts. The latter in-
cluded more [modalization: probability] expressions. Moreover, in the
natural science texts probability expressions appeared primarily in the
discussion section; some also occurred in the Introduction. This contrasts
interestingly with Adam Smith's results. The Finnish natural scientists
studied seemed to use fewer probability expressions in the Introduction
than the English writers. No remarkable concentration of probability ex-
pressions was noted in the social sciences and humanities texts. Naturally,
though, one has to keep in mind that this kind of correlation between
the global parts and probability expressions is more difficult in these
fields, since many of the articles do not have as clear-cut a conventional
global structure as the articles in the natural sciences. In experimental
psychological reports, however, such structures are common. The prob-
ability expressions in these articles seemed to concentrate in the Discus-
sion and the Conclusion and Applications, and somewhat surprisingly in
the Results section. Here the contrast to Adam Smith's results is also
notable.
One could conclude from these results that the Finnish writers' orien-
tation toward the use of probability expressions is somewhat different
from that of the English writers, at least as far as the natural sciences are
concerned. It appears, for example, that no probability expressions are
felt to be needed in an Introduction, and that Finns start "hedging" when
writing up their Results. Conclusions drawn on the basis of this initial

investigation are, however, highly tentative and must be verified by "re-
newal of connection" of a further analysis; in other words, a larger-scale
study is needed to investigate the proposed links between global generic
structures of texts in different fields and the differences in the probability
realizations between the Finnish and British/American scholars.
What about the individual choices of probability expressions then?
Finnish writers' texts show little variation in terms of probability expres-
sions. Each writer seems to know a few ways of expressing probability
and tends to stick with these expressions; "may" and "can" are the most
popular expressions. The use of "may" and "can" appears to be some-
what problematic for Finnish writers. Both can be translated with the
Finnish verb voi[da], but this verb has various meanings in Finnish. It
may mean [modalization: probability; value: low], or [modulation: obliga-
tion], or it may be used for the Finnish MOOD: potentiality. Sometimes it
is not clear from the Finnish writers' texts which of these is the intended
meaning.
Writers whose texts indicated a higher level of language skills also
seemed to be more skilled in handling the linguistic realization of prob-
ability, and seemed to vary their expressions more than the less skilled
writers. The fact that these writers were either linguists or philosophers
might also have contributed to the variation; after all, their "job" is
mostly "language". Finnish writers have also learned some metaphorical
realizations of [modalization: probability]; for example, they use such
verbs as "seem" and "suggest", but each writer appears to stick to his/
her favorite expressions without much variation.
A closer comparison of one developmental psychology article coau-
thored by some English writers and two articles written by Finnish schol-
ars showed that in all of the articles [modalization: probability; value:
low; orientation: subjective, implicit] choices were the most common, the
modal verb may being one of the most popular realizations. On the
whole, though, the Finnish writers used fewer probability expressions
than the English writers and showed less variation in their choice of lin-
guistic realization. The verb "suggest" was used by both Finnish writers
and the English writers, whereas "seem" was used only in the English
article and one of the Finnish articles, and "tend" appeared only in the
English text. Although Finnish as a language has a rich reserve of "prob-
ability adverbs", Finnish writers did not seem to seek equivalents in Eng-
lish; such adverbs were only used by the English writers. Similarly, nouns
encoding probability were only used by the English writers. The two Fin-
170 Eija Ventola
nish articles seemed to differ: one included more (and more varied) prob-
ability expressions than the other. The reviser who edited both of the
texts made only one probability addition to the text - to the one that
already included more modality expressions. If the Finnish writer's text
lacks probability expressions, but might be improved by adding them, no
great help can be expected from language revision. The onus is largely
on the writer; one cannot expect that the reviser will always judge the
relevant degree of modalization necessary, for example, in Discussion,
and therefore the reviser leaves the text untouched in this respect.
In another close examination of article pairs from the fields of chemis-
try and hydrology, it was again noted that Finnish writers tended to use
fewer probability expressions than English writers. But in these fields,
English writers also seemed to use these expressions less than in the field
of developmental psychology. Usage of [modalization: probability; orien-
tation: objective] was higher in these texts than in the psychology text,
although the majority of the realizations were still of the [orientation:
subjective: implicit] type. The Finnish writers did not use these objective
expressions, except in one instance.
To summarize, then, in the articles from the fields of humanities, the
social sciences, and education more modalization expressions were used
than in the texts from the natural sciences. Finns tended to use less mod-
alization than English writers. This raises interesting questions. Is [modal-
ization: probability] perhaps a cultural feature? Do English writers indeed
"modalize" more, or are Finnish writers merely having problems with
their probability expressions in English, while, when writing in Finnish,
they would use them as much as the English writers? Why do Finnish
writers use such a limited set of probability expressions? Has language
teaching not paid enough attention to teaching these factors? To what
degree is "modalization" in academic writing idiosyncratic, and thus
characterizable as "individualistic style"? How can we train language re-
visers to pay more attention to these probability expressions?
It is obvious that making generalizations on the basis of these initial
investigations might be dangerous. More work in this field is urgently
needed, and what has been reported above may offer some initial direc-
tions for further research: toward investigating the relationship of MOD-
ALITY and global generic structures of texts; toward discovering the types
of MODALITY expressions that occur in the texts; toward doing con-
trastive work on MODALITY expressions within various languages, using
texts rather than sentences as the data. And finally, there is also a need
for more systematic studies that contrast the "good" and the "less
skilled" writers especially regarding how they handle MODALITY in their

writing. The last section of this chapter reports the results of a small-
scale experiment conducted with Finnish writers; its purpose was to see
how they perceive probability expressions in a scientific text.
4.2. Finnish writers' selections of [value] for [modalization:

probability] — an experiment
The experiment involved a text extract from a technical field. In this text,
all but one of the modalization expressions were of the type [value: low].
The Finnish writers involved in the experiment were all participants in a
writing course on academic English. Just prior to the experiment they
had been given a review of the traditional views on English modals and
their use. All modal verbs had been removed from the text, and during
the experiment the writers had to fill in the slots with the modal verbs
they thought most suitable to the context. The purpose of the experiment
was to see how the writers perceived the [modalization: probability]
meanings in the text and whether they would use the same value choices
as the original authors. The original text is given in example 5; the slots
and the modals are indicated in italics.
(5) Generally, highly satisfactory room air flow conditions were

obtained using floor mounted diffusers with air volume sup-
ply rates in the range 17 1/s to 341/s. These systems have the
advantage that the air flows enter the occupied zone immedi-
ately, and hence come directly into contact with convection
streams due to human occupancy. A problem associated with
downward supply systems is that the air flow (1) may be
swamped by convection streams above head level, and hence
stagnant areas (2) may occur in the occupied zone.
In future it (3) may be possible to produce a plot using a
W-Y plotter or similar showing the variation of measured air
velocity with time due to upward supply systems. This
(4) would produce a clearer understanding of the air move-
ment conditions associated with these systems enabling
factors such as the standard deviation, periodicity and turbu-
lence intensity to be established. According to Fanger and
Christensen, (1986 a) the standard deviation (5) may be used
to determine the amplitude of the air velocity fluctuations.
Fanger and Christensen (1986 a) also suggest that turbulent
172 Eija Ventola
air flow (6) may be characterized by the mean velocity and

the turbulence intensity, i. e. the mean velocity divided by the
standard deviation. Olesen (1985) quotes values of periodicity
which (7) can be used to determine the frequency of air veloc-
ity fluctuations. It (8) may also be profitable to conduct an
examination using increased occupancy levels to assess the
flow conditions caused as upward supply jets encounter the
convection streams around the body, (original: D. Rowlin-
son—D. Croome, "Supply characteristics of floor mounted dif-
fuses", Bath University, 1987)
One of the groups to which the text with empty "modal slots" was given
consisted of seven writers from various fields, one linguist whose area
was Finnish (Fl), another linguist whose area was English (El), and a
native-speaker reviser (NE) who was also attending the course. Figure 2
gives the values members of the group chose for the "modal slots". Η
stands for [high], Μ for [median], and L for [low]; if the writers gave
alternatives, both are given, separated by slashes. Those choices that to-
tally differ from the original writers' choices are marked in bold (but if
the course participant has as an alternative chosen the same value level
as the original writers, then I have not marked it with bold letters).
When we look at the results, the native speaker (NE) seems to orient
himself closely to the intended meaning in the text, except in slot (3)
where he has given no suggestion for realization. The linguist whose field
is Finnish linguistics (Fl) seems to orient herself almost like the native
slots original (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)
= Fl = ΕΙ = NE
1. L Μ L Μ Μ Η Η Η/Μ L H/L L
2. L Μ L Μ Μ L Μ Μ L M/L L
3. L Η Η Η Η Η Μ Η Η H/L -
4. Μ Μ M/L L Μ Μ Μ M/L L M/L Μ

5. L Η H/L L Η Μ L Η L L L
6. L L L Μ Μ L L M/L L L L
7. L L L L Η L L Η/Μ L L L
8. L Η L Μ Η L L M/L L L L
1 Median
7 Low
Figure 2. The choices of a mixed group of writers.

English speaker. The choices of the linguist whose field is English linguis-
tics (El) seems to waver at the beginning, offering both the same choice
of value as the original writers and another choice, but then toward the
end her choices are more consistent. Writers from the other fields tend
to choose [high] or [median] values rather then the [low] ones encoded
by the original authors (see for instance Writer 4). If we also consider
wavering about the choice an inappropriate choice, then 51.25 percent
(41 out of 80) of the choices of value selected by the writers are different
from the original writers' choice of [value: low]. Even when in cases of
wavering we consider the choice as appropriate, the percentage of non-
original choice for the level of value is high, 40 percent (32 out of 80).
Another set of writers, this time eight Finnish economists, were given
the same text. This group did not give as many alternatives as the previ-
ous group. The choices of this group are given in Figure 3. For this group,
50 percent of the choices for the value of probability differed from choices
in the original text (32 out of 64); usually the Finns chose a higher value.
Finally, a group consisting of nine writers who were actually experts
in the field of technology (i. e., the field of the text) were given the same
text. These writers also tended to give just one choice. Their choices are
given in Figure 4. Of the three groups, this one came closest to selecting
the same [value: low] level as the original writers of the text. In 31.94
percent of the cases (23 out of 72) the writers' group differed from the
original writers' choice of value; again, usually the level selected was
higher. Some wavering between choices was evident in this group, too
(two instances). If we consider that the Finnish writer does not really
slots original (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
1. L Μ Μ L L L L Μ Μ
2. L Μ L L L Μ Μ Μ Μ
3. L Η Η Η Μ Η L L L
4. Μ Μ Μ Μ L L Μ L L
5. L Η Η L L L Μ L Μ
6. L Μ L L Η L Μ L L
7. L Η Μ L L Μ L L Η
8. L Μ L L L L Μ L L
1 Median
7 Low
Figure 3. The choices of economists.

174 Eija Ventola
Slots original (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
1. L L L L Μ Μ L Μ Η L
2. L L M/L L L L Μ L Μ L
3. L L Μ Η M/L Μ Μ L L L
4. Μ Η Η L Μ Μ Μ Μ L L
5. L L Η L L L Μ L Η L
6. L L L Μ L L L L L L
7. L L L L L L L L Η L
8. L L L Μ L Μ L Μ L L
1 Median
7 Low
Figure 4. The choices of a unified group of writers, experts in the field.
know what level of value should be chosen for the text and therefore
wavers, then in 34.72 percent (25 out of 72) of the slots the choice seems
to differ from that in the original text.
When the three groups are considered together, the nonoriginal
choices for the level of value make up 40.27 percent of the cases (87 out
of 216); and if wavering is considered as inappropriate (i. e., not really
knowing which modal to choose), then 45.37 percent of the selections (98
out of 216) differ from the original. Thus, the Finnish writers made dif-
ferent choices for value than the original writers of the text excerpt almost
half the time. Usually the choice of level for value was higher than in the
original. The original English writers' choice is, except in one case, [low];
the Finnish writers selected either [median] or [high] values in almost half
the slots. What does this tell us?
One possible conclusion would be that Finns do not like to "hedge".
They would prefer to present the statements in the text with a higher
level of certainty and probability than the original native writers of the
text, who rather rely on presenting their interpretations in terms of "pos-
sibility". Another conclusion might be that the Finnish writers have sim-
ply not sorted out properly the [modalization: probability; value: high/
median/low] choice and its linguistic realization. They take guesses rather
than have intuitions about the obvious choice (this is indicated by offer-
ing both high and low value options for a particular slot).
The one native speaker who was in one of the writer groups seemed
automatically to opt for the same level as the original writers of the text.
This may be just by chance; therefore it was necessary to see whether
other native speakers of English would also choose the same level as the
Probability - its role in academic writing 175
slots original (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
1. L L L L L L L L L L
2. L L L L M/L L L L L L
3. L Η - L Μ - L Μ L L
4. Μ Μ Μ M/L Μ Μ L Μ L M/L
5. L M/L L L L L L M/L L L
6. L L L L L L L L L L
7. L M/L L Η L L L L L L
8. L Μ Μ L M/L Μ Μ L L L
1 Median
7 Low
Figure 5. The choices of a group of English teachers (native speakers).
original authors. Figure 5 shows what level of [value] nine English lan-
guage teachers who were native speakers chose when given the same task
as the writer groups.
The teachers' group came closest of all the groups to making the same
level choices as the original authors. Only in 13.88 percent of the slots
did they choose a different level of value than the original native writers
(10 out of 72); if their wavering is taken into account, the disparity rises
to 23.61 percent (17 out of 72). Note that, unlike the Finnish writers, the
native speakers' wavering never includes selecting the two opposite ends,
high and low. Some of the native-speaker teachers commented on the
difficulty of the experiment, saying, for example, that the task was
"puzzling, if one lacks the subject knowledge". Had they had the subject
knowledge, the probability that they would choose the same level of value
as the original writers would probably be high, considering that the Fin-
nish experts in technology also fared better than the mixed group or the
group of economists.
To summarize, then, in this experiment the Finnish writers' choices for
the level of value in modalization seemed to differ from that of the native
speakers. The Finnish writers seemed to prefer higher values than either
the original writers of the text extract or the native speaker participating
in the experiment; furthermore, they took more and wilder guesses as to
the level of the original than the native speakers did. The language ex-
perts and the writers who were experts in the field seemed best able to
discern the original level of value. This experiment was really intended as
an awareness-building exercise, not as a thoroughly planned investiga-
tion. Yet it can function as a basis for formulating some hypotheses about
176 Eija Ventola
[modalization: probability] and its linguistic realizations by different

writer groups (natives and nonnatives, experts and novices, etc.) in dif-
ferent kinds of texts.
5. Concluding remarks and implications

for language teaching
This chapter has focused on the system of MODALITY, and more specifi-
cally on its more delicate choices of [modalization: probability; value:
orientation]. The discussion in the latter part of the chapter has focused
on how Finnish writers express probability and how these expressions
may vary from the choices of native English speakers. The writers studied
were all experienced researchers who wanted to improve their skill at
writing academic articles in English. From the experiment with these writ-
ers one may conclude that the area of probability is a complex area for
Finnish writers, and consequently that probability and its linguistic ex-
pressions should be one of the focal points of any course to improve the
academic writing skills of nonnative speakers.
In academic writing it is extremely important that one is able to "strike
just the right tone" - writers who are too assertive when interpreting
their own research results can be seen as arrogant. But not being assertive
enough does not help the marketing of the research. Young novice writers
in particular will need some guidance in selecting the right value level for
their messages. They must be taught how to move smoothly and in a
contextually appropriate way from subjective to objective meaning mak-
ing in both spoken and written texts. Language editors and revisers must
be trained to see modal verbs and adverbs as grammatical realizations of
interpersonal meaning potential that can systematically be used to shape
the text - sometimes more intensively, coloring it fully, sometimes merely
touching with "the paint brush of probability".
Academic texts are not more objective than other texts; they are simply
more effective at hiding subjectivity linguistically. Through the theoretical
framework offered by Hallidayan systemic-functional linguistics we can
use the system of MODALITY and its more delicate choices to encode the
meanings we want in the manner we think is correct in the context. It
can be used to encode research findings in an objective manner, but it can
also be used to reveal the hidden ideologies and subjectivities in academic
discourse. But you have to know the potential first. The approach is from
meaning making to meaning realization; in other words, from function
to form rather than vice versa. But for analytical purposes it may also
be used in this reverse order — as long as one reaches the level of mean-
ing. For so many English language learners the whole meaning potential
of MODALITY is totally incomprehensible, because it has been presented
to them as lists of auxiliaries, adverbs, adjectivals, etc., in mere sentences
rather than in a text. Today such lists often appear under the heading of
"hedging", etc. This contribution has treated meaning in its widest pos-
sible sense, as the semiotic meaning construed by communicators in cer-
tain situational and cultural contexts in a systematic, analyzable fashion.
Notes
1. In systemic-functional linguistics small capital letters are used to signify the labels for
systems (e. g., M O O D , MODALITY, POLARITY, etc.).
2. Gilbert and Mulkay (1984) offer an interesting discussion on how the objectivity can
vary in scientists' discourse.
3. This is usually called "deontic" modality in philosophical writings.
4. This is usually called "epistemic" modality in philosophical writings.
5. Note that, of course, the choice of "value" applies to the other types of MODALITY as
well - to those of frequency (modalization), and to obligation and readiness (modula-
tion). The same applies to the choice of "orientation" discussed in the next paragraph.
6. The study was done at the University of Helsinki and has been reported more fully in
Finnish in Ventola and Mauranen 1990.
References
Adam Smith, Diane E.

1984 "Medical discourse: aspects of author's comment", The ESP Journal 3:
25-36.
Banks, David
1993 Writ in water: Aspects of the scientific journal article. Brest: E.R.L.A., Uni-
versitäre de Bretagne Occidentale.
Barass, Robert
1984 Study. London and New York: Chapman and Hall.
Day, Robert A.
1983 How to write and publish a scientific paper. (2nd edition.) Philadelphia: ISI
Press.
Duszak, Anna
1994 "Academic discourse and intellectual styles", Journal of Pragmatics 21: 291 -
313.
Eggins, Suzanne
1994 An introduction to functional grammar. London: Pinter.
178 Eija Ventola
Gilbert, G. Nigel-Michael Mulkay

1984 Opening Pandora's box: A sociological analysis of scientists' discourse. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hakulinen, Auli-Fred Karlsson
1979 Nykysuomen lauseoppia [On the syntax of modern Finnish], Jyväskylä: Suo-
malaisen kirjallisuuden seura.
1973 Explorations in the functions of language. London: Arnold.
1975 "Modality and modulation", in: Gunther Kress (ed.), 189-213.
1978 Language as social semiotic. London: Arnold.
1985 An introduction to functional grammar. London: Arnold. [2nd edition pub-
lished in 1994.]
Jäntti, Ahti (ed.)
1989 Probleme der Modalität in der Sprachforschung. (Studia Philologica Jyväsky-
läensia 23.) Jyväskylä: Jyväskylä University Press.
Karlsson, Fred
1983 Finnish grammar. Porvoo, Helsinki, Juva: Werner Söderström.
Kress, Gunther (ed.)
1975 Halliday: System and function in language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kretzenbacher, Heinz Leo—Harald Weinrich (eds.)
1995 Linguistik der Wissenschaftsprache. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Lauren, Christian-Marianne Nordmann (eds.)
1989 Special language. London and Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters.
Lindeberg, Ann-Charlotte-Nils Erik Enkvist-Kai Wikberg (eds.)
1992 Nordic research on text and discourse. (Nordtext Symposium 1990.) Abo: Abo
Academic Press.
Markkanen, Raija
1989 "Hedging and modality", in: Ahti Jäntti (ed.), 137-148.
Markkanen, Raija - H a r t m u t Schröder
1989 "Hedging as a translation problem in scientific texts", in: Christian L a u r e n -
Marianne Nordmann (eds.), 171-179.
1992 "Hedging and its linguistic realizations in German, English and Finnish phil-
osophical texts: A case study", in: Marianne Nordmann (ed.), 121-130.
Martin, Jorge Fernändez-Barrientos (ed.)
1993 Act as de las Jordanas Internacionales de Lingüistica Aplicada ( Granada 11 —
15.1.1993). [...] Vol. 1. Granada: Universidad de Granada.
Martin, J. R.
1992 English text. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Mauranen, Anna
1993 Cultural differences in academic rhetoric. Frankfurt am Main: Lang.
Myers, Greg
1989 "The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles", Applied Linguistics 10/1;
1-35.
Nordmann, Marianne (ed.)
1992 Fachsprachliche Miniaturen. (Scandinavian University Studies in the Humani-
ties and Social Sciences 2.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Swales, John
1990 Genre analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ventola, Eija
1987 The structure of social interaction. L o n d o n : Pinter.
1992 a "Text and reference", in: Ann-Charlotte Lindeberg et al. (eds.), 223-235.
1992 b "Writing scientific English: Overcoming intercultural problems", Interna-
tional Journal of Applied Linguistics 2 (2): 55 — 84.
1993 "English as a 'lingua franca' for academic writing in Finland and in Ger-
many", in: Jorge Fernändez-Barrientos Martin (ed.), 588-611. [published
also in German "Englisch als lingua franca der schriftlichen Wissenschafts-
kommunikation in Finnland und in Deutschland", in: H. L. Kretzenbacher-
Harald Weinrich (eds.), 353-386.]
1994 "Finnish writers' academic English: Problems with reference and theme",
Functions of Language 1 (2): 1 — 33.
Ventola, Eija (ed.)
1991 Functional and systemic linguistics: Approaches and uses. (Trends in Linguis-
tics, Studies and Monographs 55.) Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Ventola, Eija-Anna Mauranen
1990 Tutkijat ja englanniksi kirjoittaminen [Researchers and writing in English],
Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.
(ed.), 457-492.
Some observations on the distribution
and function of hedging in German
and English academic writing
Heinz Kreutz and Annette Harres
1. Introduction
This article explores the distribution and function of hedging in English
and German academic writing. 1 The data are based on a partial re-analy-
sis of texts originally examined as part of the cross-cultural academic-
discourse project initiated by Michael Clyne in the mid-eighties (Clyne
1987, 1991, 1993: Clyne-Kreutz 1987). We will contend that hedging
constructions need to be considered in the wider context of textual mod-
ality, and that they are best described in terms of modality markers. It
will be argued that whilst they serve to downtone and mitigate arguments
and assertions in English texts, their main function in German writing
may be one of assertion and authority. One implication of this observation
is that the role and function of intensifying and downtoning devices must
be considered in a wider cultural context. By drawing on intercultural
differences in the organisation of academic discourse 2 on intellectual
styles (Clyne 1991; Galtung 1983; House-Kaspar 1981), we hope to il-
lustrate that hedging devices may serve as one important indicator of text
orientation: The intrinsic difference between predominantly co-operative,
reader-oriented (English) and author-oriented (German) writing style.
The former has been shown to be text-constructive and to incorporate
dialogue, the latter is dominated by the primary function of Wissensdar-
stellung [presentation of knowledge] and establishing of authority in the
discipline. The present analysis includes an examination of agentless pas-
sives, impersonal and reflexive constructions, and hedged performatives
as well as passive infinitives (see in particular Clyne 1991: 57 for a more
detailed analysis). In addition to such well-known hedging devices, we
have included a range of (downtoning) particles which, in our view, are
of particular relevance in German (see below for more details).
It needs to be stressed that the current paper reflects an exploratory
stage of our current investigation. 3 Our working hypothesis was formu-
lated as follows: The relative frequency and function of hedgings in Ger-
man and English academic texts may correlate with other features of
182 Heinz Kreutz and Annette Harres
textual organization such as linearity/digressiveness and symmetry/asym-

metry. This hypothesis requires justification: If it is true that German
academic writing is more author-oriented and less co-operative than its
English equivalents, and if the relative degree of reader/author orienta-
tion is expressed by culturally determined parameters of textual organiza-
tion, the interactive nature of hedging devices (see below) may well be a
concomitant feature.
It is our view that with regard to the present corpus a plausible expla-
nation was given (esp. by Clyne 1991) for the higher frequency of hedg-
ings in English and German texts by German authors, as opposed to
texts written by English writers. 4 Therefore our focus will not be so much
on frequency, but on function.
The principal assumption on which our research is based is that cul-
tural background influences the organization of discourse (Kaplan 1966;
Clyne 1991; Sachtleber 1993; Bolten et al. 1995), and academic discourse
is no exception. Cultural values deeply embedded in education and pro-
fessional systems are also manifested in language and recreated by lan-
guage use, its various realizations, different text-types and discourse
forms. The term itself, however, is something of a misnomer, in that it
implies the existence of a homogeneous "academic discourse culture".
The academic community is as diverse as any sub-culture, and its fields
of intellectual activity cover a wide range of pursuits and include the
social and natural sciences. Academic discourse is nevertheless a conve-
nient term, and we will continue to use it for want of a better label with-
out further specification.
2. Hedging: Terminology, background, and use of the term
An all-encompassing definition of the term hedging is not easily attained.

George Lakoff (1972) is considered to have been the first linguist to use
the term "hedge" when referring to the "fuzziness" of natural language.
He went on to define hedges as words whose function it was to make
meanings fuzzier and thus to place natural-language concepts within a
continuum between the poles true and false. In other words, Lakoff de-
scribes hedges in terms of logic and truth values, claiming that they al-
lowe for degrees of nonsense as well as degrees of truth in the logical
structure.
Syntactically, hedges have been referred to as "adverbials" and "par-
ticles". Similar to tag questions, they have been related to the proposi-
Hedging in German and English academic writing 183
tional context of an utterance and to the expression of speaker certainty.

"Approximators" are defined as affecting the propositional content while
"shields" indicate degrees of speaker commitment. We can assume, then,
that approximators are hedges like sort of which semantically indicate
some markedness with regard to group membership. By contrast, shields
function on a pragmatic level where they indicate markedness with regard
to speaker commitment to the utterance.
While this classification appears very neat, it must be noted that, for
example, the function of sort of in sentence (1) is clearly more of a shield
than an approximator
(1) I was sort of disappointed with him.
By contrast, example (2) illustrates the use of sort of as an approximator
(2) It has sort of a green hue.
It would appear that it is virtually impossible to attribute a function

to a hedge without considering both the linguistic and situational context.
While it is apparent that hedges qualify their immediate contextual refer-
ences, they are also used as a source for the establishment of interpersonal
relations, in particular affinity and solidarity. This is, in spoken discourse,
achieved mainly through the softening, lowering, or toning down of the
assertive force of the structures they modify.
Hedges also have a pragmatic dimension: They directly express illocut-
ionary force by affecting the propositional content of an utterance. They
also affect, albeit indirectly, the perlocutionary effect of an utterance
through expressing speaker attitude (James 1983).
Hedges have also been considered in the context of modality markers
(House-Kaspar 1981). By a categorization of hedges as adverbials, they
are classified as lexical items which downgrade and qualify precise propo-
sitions. Under such considerations, hedges like sort of kind of you know,
I mean may be seen as mainly lexical devices which serve a (text-) prag-
matic function in the sense that they are part of politeness strategies.
From a more sociolinguistic point of view, hedges in the form of par-
ticles (or pragmatic particles, Holmes 1982) have been explained as ex-
pressing epistemic modality, that is speaker meaning in a modalized form
depending on the speaker's degree of certainty about a proposition, and
(in an affective sense) the speaker's attitude towards the addressee.
Whilst it is true that hedges are found frequently in casual and infor-
mal speech, they are also a common device in written texts and academic
discourse. They may well indicate uncertainty and tentativeness (as
R. Lakoff [1973] has claimed for women's speech), and thus be classified
as part of epistemic modality. Coates (1989) claimed that speakers gen-
erally use lack of commitment to propositional content as a strategy to
encourage open discussion. She quotes as support for her argument
Leech's (1983: 132) Agreement Maxim as an underlying rule of conversa-
tion 'Don't come into open disagreement with other participants'. Hedges
are lexical means by which speakers achieve this end, and are therefore
typical for discussions and other types of interactive discourse.
Some researchers have looked more closely at hedges from the point
of view of symmetrical/asymmetrical discourse and power relationships
(O'Barr 1982). However, in written academic discourse, this criterion is
of limited relevance only, as the author is, by definition, the expert and
therefore in the more powerful position. This then raises the question
why hedges are used at all. One possible explanation is the need for
interaction, the inclusion of the reader in the process of reading and
writing. This type of discourse is, to some extent, more collaborative.
Hosman (1989) conducted two studies based on concepts of powerful
and powerless language. He tried to establish the effect of hedges as well
as of hesitations and intensifiers on evaluations of speaker authoritative-
ness and character. He found that hedges lowered evaluations of authori-
tativeness, and went on to suggest that if speakers want to be perceived
as powerful, they should avoid hedges.
Due to the obvious constraints on the length of this article, this brief
overview of research and views of the term hedging is, of course, not
complete. However, it does illustrate that hedging is best dealt with as a
functional category. Hedging constructions have the functions of down-
toning, mitigation, politeness - which are culture-specific and subject to
the linguistic constraints of the language in question. 5
In the case of German and English, there exists some structural over-
lap in the area of modality for the kind of modality markers and modaliz-
ing devices the two languages use. 6
As already mentioned, Clyne (1991) looks at hedging constructions in
the context of his cross-cultural academic-discourse project. He concen-
trates on a range of structural devices which serve a hedging function.
To a large degree, this approach is reminiscent of Bungarten and Panther
(1981) and von Polenz (1981) (for German), and of Palmer's (1979) ob-
servations and is, in essence, formalistic. It does not fully take into ac-
count the multifunctionality of hedging devices which, depending on lin-

guistic and extra-linguistic criteria, can serve a wide range of rhetorical
and discourse purposes. Schröder (1993) has to be credited with empha-
sizing the need for a communicative-pragmatic approach, the same ap-
plies, especially in relation to modal particles in German, to Burkhardt
(1994).
When comparing texts across languages and cultures, it is important
not to lose sight of the various aspects that play a role in the construction
of such discourse: There will always be a mixture of intra- and extra-
linguistic aspects, such as intended readership, topic choice and scope,
presentation of knowledge and information, data- vs. theory-driven pre-
sentations, reader-writer cooperation, the importance of face-saving ma-
noeuvres, to mention only a few.
Hedgings are devices which are regularly found in English and Ger-
man academic discourse, in fact, they feature prominently in most types
of argumentative discourse whose main aim is the presentation of new
ideas and concepts. Taking existing research (Clyne 1991, 1993; Galtung
1983, House-Kaspar 1981; Bolten et al. 1995) into account, it would
seem natural to assume that in English texts in particular the reader plays
some sort of participant role, that the texts are more interactive. This
may be taken as a function of certain cultural constraints as hinted at
above.
The Cambridge Australian English Style Guide (Peters 1995: 336, based
on the Comprehensive Grammar of English 1985) explains hedging
("hedge words") as stylistic devices which "soften the impact of a state-
ment", and goes on to list a range of adverbs. It is interesting to note
that the effect of hedges is not only explained as serving "to curb the
assertiveness of a claim", but also to "prevent a style from sounding too
arrogant", and hedges are claimed "to put limits on statements which
could not be defended in their absolute form". Typically, further reference
is made to modality ("modals are often used to modify claims which
could be challenged or prove difficult to substantiate" Cambridge Austra-
lian English Style Guide: 491), and the dictionary makes no clear distinc-
tion between "hedging" and "modality", except for implying that mod-
ality markers such as the modal verbs serve, amongst other things, as
hedging devices. Without entering the discussion on whether modality
should be considered a grammatical category (including modal verbs,
modal (= downtoning) particles, modal adverbs, mood (conditional and
subjunctive), and passive), or a pragmatic one, we wish to propose that
modality, like hedging, be considered primarily a pragmatic category (as
it relates to speaker intention, affective functions, listener/reader involve-

ment, situation and context — all variables which transcend the purely
linguistic domain).
It then becomes possible to describe a text segment such as it could
hardly be argued that ρ in terms of structural properties by drawing on
the individual structural items like modal verb (can), conditional (could),
deagentivization (passive), and the minimizing adverb (hardly). The seg-
ment is analyzable in terms of its pragmatic force, the effect one of hedg-
ing.
Taking the above definition as a point of departure, it becomes clear
that modality and hedging constructions in English serve an important
discourse function: By modifying claims and statements, an argument
becomes more open to discussion and is subjected to constructive criti-
cism, as it draws in, or involves, the reader. Hedging in English, then,
becomes an important tool for the establishment of reader-oriented writ-
ing.7 Hedging is thus of intrinsic significance to the interactional aspect
of discourse, and at the same time bears on form and content. In spite
of the observations mentioned so far, hedging is still not fully understood,
and further work is required to explore its effects, function, and realiza-
tions.
2.1. Hedging in German

First, it should be noted that there exists no generally accepted transla-
tion of the English term "hedging". The accepted convention is to use
the English term — capitalized, in agreement with orthographic rules for
German nouns — as Hedging, also in compounds such as Hedging-Kon-
struktionen.
There is some discrepancy between the term modality, and its German
equivalent Modalität. They denote different phenomena, with some over-
lap in terms of the grammatical/pragmatic categories they constitute. As
for modal particles (synonymous in English with downtoning particles),
the German Modalpartikel and Abtönungspartikel are considered two dif-
ferent categories.
The definition of hedging suggested above cannot be simply language-
specific and, in our case, it is applicable to German and English. Modality
means some kind of modification of the proposition expressed in an ut-
terance, therefore hedging in the sense of downtoning (mitigation) is a
subset of the modality of language. Strictly speaking, then, the term hedg-
ing does not apply to instances included under this heading in the litera-
ture if they do not serve the particular purpose of downtoning, mitiga-

tion, or expression of uncertainty.
Hedging can take several forms, in English and German, and is real-
ized by a number of lexical and structural devices. In the context of the
current paper, only the categories presented below will be considered.
A distinction is also necessary between written and spoken language.
It has been claimed that in the spoken language, hedgings are more com-
mon in English than in German, while in academic writing the reverse is
the case (cf. esp. Clyne 1991: 57). It must be noted, however, that these
observations are exclusively concerned with Wissenschaftssprache, and
that an inclusion of those downtoning particles which serve a hedging
function in everyday German may present a different picture. Also, the
often-quoted works by Bungarten (1981) and Panther (1981) on the Ger-
man scientific register present an only cursory treatment of the func-
tional-pragmatic aspects of hedging in German scientific writings.
3. Materials and methods

As briefly stated in the introduction, the data for our analysis were ob-
tained from the cross-cultural academic-discourse project. Of the 52 orig-
inal texts (cf. Clyne 1987; and Clyne-Kreutz 1988 for a detailed descrip-
tion), twelve were selected for further examination. Six texts were in Eng-
lish, and six in German, with a further subdivision into linear and digres-
sive texts (see Appendix 1 for a complete list). Our selection was partly
the consequence of practical considerations: The limited scope, and the
financial and time constraints of the current project do at not present
permit the collection of an extensive new corpus and the further develop-
ment of a revised text-analytical paradigm (cf. note 3). Also, as the au-
thors are familiar with the original data, a partial re-analysis could be
undertaken without having to be too concerned with missing important
aspects of the texts in question, as the original categorization was
adopted.
The twelve texts analyzed had previously been coded according to lin-
earity and digressiveness. The definitions of digressiveness and linearity
of Clyne (1987) and Clyne and Kreutz (1988) were adopted. The German
texts were analyzed with regard to hedging devices, including agentless
passives, passive infinitives, reflexives, modals, and particles. The same
procedure was followed for English texts, with the exception of reflexives,
which cannot be used in this manner in English texts. A summary of the
results is presented in the following section.
3.1. Summary of data

A closer examination of the examples below indicates that:
a. A combination of downtoning devices and passives will create a miti-
gating effect;
b. 'Must' serves as an intensifier, but may be used as a categorical hedge;
c. Particles and adverbs function as mitigators and intensifiers (function
lexically determined);
d. The authors' positions are hedged in both languages.
Also, although not evident in the data below, there appears to exist
no clear correlation between the position and frequency of hedges and
linearity/digressiveness.
3.2. German texts

Form Function
ist zu entscheiden (infinitive, impersonal), no downtoning, fo-

cus on subject matter
es muß betont werden (modal passive) intensifier, emphasis added,
agency not expressed
können prinzipiell (modal passive) hedge, mitigation
angesehen werden formally expressed by modal verb and mod-
alizing adverb {prinzipiell)
ja, zwar, doch, vielleicht (downtoning particles), author's conclu-
sions, own opinions, signalling of caution,
detachment
zwar, durchweg, natürlich (modal particles) intensifiers
etwa, wohl, mindestens, (downtoning particles) mitigation
allerdings
kann etwa ... datiert (modal verb, downtoning particle, passive)
werden hedged fact
... aufgehoben werden (modal verb, subjunctive mode, passive)
dürfte hedged fact, mitigated, detached
... geführt werden müßten (modal verb, subjunctive mode, passive), as
above
Form Function
ist allerdings festzustellen (passive infinitive, downtoning particle) as-

sertive, but partly hedged through particle
es ist nur stets (infinitive, downtoning particle)
zu bedenken assertive and partly hedged through particle
muß nicht nur ... gelten (modal verb) intensifier, though no agency
ist ... erscheinen (infinitive), hedging author's position
angebracht
braucht nicht zu (impersonal verbal expression) categorical
interessieren statement, not hedged, but rather intensi-
fied
muß ... gesehen werden (modal infinitive, passive) intensifier,
suggestive
offensichtlich, durchaus (modal particles) emphasis, intensifiers
wohl, kaum, also (downtoning particles) hedges
es finden sich (agentless reflexive passive substitute) de-
tachment, distance
ist ... entgegenzustellen (passive infinitive) categorical emphasis,
foregrounding of subject matter, dialectic-
antithetical
ist nicht ...zu (mw/?-substitute) categorical
denen es Rechnung (impersonal verbal construction) categori-
zutragen gilt cal, agent hedged
In the German texts, combinations of modal verbs and passive may

serve as hedging or assertion; however, especially in conjunction with
downtoning particles the assertion becomes hedged. Digressions seem not
related to/correlate with the use of hedgings. The German texts show
very few hedges overall. Compound forms (kann plus passive, muß plus
infinitve) are normally not hedges, the hedging effect is achieved by the
addition of particles. There appears to be a hierarchy of devices, in that
passives or impersonal reflexives are recognized as scientific jargon and
are thus useful devices for authors to establish their academic authority.
However, this effect is offset by the concomitant use of downtoning par-
ticles (see below section 3.5 for particles).
3.3. English texts
Form Function
one would (impersonal pronoun, conditional) hedge,
distance, mitigation
perhaps, possibly (downtoning adverb)
hedge, but also purely rhetorical (ritualized)
use
might, should (modal verbs) downtoning effect, possible
hedges, also, rhetorical/ritualized inter-
pretation possible
probably, surely (adverbs, lexical downtoners) hedges
I think, I suspect (sentential hedges) interactive, possibly
reader-oriented, hedges
we (not I) (plural pronoun) inclusive-interactive
it seems (impersonal, agentless verbal expression)
hedge
certainly (adverb) intensifier
it suggests (impersonal, agentless verbal expression)
hedge
generally, perhaps, chiefly (downtoning adverbs) hedges, mitigating
indeed, of course intensifiers
I believe (sentential hedge) interactive
must be avoided, (modal verbs and passive) intensifier,
must be made not mitigating
can be clarified (impersonal modal passive) perhaps a cate-
gorical hedge
what is needed (agentless passive) justification, possible
hedge
Form Function
one must attempt, must (impersonal passives) intensifiers

deal with
is considered (agentless passive) possible hedge
modified (adverb) hedge
can be explained, can be (modal and passive) hedges
seen, should be mentioned
must be preceded (modal and passive) categorical, intensifier
let us ... (imperative) reader inclusive
quite (adverb) downtoning, hedge
appears to be (impersonal verbal expression) downtoning,
hedging of author's opinion
would probably have (adverb, conditional, passive) multiple
hedge indicating uncertainty
In the English texts, the author's position is more clearly recognizable,

and generally hedged. More categorical statements (thus having more
authority and provoking contradiction) are frequently expressed through
the use of agentless impersonal constructions. There are fewer passives,
and an interactive reader-oriented feel is partially created by the inclusive
plural pronouns us and we.
3.4. Hedging as downtoners

The use of downtoners reveals the writer's attitude towards the proposi-
tion expressed, and towards the addressees. They indicate the writer's
assumptions about the reader's assumptions and express the writer's posi-
tion with regard to the propositional content of their statements. Down-
toners appeal to the reader, presupposing agreement with the proposition
advanced by the writer. They function also to provide argumentative
backup for factual statements made by the writer.
Downtoners present the writer's interpretation to the reader to secure
the knowledge presented. They also work to mitigate the factuality of
statements, making it clear that the writer is offering an interpretation.
3.5. Particles: The special case of German

German has a long tradition of particle research and, in particular, in-
vestigations into the meaning and function of modal particles (German
uses the term Abtönungspartikel, literally translatable as 'downtoning
particles'; we will use the terms interchangeably, without suggestion of
different connotations). German has been called a Partikelsprache, and
it is a well established fact that particles are very much part of the spoken
language in particular. Traditionally, particles in German are considered
a separate word class, whereas in English one often finds no distinction
between, say, particles and adverbs, especially if their function, i. e.,
pragmatic dimension, is similar or even identical. In fact, particles are
one of the main criteria by which one can differentiate gesprochene
Sprache from Schriftsprache (apart from the obvious difference in me-
dium). When attempting to reproduce spoken German in writing, au-
thors will frequently use particles to signify the spoken, spontaneous
nature of the discourse in question. Nevertheless, particles do also occur
in written, more formal genres, such as academic discourse. It is of inter-
est to note, however, that as far as the current corpus is concerned,
downtoning particles are typically found in conjunction with other hedg-
ing devices, such as passives or modals. This finding in itself is interest-
ing: It is generally thought that certain constructions are part of the
German scientific register, and therefore important for the establishment
of authority and Wissensdarstellung. To some extent, the expressions
themselves have become formulaic and ritualized. An author who is
aware of this fact may well resort to downtoning particles to modify and
downtone the effect of his statement.
In our view, downtoning articles are also of importance in German
academic writing. Therefore, we decided to examine the function of those
downtoning particles which are present in our corpus. Our analysis is
based on Burkhardt's examination of downtoning particles in German,
which draws on Heger's (1971) framework. The method is essentially a
binary analysis using values of + and — for noemic and semic qualities. 8
(See below and Table 1 for further details).
In the process of our analysis, our attention was drawn to the
following downtoning particles: wohl, allerdings, zwar, ja, doch, offen-
sichtlich, etwa, durchaus, immerhin. While it is quite normal for these par-
ticles to occur relatively frequently in spoken German, their use in formal
academic writing is surprising.
The following example from our data exemplifies the effect of ja on

the utterance:
(1) ..., da ja der Fortschritt nicht aufgehalten werden kann.
(without particle)
(2) ..., da der Fortschritt nicht aufgehalten werden kann.
(2) is an unmitigated assertion, clearly stating the author's position by

way of presentation of the fact, whereas (1) includes the particle ja, which
as the decomposition of its semantic and pragmatic properties shows (cf.
also Table 1), carries the following information:
subjective opinion of author
author expects agreement
the proposition is a generally accepted fact
there is a limiting condition on Ρ
Ρ is a logical consequence of either a) facts already presented, or b) gen-
eral knowledge.
The particles under investigation which are used in conjunction with
other hedges therefore impose a type of hierarchy: without the particle,
the statement may exert factual authority, the downtoning particle
changes it into its opposite, a hedge.
The analysis summarized in Table 1 is based on Burkhardt's compo-
nential analysis of German downtoning particles (Burkhardt 1994: 136).
One important premise of this approach (further developed from Heger
1971) is the understanding that the meaning of particles can only be fully
captured by including semantic and pragmatic aspects. This, naturally,
can only be achieved by paraphrasing. In the school of structural seman-
tics, the notions of "Semem" and "Noem" become indispensable tools
for the description (i. e., paraphrase) of particles.
In German, downtoners 9 like doch, ja, durchaus, offensichtlich serve to
secure and justify the factual statements made by the writers. They appeal
for the reader's agreement with the proposition made. Downtoners like
wohl and eigentlich function to mitigate the assertiveness of the statement,
decreasing the writers' claim to the correctness of the proposition. Aller-
dings, immerhin and zwar function primarily as limiting conditions of a
proposition, assuming that it is in contrast to the readers' assumption.
Etwa serves to express a logical consequence, thus providing (claiming)
additional evidence for the factual correctness of a proposition.
Table 1. German downtoning particles
Downtoner N1 N2 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5
wohl + + + -h — — +
allerdings + + + + -H
+ +
zwar + - + -I- -I-
+ -
ja + + + - -t- + -t-
doch + + + + -t- - -t-
offensichtlich + + + - - +
etwa + + + -t-
+ +
durchaus + + + -1-
+ + +
immerhin + + + -1-
+ +
Key:
Ν = Noeme, S = Seme
Nl: + points to the subjective opinion of speaker
N2: + speaker expects agreement
Sl: ± proposition is generally known
S2: ± opposite to assumed opinion of hearer
S3: ± irrevocable, unchangeable fact of proposition
S4: ± limiting condition
S5: ± logical consequence
3.6 List of German downtoning particles and adverbs

(including examples and translation)
Form Example Translation
Downtoner
(particles or
adverbs)
wohl Die wohl kürzeste Formulierung dafür 'Arguably the shortest definition is
5
ist: ...
allerdings Ergänzend und in gewissem In addition and in some sense, sug-
Sinne
einschränkend ist allerdings gesting a limitation, it must be
festzu-
stellen, daß ... stated, however, that ...
zwar Die angeschnittene Thematik Admittedly, the subject matter
war
zwar eine andere als in der Therapie- touched upon was different from
situation ... what occurred during the therapy
sessions ...
doch Offensichtlich spielen die von Bern- Obviously, the criteria adduced by
stein herangezogenen Kriterien ... Bernstein ... do play an important
doch eine wichtige Rolle. role.
Form Example Translation

Downtoner
(particles or
adverbs)
offensichtlich Wenn an dieser Polemik etwas dran If there is any truth to this polemic
ist, dann gibt es im Kreis der Betreiber argument, then there are obviously
offensichtlich Probleme mit der Legi- problems within the circle of its pro-
timation. ponents with regard to its justifica-
tion.
etwa Auffallend ist etwa bei Gebeten, daß Thus it is striking that in the case of
das "Amen" durch einen deutschen prayers the "amen" has been re-
Ausdruck ersetzt worden ist: ... placed by a German expression: ...
immerhin Immerhin konnte sich der Versuch, Anyhow, the attempt to create an
eine alemannische Schriftsprache zu Alemannic written standard lan-
schaffen, nicht durchsetzen, guage was unsuccessful.
durchaus Die Patientin hat durchaus die Fähig- The patient has definitely acquired
keit erworben, generalisierend-kom- the ability to present her problem in
munikativ ihr Problem darzustellen ... a generalizing, metacommunicative
manner.
Generally speaking, downtoners are multifunctional, i. e., they serve

various communicative functions at the same time. Thus the downtoner
ja can presume shared knowledge between writer and reader and indicate
simultaneously that the writer assumes the readers agree with the propo-
sition. "Downtoner" is therefore perhaps not the ideal terminology, since
not all discourse particles mitigate the assertiveness of the statement
made. Instead, they provide justification needed by writers to secure the
validity of their statements and knowledge which they present to the
readers. In addition, they indicate that the writer is presenting an inter-
pretation of the facts.
Ja is also interpretable as a Gliederungspartikel, i. e., it serves a turn-
taking function in spoken discourse (conversations). Also, like doch and
etwa, it intimates agreement and secures the correctness of a proposition.
Ja (like also, doch, etwa) therefore is also an interactive particle, in that
it establishes contact with the listener/reader, and seeks to attract atten-
tion to the statement in question (Henne 1978). The multifunctionality
of these particles is further underlined by their potential to secure an
argument, proposition, and at the same time limit the amount of evidence
the author may need to support his/her claims.
These particles, therefore, first and foremost serve a pragmatic func-
tion: They are important for the author's presentation of knowledge and
information and at the same time increase the scope for interpretation
on the reader's part.
4. Concluding remarks
We started with the working hypothesis that there would be differences
with regard to the distribution of hedging devices across languages and
that there would be a correlation between linearity/digression, symmetry/
asymmetry, and hedging. In particular, we assumed that English digres-
sive texts and German linear texts would show fewer instances of hedging
compared to English linear and German digressive texts.
These assumptions were based on the hypothesis that hedging devices
in German and English have different functions inasmuch as German
texts are generally more author-centered and tend to foreground the pre-
sentation of subject material. By contrast, English texts are generally
more reader-oriented and concerned with both the presentation and
transmission of subject matter.
We assumed, therefore, that hedging devices in German texts serve to
separate the author from the subject matter and increase detachment.
Conversely, in English texts, hedges are considered to serve as markers
of indirectness and reservation as well as downtoning. Their scope was
assumed to extend into the interactive and intertextual domain, engaging
the reader and therefore facilitating an exchange with the text and the
subject matter presented.
Our method of analysis was essentially heuristic-interpretative, which
is inevitable when dealing with particles, and pragmatic aspects of dis-
course in general. The anticipated result of a correlation between hedging
and larger discourse features (linearity/symmetry) across the two lan-
guages could not be substantiated. Nevertheless, we feel that the exam-
ples presented do give some support to the assumption of different dis-
course orientations, i. e., author vs. reader, which may be culture- and
language-specific. The exploratory analysis of German particles, in par-
ticular, with its binary componential approach to semantic and pragmatic
features of German particles should make it possible to capture their
discourse function more completely.
Appendix 1
List of articles used for re-analysis
English - linear
Shuy, Roger. 1984. "The decade ahead for sociolinguistics", International Journal of the
Sociology of Language 45: 101 — 111.
Penhallurick, John. 1984. "Full-verb inversion in English", Australian Journal of Linguistics

4: 33-56.
Wilson, Michael. 1985. Migration of the elderly and service provision in New South Wales.
Paper presented at the conference Inst.Aust.Georgs. Brisbane, May 1985.
English - digressive
Hymes, Dell. 1984. "Sociolinguistics: stability and consolidaton", International Journal of
the Sociology of Language 45: 39-45.
Sussex, Roger. 1982. "A note on the get-passive construction", Australian Journal of Lin-
guistics 2: 83-95.
Bickley, Richard. 1977. "Vygotsky's contribution to a dialectal materialist psychology",
Science and Society: XLI: 191-207.
German - linear
Wodack, Ruth. 1980. "Wie sage ich mein Problem? Die Problemdarstellung in Therapie
und Interview", Wiener Linguistische Gazette 22-23: 99-123.
Ris, Roland. 1979. "Dialekte und Einheitssprache in der deutschen Schweiz", International
Journal of the Sociology of Language 21: 4 1 - 6 1 .
Heller, Klaus. 1980. Gemischter Sprachausdruck bedingt durch Sprachkontakt. Working
paper
German - digressive
Januschek, Hans and Wilfried Stölting. 1983. Handlungsorientierung im Zweitspracher-
werb von Arbeitsmigranten. Working paper
Rudolph, Wolfgang. 1964. "Akkulturation" und "Akkulturationsforschung", Sociologus 14:
97-113.
Schmidt, Veronika. 1978. "Klassenbedingte Differenzierung des deutschen Wortschatzes",
Zeitschrift für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung 3 - 1 4 .
Notes
1. We thank the Australian Research Grants Commission for financial assistance.

2. In this paper we will use the terms text and discourse interchangeably. Ehlich (1993) and
especially Rehbein (1988) present a useful overview of the development and use of the
terms in traditional philology, linguistics, and pragmatics. The term discourse empha-
sizes interactive aspects of communication, normally involves the spoken medium and,
most importantly the "Kopräsenz von Sprecher und Hörer" (Brünner—Graefen 1994:
8). Text, on the other hand, is the more traditional term, and focuses on the written
medium. In addition to medium, the protracted nature of the speech situation is typical:
there exists a delay between text production and reception, ("zerdehnte Sprechsituation")
(Ehlich 1993: 32, after Graefen-Brünner 1994: 8).
3. Our main objective at the present stage is to develop from the partial re-analysis of the
cross-cultural academic-discourse project data a framework for a more comprehensive
and all-inclusive analysis of intercultural discourse. We hope to incorporate some aspects
of an approach termed funktionale Pragmatik (for an overview, see especially the contri-
butions in Brünner—Graefen 1994).
4. There have been critical evaluations of Clyne's analyses, especially by Gnutzmann and
Lange (1990) (and, more recently, by Graefen 1994). To some extent, one has to agree
with both; although Clyne's observations are intuitively attractive and seem to confirm
one's own experiences with German and English academic writings, the generalizability
of Clyne's observations remains a problem. Also Graefen's call for a more detailed analy-
sis of how linguistic structures of a particular language map textual organization seems
a worthwhile approach.
5. An example from German are impersonal reflexive construction like sich zeigen, which
does not exist in English.
6. For example, both languages use modal verbs to express epistemic modality. However,
where German is well known for its use of downtoning particles (ja, wohl, eigentlich),
English prefers adverbs (perhaps, actually). Thus, certain structures are specifically Ger-
man and do not have proper equivalents in English - like impersonal passives and
reflexives. However, absence of structural equivalents does, of course, not automatically
mean absence of functional equivalence. In addition, in German certain devices may not
serve any of the traditional hedging functions, they may simply be considered a stylistic
alternative (cf. esp. Weinrich 1994).
7. Some authors consider hedgings as "waffle, needless words" (Booth 1993: 11) or even
"empty". This clearly ignores the pragmatic aspect of these devices. The claim that cer-
tain phrases (e. g., it is worth ...) may be delected "without affecting the sense" (Booth
1993: 11) is a rather simplistic view of their general discourse function. The authors
claim that such phrases are not needed, and that they should be shortened. Multiple
hedgings, in particular, are deemed irrelevant and considered as weakening the discus-
sion (clearly, the author is not prepared, or unaware, that hedging serves a range of
purposes which are not entirely describable at the lexical or sentential level). Hedging is
recognized as only indicating uncertainty on the author's part. It is, in our view, remark-
able that these claims should be made by an author of academic style guides, who is a
native speaker of (British) English. It seems unlikely that he is unaware of aspects such as
politeness, reader-/listener orientation, or authority, and their manifestation in hedging
construction.
The same author is similarly critical of passive constructions, and there is no attempt
to explore their pragmatic function: the advice is that they best be avoided for the sake
of clarity and directness (sic!) (Booth 1993).
8. "Seme" [semes] are defined as semantic criteria which serve to distinguish the individual
members of a lexical field, "Noeme" [noemes] are understood as constituting a lexical
field, and as having meaning components shared by all members of a lexical field.
9. There would be little point in trying to translate these isolated examples, as this would
a) only be possible by circumlocution, and b) require more than one possible translation
in most cases.
References
Baumann, Klaus-Dieter-Hartwig Kalverkämper (eds.)

1995 Fachliche Textsorten, Komponenten — Relationen — Strategien. Tübingen:
Narr.
Bolten, Jürgen-Marion Dathe-Susanne Kirchmeyer-Marc Roennau-Peter Witchalls-

Sabine Ziebell-Drabo
1995 "Interkulturalität, Interlingualität und Standardisierung bei der Öffentlich-
keitsarbeit von Unternehmen", in: Klaus-Dieter Baumann Hartwig Kalver-
kämper (eds.), 243-274.
Booth, Vernon
1993 Communicating in science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brünner, Gisela-Gabriele Graefen
1994 Texte und Diskurse. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Bungarten, Theo (ed.)
1981 Wissenschaftssprache. München: Fink.
Burkhardt, Armin
1994 "Abtönungspartikeln im Deutschen: Bedeutung und Genese", Zeitschrift für
Germanistische Linguistik 22.2: 129-151.
Cameron, Deborah
1992 '"Not gender difference but the difference gender makes' - explanation in
research on sex and language", International Journal of the Sociology of Lan-
guage94: 13-26.
Clyne, Michael
1987 "Cultural differences in the organisation of academic texts", Journal of Prag-
matics 11: 217-247.
1991 "The sociocultural dimension: The dilemma of the German speaking
scholar", in: Hartmut Schröder (ed.) Subject oriented texts. Berlin: de
Gruyter: 4 9 - 6 7 .
1993 a "Textlinguistische Aspekte der deutschen Wissenschaftssprache", in: Klaus
Mattheier et al. (eds.), 685-697.
1993 b "Pragmatik, Textstruktur und kulturelle Werte", in: Hartmut Schröder (ed.),
1993 b: 3 - 1 8 .
1993 c "The sociocultural dimension: The dilemma of the German-speaking
scholar", in: Hartmut Schröder (ed.), 1993 a: 4 9 - 6 7 .
Clyne, Michael-Heinz J. Kreutz
1987 "The nature and function of digression and other discourse structure phe-
nomena in academic German", Working Papers for Migrant and Intercultural
Studies 8: 1 - 2 2 .
Clyne, Michael-Jimmy Hoeks—Heinz J. Kreutz
1988 "Cross-cultural responses to academic discourse", Folia Linguistica 22: 4 5 7 -
475.
Coates, Jennifer
1989 "Women's speech, women's strength?", York Papers in Linguistics 13: 6 5 - 7 6 .
Coulmas, Florian (ed.)
1981 Conversation routine. The Hague: Mouton.
Ehlich, Konrad
1993 "Language in the Professions: Text and Discourse", in: Grindstett,
Annette—Johannes Wagner (eds.) Interpretative Verfahren in den Sozial- und
Textwissenschaften. Stuttgart: Metzler: 243-274.
Galtung, Johan
1983 "Struktur, Kultur und intellektueller Stil. Ein vergleichender Essay über sach-
sonische, teutonische, gallische und nipponische Wissenschaft", in: Leviathan
2: 303-338.
Gnutzmann, Claus (ed.)

1990 Kontrastive Linguistik. Tübingen: Narr.
Gnutzmann, Claus-Regina Lange
1990 "Kontrastive Textlinguistik", in: Claus Gnutzmann (ed.), 85-116.
Graefen, Gabriele
1994 "Wissenschaftstexte im Vergleich. Deutsche Autoren auf Abwegen?" in:
Brünner, Gisela-Gabriele Graefen (eds.): 136-157
James, Allen
1983 "Compromisers in English: A cross-disciplinary approach to their interper-
sonal significance", Journal of Pragmatics 7: 191-286.
Heger, Klaus
1971 Monem, Wort und Satz. Tübingen: Narr.
Henne, Helmut
1978 "Gesprächswörter. Für eine Erweiterung der Wortarten", in: Helmut Henne
et al. (eds.), 42-47.
Henne, Helmut—Wolfgang Mentrup-Dieter M ö h n - H a r a l d Weinrich (eds.)
1978 Interdisziplinäres deutsches Wörterbuch in der Diskussion. Düsseldorf: West-
deutscher Verlag.
Holmes, Janet
1982 "Expressing doubt and uncertainty: A corpus-based analysis", RELC Journal
13: 9 - 2 8 .
1984 "Hedging your bets and sitting on the fence", Te Reo 27: 47—62.
Hosman, Lawrence
1989 "The evaluative consequences of hedges, hesitations, and intensifiers", Hu-
man Communication Research 3: 383—406.
House, Juliane-Gabriele Kaspar
1981 "Politeness markers in English and German", in: Florian Coulmas (ed.),
157-186.
Hübler, Anne
1983 Understatement and hedges in English. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Kaplan, Robert Brooke
1968 "Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education", in: Language Learning
16: 1 - 2 0 .
Lakoff, George
1972 "Hedges: a study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts", Chi-
cago Linguistic Society Paper 8: 183—228.
Lakoff, Robin
1973 "Language and woman's place", Language in Society 2: 4 5 - 7 9 .
1975 Language and woman's place. New York: Harper.
Leech, Geoffrey
1983 Principles of Pragmatics. New York: Longman.
Luey, Beth
1990 Handbook for academic authors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mattheier, Klaus et al. (eds.)
1993 Vielfalt des Deutschen. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
O'Barr, William
1982 Linguistic evidence: Language, power, and strategy in the court room. New
York: Academy Press.
Oshima, Alice-Anne Hogue

1988 Introduction to academic writing. Reading, MA.: Addison Wesley.
Palmer, Frank
1979 Modality and the English modals. London: Longman.
Panther, Klaus-Uwe
1981 "Einige typische indirekte sprachliche Handlungen im wissenschaftlichen Dis-
kurs", in: Theo Bungarten (ed.), 231-260.
Peters, Pam
1995 The Cambridge Australian English style guide. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press.
Rehbein, Jochen
1988 "Ausgewählte Aspekte der Pragmatik", in: Ammon, Ulrich-Norbert
Dittmar-Klaus Mattheier (eds.) Sociolinguistics/Soziolinguistik. Berlin: de
Gruyter: 1181-1195.
Sachtleber, Susanne
1993 Die Organisation wissenschaftlicher Texte. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Schröder, Hartmut (ed.)
1993 a Subject oriented texts. Berlin: de Gruyter.
1993 b Fachtextpragmatik. Tübingen: Narr.
Taylor, Gordon
1989 The student's writing guide for the arts and social sciences. Cambridge: Cam-
Weinrich, Harald
1994 Textgrammatik der deutschen Sprache. Mannheim: Dudenverlag.
Weydt, Harald (ed.)
1979 Die Partikeln der deutschen Sprache. Berlin: de Gruyter.
1983 Partikeln und Interaktion. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Hedging in English
and Bulgarian academic writing
Irena Vassileva
1. Introduction and theoretical preliminaries
This chapter focuses on the notion of hedging in English and Bulgarian

research articles and the impact of its use on intercultural academic com-
munication.
The notion and character of hedging has recently attracted the atten-
tion of various linguists involved with the problems of academic writ-
ing - is it just "beating about the bush" or is there more to it than that?
However, it has never been studied with respect to the Bulgarian lan-
guage, nor has it been handled from a contrastive point of view (Bulgar-
ian with other languages).
As Skelton (1988: 37) points out, the term "hedging" "dates back to
G. Lakoff (1972), who spoke 'of words whose job is to make things fuzzy
or less fuzzy'. On a more general plane hedging may thus be treated as
part of the discourse-rhetorical structure — a field of discourse analysis
that has received a great amount of attention of late, especially from a
contrastive perspective. What is more, in many cases the contrastive
analyses are directed toward comparing English with all kinds of other
languages. This interest undoubtedly stems from the ever-increasing role
of English as the leading language of international communication.
At the same time, as Widdowson (1993: 8) points out, "it is clearly
vital to the interests of the international community of, for example, sci-
entists, or business people, whatever their primary language, that they
should preserve a common standard of English in order to keep up stan-
dards of communicative effectiveness. English could not otherwise serve
their purpose." It is thus essential for any scientist anxious to become or
remain a member of the international academic community to master the
rhetorical organization of English academic discourse.
There exist two contradictory views on the nature of the rhetorical
organization of academic articles in different languages. On the one hand,
as Widdowson (1979: 61) claims, "Scientific exposition is structured ac-
cording to certain patterns of rhetorical organisation which, with some
tolerance for individual stylistic variation, imposes a conformity on mem-
204 Irena Vassileva
bers of the scientific community no matter what language they happen

to use." In other words, the structure of the academic discourse is more
or less universal, regardless of the language used.
More recent research, however, including contrastive analyses, is more
likely to support Kaplan's (1966) proposal implying that different cul-
tures place different values on academic discourse structures. I cannot
but agree with Kintsch and van Dijk (1983: 16) that "many discourse
types seem to exhibit a conventional, and hence culturally variable, sche-
matic structure, an overall form that organizes the macropropositions".
Obviously, the only solution to the problem may be provided by com-
prehensive and elaborate contrastive rhetorical analyses (see Leki 1991
for a more detailed account of contrastive rhetoric).
What is the function of hedging? Before proceeding with the explica-
tion of its characteristic features, we must particularly emphasize that
academic communication is primarily a written form; on the one hand,
there is no definite addressee for the published texts, and on the other,
the distance between the writer and the reader is great. What is more, as
Myers (1989: 4) points out, "the community as a whole is supposed to
be vastly more powerful than any individual in it. Thus we will often see
the relations between one researcher and another requiring little defer-
ence, while one researcher must always humble himself or herself before
the community as a whole." Hedging is thus treated as part of the system
of conventions underlying academic writing; and, being conventional, it
is bound to be culture-specific as well.
Since most of the research done on hedging deals with English texts,
all the issues are oriented towards English-speaking cultures and, more
often than not, are prescriptive in character. They are therefore open to
the criticism of being prejudiced and chauvinistic in their requirements
for scientists using English as a foreign language. These scientists are
supposed to "behave in ways culturally distinct from their 'deeper psy-
chological needs'" (Bloor-Bloor 1991: 9). It is therefore one of the tasks
of the present study to establish the degree to which Bulgarian users of
English as a means of international academic communication are likely
to conform to the requirements mentioned above.
The theoretical framework employed for the purpose of the analysis
follows the generally accepted approach to investigating hedging from
the point of view of speech act theory as part of a more general theory
of commitment and detachment (Myers 1989; Stubbs 1986). In terms of
this framework hedging is treated as employment of indirect speech acts
(Austin 1962; Searle 1969) that reflect different degrees of commitment
Hedging in English and Bulgarian academic writing 205
and detachment. Illocutionary forces realized by indirect speech acts are

not categorical, but scalar (Leech 1983 discusses this in detail): it is thus
possible to assume that they may be "graded" on a cline of commitment
and detachment (a continuum) "whose end points are complete commit-
ment and complete detachment" (Stubbs 1986: 6). Moreover, it should
be particularly emphasized here that hedging reflects the relation between
the writer and the reader, not between the writer and the proposition (or
the degree of possibility/probability of the statement). In other words,
hedging is not "modality" in the widely accepted meaning of the notion
(since, as is well known, modality reflects the relation between the writer
and the proposition), but rather a specific employment of modality de-
vices for the realization of certain politeness strategies.
It is therefore the aim of this study to establish the degree to which
hedging is employed in English, Bulgarian, and "Bulgarian English" aca-
demic discourse in terms of both quantity and the linguistic means chosen
for its realization, thus comparing the "clines" of commitment and de-
tachment typical for each of the three types of discourse. The hypothesis
tested is that academic discourse possesses culture-specific features so
deeply ingrained in the users' cognitive models for discourse production
that it seems impossible to overcome them regardless of the degree of
command of the foreign language.
2. Corpora
The discussion draws on three corpora - English research articles, Bul-
garian research articles, and articles written in English by Bulgarians (70
pages for each language). All the articles are in the field of linguistics and
are genre-compatible (academic research reports). The articles in English
are both British and American English in order to present a better view
of the English-speaking (Anglo-American) community as a whole. The
Bulgarian English articles are by some of the most outstanding specialists
in English, so it can be assumed that their command of the language is
of the best possible quality and, respectively, their "interlanguage" is the
closest to the target language.
This choice is motivated by my desire to establish the possible "socio-
pragmatic failures" that "stem from cross-culturally different perceptions
of what constitutes appropriate linguistic behaviour" (Thomas 1983),
since the scope of the study evidently precludes any strictly linguistic
analyses (in the traditional sense of the term).
206 Irena Vassileva
3. Results and discussion
3.1. General results

The general results from the investigation may be summarized in Table 1.
As seen in the table, use of hedging is the highest in English and the
lowest in Bulgarian English, with Bulgarian falling somewhere in be-
tween. The English writers are much more tentative in expressing per-
sonal opinion and in rejecting or confirming others' claims, thus avoiding
the so-called "face-threatening acts" (Brown-Levinson 1987). It is sur-
prising, however, that Bulgarian English is not only influenced by Bulgar-
ian standards of writing, which apparently differ with respect to hedging,
but employs even fewer hedges. There seem to be two possible explana-
tions of this phenomenon: Bulgarians are either not well enough
acquainted with the means of expressing hedging in English (which is
rather unlikely for this level of command of the language), or they are
not aware of the need to use them, thus contradicting the expectations
of the discourse community. In other words, these failures should not be
treated as linguistic errors, but rather as indications of social ineptitude.
Of course, there is yet another possible interpretation of the phenome-
non — that Bulgarians try to preserve their cultural identity, which is
inevitably reflected in the overall organization of the discourse and the
expression of hedging in particular (see Kachru 1993).
Table 1. Occurrence of hedging in the corpora
Introd. Subjects Disc. Concl. Total
Engl. 9% 4% 26.5% 2.5% 42%

Bulg. 6% 0% 20% 6% 32%
BE 6% 0% 15% 5% 26%
Introd. = introduction part; Subjects = description of subjects; Disc. = discussion part;

Concl. = conclusion part; BE = Bulgarian English
The generally lower degree of hedging observed in the Bulgarian and

Bulgarian English texts places them higher on the scale of commitment
to the effect that they are bound to sound inappropriately self-confident
and imposing to the rest of the members of the community.
Table 1 also presents the distribution of the hedges throughout the
main parts of the research article. This helps us gain further insights into
the nature of the respective standards of writing.
The influence of Bulgarian, for example, on Bulgarian English is

clearly demonstrated in the Introduction part (equal values), while the
value for English is higher. As is known only too well, the function of
the Introduction of the research article is to present the aim and scope
of the study and to give some theoretical preliminaries. According to
various kinds of textbooks in academic writing the aim should be stated
clearly and unequivocally. In practice, however, taking into consideration
the fact that every scientific report states a claim that, as a rule, denies
or supersedes the claims of others, the author is forced to seek the indis-
pensable balance between remaining within a certain consensus with the
community and making a new claim to justify publication. Hedging is
believed to be one of the main means of securing this delicate balance.
The Bulgarian tradition in this respect, however, seems to be rather
different. Although, unfortunately, there are practically no available text-
books treating the problems of academic writing, the general practice is
to advise the writers to state their claims clearly and firmly, without al-
lowing for any possible contradictory ideas, and to try to justify them in
the best possible way. In other words, the degree of commitment to one's
own claims and ideas appears to be considerably higher with the Bulgar-
ian than with the English writers.
As mentioned above, the other function of the Introduction is to out-
line the theoretical framework of the study. There are some differences
between English and Bulgarian standards of writing here as well which
also contribute to variations in the use of hedging. The Bulgarian tradi-
tion requires that all possible theoretical models related to the topic
should at least be mentioned, although some of them may not be espe-
cially relevant to the particular discussion. The writer is then supposed
to deny those which do not suit his immediate needs and focus on the
one that serves his purposes. The evidence supplied in Table 1, however,
shows that neither the denials nor the recognition are realized in a tenta-
tive or indirect way. I will not dwell on the English standard here, since
it has been described extensively elsewhere (see the references), but the
differences from the Bulgarian standard are apparent.
The Subjects part of the research article shows no hedging at all either
in the Bulgarian or in the Bulgarian English corpora for the simple
reason that this section does not usually exist in Bulgarian academic writ-
ing. The descriptions of subjects and of procedure employed are usually
incorporated within the Discussion section, which often leads to a certain
amount of vagueness and may hamper comprehension, especially for
readers used to the strict English article structure.
208 Irena Vassileva
The Discussion part of the English research articles seems to favor

hedging to the greatest extent. This is not surprising, since this is the
place to analyze the data and pursue the issues of the study. In Bulgarian
and especially in Bulgarian English, however, the values are lower at the
expense of the Conclusion part. This is probably due to the fact that the
most general and "author-committing" claims are reserved, as a rule, for
the Conclusion(s) part.
To conclude the discussion of the general results, the fluctuations
along the scale of commitment and detachment throughout the research
articles are shown in Figure 1.
2i
20
16
12
12
commitment J
English
Bulgarian
B u l g a r i a n English
Figure 1
3.2. Means of expressing hedging

The various means of expressing hedging in the three types of discourse
are presented in Table 2. As Stubbs (1986: 7) points out, "Degree of com-
Table 2. E = English, Β = Bulgarian, BE = Bulgarian English
modal seem/appear adj./adv. suggest others total
Ε 18% 11% 6% 1.5% 5.5% 42%

Β 12% 0% 12% 0% 8% 32%
BE 10% 6% 3.5% 1.5% 5% 26%
100%
mitment is distinct from manner of commitment." On the other hand,

from a contrastive point of view the manner and means of expressing
commitment or detachment vary for the different languages. The next
stage of the investigation will therefore be to establish the differences
between the English and the Bulgarian research articles under study in
order to get further insight into the processes of transfer determining the
features of the Bulgarian English texts.
The taxonomy adopted in this research, as seen from Table 2, is some-
what loose, but in any case it considers both formal and functional cri-
teria and can well be compared to the one employed by Salager-Meyer
(1994: 149-170), who treats the modal verbs and the semi-auxiliaries like
to seem, to appear as "shields", the adjectives and adverbs as "approxima-
tors", the phrases containing suggest, assume, and the like as "compound
hedges", and the expressions of the type I believe, to our knowledge, etc.
as "authors' personal doubt and direct involvement". All these means of
expressing hedging are subject to the present investigation as well (al-
though they are not included in Table 2 in order to save space), but it
seemed more plausible here to maintain the distinction between the
modal verbs and the semi-auxiliaries because of the considerable differ-
ences in their occurrence and distribution in the discourses under discus-
sion, as will be seen later in this chapter.
As is well known, the commonest surface forms of hedging are the
modal verbs (cf. Myers 1989), which are definitely favored in the English
texts (see Table 2). Next come the so-called "private" verbs (seem, appear),
which are - quite understandably for the scientific text — used in imper-
sonal constructions. The difference from Bulgarian here is rather strik-
ing — Bulgarian employs twice as many adjectives and adverbial phrases
as does English. Actually, Bulgarian favors modality and adjectival/adver-
bial phrases equally. On the other hand, the influence of Bulgarian on
Bulgarian English as to the use of modal verbs is apparent, while with
respect to the rest of the means Bulgarian English is not very far from
210 Irena Vassileva
English. These differences are more likely to be due not to the specific
standards of academic writing, but to the purely linguistic characteristics
of the respective languages. To begin with, Bulgarian is a language where
the modal verb phrases corresponding to the English phrases used in aca-
demic writing are of analytic character, which makes them rather long (as
compared to other verb phrases). Secondly, as is well known, the written
mode tends to reflect the spoken mode; unlike English, the modal verb
phrases are rather uncommon in Bulgarian. As Krustev (1990: 168) points
out, "This type of phrase is typical of the intellectual domains of com-
munication." In other words, such phrases are usually felt to belong to
the highly formal style, which leads to their being avoided. This is one
of the reasons why Bulgarian favors adjectival/adverbial expressions of
modality. There is more to that, however: the modal verb phrases seem
to exhibit a higher degree of detachment than the adjectives and adverbs.
It may therefore be assumed that the difference between English and Bul-
garian in this respect has both linguistic and sociocultural causes.
As regards Bulgarian English, one may say that the Bulgarian writers
under study have acquired the basic means of expressing hedging, but
lack a feeling for the frequency with which it should be used throughout
the research article.
3.3. Distribution of the means of expressing hedging

I will proceed here with a discussion of the distribution of the means of
expressing hedging throughout the research article in order to get further
insights into the variations of the degree of commitment and detachment
in the course of the development of the article. The data will be presented
in Tables 3 - 5 , and will be discussed simultaneously, as certain corre-
lations were observed that could not be accounted for otherwise.
The data presented in Table 3 support the previous observation that
English favors hedging in general and the "modal-verb phrase" means of
expressing it, in particular for the Introduction part, where the difference
from Bulgarian is considerable. In addition, the figures show in detail
how Bulgarian English is influenced by the mother tongue in all respects.
The modal verbs used in the English texts are predominantly may and
might:
(1) "... the various factors that might account for any differences
in comprehensibility." (Williams 1992: 397)
(2) "... decision-making tasks may be inferior of ...".
(Brown 1991: 3)
Table 3. Hedging in the introduction. Ε = English, Β = Bulgarian, BE = Bulgarian Eng-

lish
modal seemlappearl adv./adj. attempt others total

suggest
Ε 23% 11.8% 0% 2.3% 4.7% 41.7%

Β 7% 0% 7% 9.4% 4.7% 28.1%
BE 4.7% 11.5% 7% 2.3% 4.7% 30.2%
Table 4. Hedging in the discussion. Ε = English, Β = Bulgarian, BE = Bulgarian English
modal seemlappearl adv./adj. others total

suggest
Ε 20% 11.5% 9% 2.5% 43%

Β 12% 0% 14.5% 6% 32.5%
BE 11% 8% 3% 2.5% 24.5%
Table 5. Hedging in the conclusion. Ε = English, Β = Bulgarian, BE = Bulgarian English
modal suggest adv./adj. others total
Ε 4% 0% 0% 16% 20%
Β 20% 0% 16% 12% 48%
BE 20% 4% 0% 8% 32%
In the Bulgarian texts modality is realized by using the conditional

(NP - noun phrase):
(3) "Za (NP) bi moglo da se posocat danni ..." [Data could be

adduced concerning (NP) ...]. (Todorova 1993: 195)
(4) "(NP) moze da bädat razglezdani ν dva aspekta: ..." [(NP)
may be treated from two perspectives: ...].
(Nikolova 1993: 138)
The Bulgarian English texts employ may and could to the same degree:
(5) "Thus, there is an abundance of data on the basis of which

we may conclude that ...". (Alexieva 1988: 11)
212 Irena Vassileva
The Discussion part (Table 4) shows no great differences from the In-
troduction part as far as the English texts are concerned, the only excep-
tion being the appearance of some adverbial means of expressing hedg-
ing. In the majority of cases, the modal verbs employed are may and
might, but there are some occurrences of could, too. However, could, be-
ing a modal verb "lower on the scale of commitment" (as compared
to may and might), is often accompanied by other means of expressing
hedging:
(6) "it could seem useful to consider ...". (Brown 1991: 9)

(7) "Therefore, one could question the usefulness of ...".
(O'Connor 1991: 393)
The use of adjectives and adverbs such as possible, presumably, it is

likely that, perhaps, and a few others is rather limited.
There are two types of subjunctives represented in the Bulgarian texts
expressing different degrees of commitment:
(8) "Kato se ima predvid obace (NP), moze da se predpolaga, ce

..." [Having in mind, however, (NP), one may assume that
...]. (Todorova 1993: 198)
This is an example of a conditional sentence where the detachment is

further reinforced by the fact that it is impersonal as well. The second
type is also impersonal, but presupposes the greatest degree of detach-
ment possible in Bulgarian:
(9) "Vsästnost ne bi bilo pogresno da se kaze, ce ..." [In fact, it

will not be a mistake to say that ...]. (Todeva 1991: 50)
As seen in Table 4, Bulgarian employs adverbial phrases and adjectives

to the greatest extent. What is more, a great diversity of them may be
observed: do goljama stepen 'to a great extent', ν obsti linii 'generally
speaking', väzmozno 'possibly', po vsjaka verojatnost 'probably', vse pak
'after all', sjakas 'as i f , pocti 'almost' and a number of others. At this
stage of the analysis the obvious conclusion is that the Bulgarian writer
not only favors adverbial and adjectival means of expressing hedging but
also exploits the whole variety of them.
The Bulgarian English texts are again very close to the Bulgarian ones
as regards the use of modal verbs. There are some differences from the
English texts with respect to the "quality" of the modal verbs used as
well. Bulgarian English seems to employ equally maylmight, could, and
would. In other words, the overall degree of commitment is higher as
compared to the English texts (having in mind the well-known commit-
ment-detachment gradation of the English modal verbs):
(10) "In practical terms it would mean the establishment of...".

(Dancev 1991: 91)
It may be recalled at this point that the Conclusion was the only part
where the degree of hedging is higher in the Bulgarian and the Bulgarian
English texts than in the English ones (Table 1). Table 5 reveals more
details as to the distribution of the various means of expressing hedging
in the Conclusion. First of all, it should be emphasized that Bulgarian
English comes very close to Bulgarian in this part of the research article,
the use of adverbs and adjectives being the only exception. Secondly, a
striking difference may be observed in the employment of modal verbs
between English on the one hand and Bulgarian and Bulgarian English
on the other. The evidence points to a shift in the opposite direction in
this respect.
The means of expressing modality are practically the same, so I will
not adduce more examples here. We cannot leave unmentioned, however,
a "mild" form of the imperative that appears in the Bulgarian texts and
sounds rather imposing:
(11) "Pri tälkuvane na ustanovenite fakti ne biva da se podminava

specifikata na ..." [While interpreting the facts one should not
neglect the specificity of ...]. (Petrova 1992: 46)
I believe that the mere existence of such a form in the Bulgarian stan-
dard of academic writing once again supports the assumption that Bul-
garian academic writing shows a higher degree of commitment, and con-
sequently a lower degree of hedging. Of course, one could argue that
such expressions have become "cliches", and so have been desemantized,
but the same claim could be made regarding their English counterparts
as well.
Under the heading of "others" I include mainly phrases and sentences
of the following type (the use of passive voice and impersonal construc-
tions which may also be treated as means of expressing hedging are not
considered in the present discussion):
214 Irena Vassileva
(12) "Further research is needed to determine ...".

(Zuengler 1991: 410)
(13) "V tazi nasoka ocevidno sa neobhodimi oste izsledvanija" [Fur-
ther research is evidently necessary in this direction].
(Dancev 1988: 107)
Such closing phrases, sentences, or longer units are obviously univer-

sale of academic discourse which, as a rule, have a double function - to
protect the author against possible attacks concerning the "incomplete-
ness" of his or her study and to outline some directions for future investi-
gation ensuing from the study.
Table 6. Distribution of hedging by section. Ε = English, Β = Bulgarian, BE = Bulgarian

English
Introd. Discussion Conclusion Subjects Total
Ε 22% 63% 6% 9% 100%

Β 18% 63% 19% 0% 100%
BE 25% 59% 16% 0% 100%
Another way of tackling the issue is to examine and compare the dis-
tribution of hedging throughout the texts separately for each one (Ta-
ble 6). This point of view allows us to follow the fluctuations in commit-
ment and detachment irrespective of the general quantitative differences
discussed above. To throw things into relief, the data may also be pre-
sented in graph form, as in Figure 2.
As Figure 2 shows, the general movement in the three types of texts is
approximately the same — closer to the "commitment" end of the scale
for the Introduction, then rising considerably toward the detachment end
in the Discussion, and finally dropping back again toward greater com-
mitment. This may be treated as evidence in support of the above-men-
tioned claim (Widdowson 1979: 63) that there exist universals of scientific
discourse that are independent of the particular language. A closer look
at the data, however, reveals certain differences here as well.
To begin with, the starting point (in the Introduction) and the final
point (in the Conclusion) differ considerably in English, the last one being
closer to full commitment. The Bulgarian text, however, shows no such
differences. To put it otherwise, the Bulgarian author is committed to his
or her initial claim no less than to the outcome of the study. This seems
to be in accordance with the generally accepted Bulgarian standard that
English
Bulgarian
Bulgarian English
Figure 2
if you claim something, you should stick to it consistently notwithstand-

ing any possible deviations from the expected results which may appear
in the course of the investigation. The average English author, on the
other hand, seems to be much more indirect and tentative in stating his
or her claim, but rather confident in the final results and conclusions.
Bulgarian English, as usual, comes somewhere in between, which again
supports the hypothesis stated above - namely, that native-language
transfer is observed in Bulgarian English writing at the level of discourse
organization.
4. Conclusion
To sum up what has been said so far, I will enumerate here the main
similarities and differences observed in the three types of texts under
study.
216 Irena Vassileva
4.1. Similarities
4.1.1. All of them employ hedging (hedging in academic writing is not
favored by some other cultures - see for more details Bloor-Bloor
1991).
4.1.2. Hedges are distributed throughout the research article irrespective

of the quantitative and qualitative differences (see Figure 2).
4.1.3. Modal verbs (among other means) are used for the realization of
hedging (to a certain extent).
4.2. Differences
4.2.1. Bulgarian shows a higher degree of commitment (and hence a
lower degree of deference) toward the discourse community in terms of
both quantity (the overall number of hedges) and quality (the degree of
detachment implied in the linguistic means of expression).
4.2.2. Various differences are observed in the means of expressing hedg-

ing in English and Bulgarian.
4.2.3. There are also noticeable differences in the distribution of the

hedges throughout the research article.
As regards Bulgarian English, the bulk of evidence supplied above
points to the presence of native-language transfer of academic writing
standards.
At this stage the obvious question arises as to the factors presupposing
transfer at this level of discourse (for more details on discourse transfer
see Odlin 1989). It should be recalled here that the initial assumption
(which determined the choice of the corpora) was that no transfer should
be expected on any of the purely linguistic levels. Obviously the transfer
observed may only be accounted for in terms of cultural differences.
In general, there are two principal ways of learning to write (I do not
mean here literacy acquisition): the first is predetermined by the educa-
tional system, and the second is related to the notion of intertextuality.
The English educational system (to my knowledge, at least) is well known
for its attention to the development of writing skills, which presupposes
the production of a large number of textbooks, manuals, and other kinds
of teaching materials for all levels of teaching writing, including the aca-
demic level. What is more, the type of writing required is predominantly
of a "guided" creative type. The Bulgarian educational system presup-
poses mainly reproductive writing and focuses more on the content than
on the structure of the texts. This lack of interest in the problems of
writing has led to a complete absence of textbooks for writing instruction.
One possible explanation may be that Bulgarian culture is more oral in
nature than written as regards all types of interpersonal communication.
How do Bulgarians learn to write, then, especially as regards academic
writing? The only possible way to answer this question seems to be to
refer to the above-mentioned notion of intertextuality and, of course, the
general rules of logic (which are universal). Intertextuality, as defined by
de Beaugrande and Dressier (1981: 182), subsumes "the ways in which the
production and reception of a given text depends upon the participants'
knowledge of other texts." In other words, every new text is not com-
pletely independent, but draws, at least formally, on other preceding texts,
thus securing a consistent development of the cultural traditions of the
community. Certain cognitive schemata are mapped onto the new text
which are definitely culture-specific (for a more detailed account of cogni-
tive schemata cf. Kintsch—van Dijk 1983). Apparently Bulgarians learn
to write by relying on previously written texts (academic writing, in this
case), thus following some well-established standards and logical steps.
These standards, however, seem to be so deeply ingrained in the writers'
cognitive schemata that it turns out to be extremely difficult to overcome
them irrespective of the degree of command of the foreign language.
It appears advisable, however, for Bulgarian writers to master the Eng-
lish standards of academic writing in order to be able to incorporate
themselves fully in the English-speaking academic discourse community.
Of course, after such a claim one could well be accused of supporting a
"cultural-imperialism" cause (see Kachru 1993), especially considering
the fact that the "Bulgarian deviations" from the English standards (with
respect to the investigated phenomenon at least) do not seem to hamper
intercultural communication. In any case, the existence of the two contra-
dictory views — to use English as a mere medium of communication and
preserve the culture-specific characteristics on the one hand, or to con-
form to English rhetorical standards completely on the other - is a well-
known fact that I am not inclined to discuss further here.
5. Some theoretical implications

The discussion in this study proceeded from the premise that hedges re-
flect the degree of commitment/detachment as expressed by the writer.
218 Irena Vassileva
Hedging, as defined by Myers (1989: 12), "is a politeness strategy when

it marks a claim, or any other statement, as being provisional, pending
acceptance in the literature, acceptance by the community - in other
words, acceptance by the readers." In other words, hedging is an expo-
nent of the interpersonal function of language (following Halliday; for
more details on the functions of language cf. Halliday 1985), employed
for the realization of certain politeness strategies (cf. Brown-Levinson
1987). From the point of view of conveying meaning, hedges may be
treated as redundant features of text, their use being dictated by culture-
specific conventions.
On the other hand, as Stubbs (1986: 8) points out, "Commitment has
to do therefore with whether a proposition is presented as true, false,
self-evident, a matter of objective fact or of personal opinion, shared
knowledge, taken for granted or debatable, controversial, precise or
vague, contradictory to what others have said, and so on."
In other words, commitment reflects the relation between the writer
and the proposition, whereas, as stated above, hedging reflects the rela-
tion between the writer and the reader. Given this state of things, it may
seem contradictory to combine the two approaches and incorporate them
in an overall theoretical framework. It appears, however, that hedging
may formally be treated as a linguistic means of expressing the writer's
attitude toward the proposition, which is, to return to the beginning of
the paper, "beating about the bush", but from a functional point of view
it is a means of expressing interpersonal relations (politeness strategies).
Starting from this assumption, one may say that the scale of commit-
ment/detachment actually represents a scale of interpersonal relations be-
tween the writer and the community: the higher the degree of detach-
ment, the higher the degree of deference to the community. At the same
time, while commitment/detachment is chosen by the writer, interper-
sonal relations are imposed by the norms and conventions shared by the
community, and are thus culture-specific.
To conclude, one may say that the issues of the study and the theoreti-
cal framework suggested are supposed to throw some new light on the
possibility of accounting for cross-cultural pragmatic problems from a
cognitive-linguistic perspective.
References
Adams, Penny-Brain Heaton-Peter Howarth (eds.)

1991 Socio-cultural issues in English for academic purposes. London: Macmillan
Publishers, Ltd.
Alexieva, Bistra
1988 "Is presentational 'there' the best option?", in: Andrej Dancev (ed.), 9 - 2 7 .
Austin, John
1962 How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bloor, Meriel-Thomas Bloor
1991 "Cultural expectations and sociopragmatic failure in academic writing", in:
P. A d a m s - B . H e a t o n - P . Howarth (eds.), 1 - 1 2 .
Brown, Gillian—Stephen Levinson
1987 Politeness: Some universals in language usage [reprinted, with a new introduc-
tion, from E. Goody (ed.), Questions and politeness]. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Brown, Raymond
1991 "Group work, task difference, and second language acquisition", Applied Lin-
guistics 12: 1 - 1 2 .
Dancev, Andrej
1988 "Kam opisanieto na 'bälgarskija anglijski mezdinen ezik'" [A note on the
description of the "Bulgarian-English interlanguage"], in: Problemi na ovla-
djavaneto na cuzd ezik (Sb.), 93-109. Sofia: Narodna Prosveta.
1991 "Some notes on a Bulgarian model of expanded constrastive analysis", in:
VI. I v i r - D . Kalogjera (eds.), 87-101.
Dancev, Andrej (ed.)
1988 Error analysis. Sofia: Narodna Prosveta.
1985 An introduction to functional grammar. London: Longman.
Ivir, Vladimir-Damir Kalogjera (eds.)
1991 Language in contact and contrast: Essays in contact linguistics. Berlin: Mouton
de Gruyter.
Kabakciev, Krasimir
1993 "On the semantic basis of aspect (with special reference to nominal aspect)",
Contrastive Linguistics 1: 38-45.
Kachru, Yamuna
1993 '"Meaning potential' in rhetorical styles: Revisiting the contrastive rhetoric
hypothesis". Paper presented at the 10th Congress of the AILA, Amsterdam.
Kaplan, Robert B.
1966 "Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education", Language Learning
16: 1 - 2 0 .
Kintsch, Walter-Teun van Dijk
1983 Strategies of discourse comprehension. London: Academic Press.
Krustev, Borimir
1990 Komunikativna gramatika [Communicative grammar], Sofia: Sofia University
Press.
Lakoff, George
1972 'Hedges: a study in meaning criteria and the locic of fuzzy concepts' in: P.
Peranteau, T. Levi and G. Phares (eds.): Papers from the eighth regional meet-
ing, Chicago Linguistics Society: 183—228.
Leech, Geoffrey
1983 Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.
220 Irena Vassileva
Leki, Ilona
1991 "Twenty-five years of contrastive rhetoric: Text analysis and writing pedago-
gies", TESOL Quarterly 25: 123-143.
Molhova, Zana
1990 "Diversity in similarity", Contrastive Linguistics 4/5: 6 7 - 7 1 .
Myers, Greg
1-35.
Nikolova, Ruselina
1993 "Kognitivi sästojanija na govorestija, epistemicna modalnost temporalnost"
[Cognitive states of the speaker, epistemic modality and temporality], Säpo-
stavitelno ezikoznanie 1: 137-144.
O'Connor Di Vito, Nadine
1991 "Incorporating native speaker norms in second language materials", Applied
Linguistics 12: 383—396.
Odlin, Terence
1989 Language transfer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Panorova, Ljuba
1992 "Strukturen analiz na terminologijata na bälgarskoto obstestvoznanie"
[Structural analysis of terminology in the language of Bulgarian social sci-
ences] Säpostavitelno ezikoznanie 1: 56—64.
Petrova, Slavka
1992 "Psixolongvisticni problemi pri usvojavane na bälgarska leksika ot grätski
studenti" [Psycholinguistic problems in Bulgarian vocabulary acquisition by
Greek students], Säpostavitelno ezikoznanie 1: 42—51.
Salager-Meyer, F.
1994 "Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written dis-
course", English for Specific Purposes 13: 149-170.
Searle, John
1969 Speech acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Skelton, John
1988 "The care and maintenance of hedges", ELT Journal 42: 37-43.
Stamenov, Christo
1991 "Meaning, paraphrase and semantico-pragmatic implication", English Pa-
pers A [Sofia University]: 209-219.
Stubbs, Michael
1986 " Ά matter of prolonged fieldwork': Notes towards a modal grammar of Eng-
lish", Applied Linguistics 7: 1—25.
Thomas, John
1983 "Cross-cultural pragmatic failure", Applied Linguistics 4.2: 92-112.
Todeva, Elka
1991 "Za konkurencijata mezdu gerundija i infinitiva pri anglijskite dvuclenni gla-
golni sintagmi" [On the competition between the gerund and the infinitive in
the complex English verb syntagmas], Säpostavitelno ezikoznanie 1: 38-52.
Todorova, Elena
1993 "Za kacestvenostta i otnositelnostta na prilagatelnite imena" [On the qualita-
tive and relative characteristics of adjectives], Säpostavitelno ezikoznanie 3/4:
194-200.
Widdowson, Henry
1979 Explorations in applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1993 "Peter Strevens Memorial Lecture: The ownership of English", IATEFL, 1993
Annual Conference Report, 5 - 9 .
Williams, Jessica
1992 "Planning, discourse marking, and the comprehensibility of international
teaching assistants", TESOL Quarterly 26: 693-711.
Zuengler, Jane-Barbara Bent
1991 "Relative knowledge of content domain: An influence on native-nonnative
conversations", Applied Linguistics 12: 397-415.
The effects of hedges and gender on the attitudes
of readers in the United States toward material
in a science textbook
Avon Crismore and William J. Vande Kopple
1. Introduction
In this chapter we report on a study of how particular linguistic elements
in English called hedges (elements such as perhaps, might, to a certain
degree, and it is possible that) affect readers' attitudes toward a passage
from a science textbook, and we elaborate on ways in which several issues
raised in the study could underlie productive cross-linguistic and cross-
cultural research in the future.
Our definition of attitudes, which has been influenced by the work of
Tesser and Schaffer (1990) and Eagley and Chaiken (1993), derives pri-
marily from the research of Van Dijk (1982). He defines attitudes as
cognitive information organized into sets of evaluative beliefs. In his
view, attitudes are schema-like systems that organize specific beliefs,
while ideologies are even more complex systems that organize attitudes.
Van Dijk argues that readers develop attitudes toward both authors and
their texts, that readers' attitudes may change as they progress through
texts, and that readers' processes of understanding, inferring, and inter-
preting may be affected by attitudes and attitude changes. Because atti-
tudes and attitude changes may play such important roles in reading, and
because the reading of science has had, and will probably continue to
have, an important function for many levels of the culture of the United
States, we decided to investigate attitude changes readers of a science
textbook might experience.
Historically, attitudes and their effects within Western culture have
been studied primarily by three groups of researchers: social psycholo-
gists, reading researchers, and literary critics. Much of the work carried
out by the social psychologists has focused on how attitudes can affect
people's behavior. This work has primarily focused on attitudes in con-
nection with controversial social issues such as cigarette smoking, alco-
holism (Fazio 1989), racial and ethnic prejudice (van Dijk 1985), political
elections, and the environment (Fiske-Taylor 1991). In such work, social
psychologists have found that, at the point at which individuals receive
224 Avon Crismore and William J. Vande Kopple
new information, they are heavily influenced by what they already believe
and by how controversial they think the attitudinal object is (Eagley—
Chaiken 1993; Fazio 1986, 1989, 1990; Breckler-Wiggins 1989). Social
psychologists have also begun to identify many of the individual factors
involved in the processes of attitude perseverance and change (Miller-
Burgoon-Burgoon 1984; Petty-Cacioppo 1981, 1986; Chaiken 1987).
Among the reading researchers, Spiro, Crismore, and Turner (1982)
have investigated how readers use two different processes in representing
and remembering information: a knowledge/schema-based process and
an affectively-based attitudinal process that "colors" information and ex-
ists as a pervasive overlay. Tyler and Voss (1982) agree that readers em-
ploy two such processes, but they add that one or the other will likely
come to the fore, depending on whether or not the readers agree with the
content of what they read. Similarly, research by Martins (1982) indicates
that interactions exist between the informational and emotional content
of a text and the reader's own personality, attitudes, and opinions. Fi-
nally, in the model of reading Mathewson (1989) constructs, one finds
the prediction that if readers accept the content - and the format and
form - of a passage, then their attitude toward the text itself and toward
other attitudinal objects associated with it will be modified favorably.
All these reading researchers have obviously recognized how important
readers' attitudes can be to the processes and results of reading.
This recognition has also motivated the work of some literary critics
on the reading of literature. Richards (1929) studied college readers' com-
prehension of poetry and determined that the author's attitudes toward
the subject matter, toward himself or herself, or directly or indirectly
toward the readers invites complementary attitudes from readers. More
recently, researchers have studied readers' stances, orientations, and atti-
tudes toward literary texts and the effects of these on the amount and
kind of literature they read (e. g., Beach 1983; Dillon 1978, 1982; Hynds
1985; Purves 1981). Fish (1980) studied the roles readers may assume,
such as the role of "student", "critic", "teacher", "feminist", and so on.
A gap in the work reviewed is that researchers usually focus on readers
and pay little attention to specific linguistic elements in texts. It is true
that much research on readability in English has focused on linguistic
elements such as cohesion devices (e. g., Horning 1993; Irwin 1986) and
on factors of linguistic complexity (e. g., Davison—Green 1988). But such
elements and factors usually play a role in conveying the propositional
content of texts. Little work has been done on linguistic elements like
hedges, whose primary function in a text is not to convey aspects of the
propositional content but to convey aspects of interpersonal interaction.
The effects of hedges and gender on the attitudes of readers in the U. S. 225
Both Crismore (1989) and Vande Kopple (1985) have suggested that
such linguistic elements are important in the processes of interaction be-
tween readers and texts. But to the best of our knowledge only Crismore's
study (1989) has begun to investigate how readers' attitudes might be
affected by such elements. In the study reported here we asked how the
presence of hedges in controversial material from a science textbook
would affect the attitudes of ninth-grade readers in the midwestern
United States toward that material.
2. Our working definition of hedges in English
What we call hedges are also called weakeners (Brown—Levinson 1978),

downtoners (Holmes 1982; Quirk et al. 1985), detensifiers and under-
statements (Huebler 1983), and indicators of degrees of reliability (Chafe
1986).
Perhaps the most detailed classification of hedges in English to date is
provided by Prince and her associates (Prince 1976; Prince—Frader—
Bosk 1982). Their classification system arose out of research on the dis-
course among medical doctors working in a pediatric intensive care unit.
In this discourse, Prince and her coworkers found several kinds of hedg-
ing expressions.
As a step preliminary to classifying these hedging expressions, they
adopt Lakoff's definition of a hedge as a linguistic element "whose job
it is to make things fuzzier" (Lakoff 1972: 195). But they hasten to add
that the hedges in their sample "make things fuzzy in one of (at least)
two distinctly different ways" (Prince—Frader-Bosk 1982: 85).
Some hedges introduce fuzziness about the truth value of propositions.
Prince, Frader, and Bosk call such hedges "approximators". In His face
was sort of blue, the expression sort of is an approximator. People who
produced such a sentence, Prince and her associates note, would be com-
mitted to the truth of the proposition the sentence expresses, but would
also maintain that the proposition expressed is not a clear-cut one. Those
people would probably reserve such hedges for discourse about situations
that are not prototypical or not subject to exact measurements.
Other hedges produce "fuzziness in the relationship between the propo-
sitional content and the speaker" (Prince-Frader-Bosk 1982: 85); they
do not affect the truth values of propositions. These researchers call such
hedges "shields". I think in I think his face is blue is a shield. People who
produce such a sentence, Prince and her associates point out, are not
fully committed, or are committed in a marked (not the most common)

way, to the truth of the proposition his face is blue. Those people would
probably reserve such hedges for discourse regarding situations they are
somewhat uncertain about, or regarding situations they believe - for
various practical reasons - they cannot afford to address as certainties.
Prince, Frader, and Bosk refine their system of classification by point-
ing out that there are two kinds of approximators. To examples of one
kind they give the name "adaptors". Adaptors, such as somewhat and
sort of indicate how close to prototypicality a certain reality is, as in He
also has a somewhat low interior larynx (cited in Prince—Frader—Bosk
1982: 87). To examples of the second kind of approximator they give the
name "rounders". Rounders, like approximately and about, are common
in measurements and indicate "that some term is a rounded-off represen-
tation of some figure" (Prince-Frader-Bosk 1982: 93). One example of
a sentence with a rounder is as follows: His weight was approximately
three point two kilograms (Prince-Frader-Bosk 1982: 87).
These researchers also divide the shields into two groups: the "attribu-
tion shields" and the "plausibility shields".
When people use attribution shields, they do so to attribute a proposi-
tion to someone else, as in "According to Dr. Smyth, the measurements
were not made at the right time". In such cases, there is nothing explicit
in the sentence about how committed the speaker is to the truth of the
proposition; any belief in the truth of the proposition is associated not
with the speaker but with somebody else. In the corpus Prince and her
associates examined, attribution shields were most common in discourse
that conveyed background information, particularly information about
why patients were hospitalized in the first place.
When people add a plausibility shield to a proposition, they indicate
that they are not certain about the truth value of the proposition. They
use plausibility shields such as I think, perhaps, and seemed to signal a
tentative or cautious assessment of the truth of propositions. In so doing,
they shield themselves by reducing the "degree of liability" they might
face in expressing the proposition (Huebler 1983: 18). Prince and her
associates found plausibility shields throughout their corpus, but discov-
ered that they were particularly characteristic of when physicians talked
about diagnosing illnesses and planning courses of treatment — two ac-
tions that would have significant consequences for patients and could put
the doctors in positions of legal liability.
In this chapter we focus on plausibility shields, which we have sus-
pected for some time would be likely to affect the interactions between
writers and readers. As Prince, Frader, and Bosk point out, it is clear
that different plausibility shields are associated with different levels of
uncertainty, but it is not altogether clear how many levels of uncertainty
one would have to include in an adequate model of natural-language
production and processing. Chafe (1986) makes a contribution by show-
ing how different levels of uncertainty are expressed by various adverbs
and modal verbs. And Halliday (1985: 86) begins classifying such levels
by distinguishing a level of probability from a level of possibility. On
each of these levels he goes on to make finer distinctions, but such distinc-
tions lie beyond our main purposes here.
3. Hedges and the major functions of language
We believe the most nearly complete understanding of our experimental

findings is based on a recognition of the kind of meaning hedges convey.
In this connection we find Halliday's work most helpful. Halliday main-
tains that when people use language, they nearly always work toward
conveying not one but three kinds of meaning. That is, they try (1) to
express their experience, (2) to shape their expression into a cohesive and
coherent text, and (3) to interact with their audience. Halliday calls these
kinds of meaning or macro-functions of language the ideational, the tex-
tual, and the interpersonal. People fulfill a macro-function by choosing
lexical and grammatical elements from within the ideational set of ele-
ments, the textual set of elements, or the interpersonal set of elements.
Some of these elements, however, can simultaneously have roles in more
than one of these three sets.
Focusing just on elements within the ideational set, Halliday notes
that they reflect "our experience of the world that lies about us, and also
inside us, the world of our imagination. [Ideational meaning] ... is mean-
ing in the sense of ,content"' (1985: 53). Ideational meaning represents
processes (actions, events, and mental processes) as well as the partici-
pants in, and the circumstances of, those processes. Some examples of
the elements that convey such meaning in clauses are the elements of
transitivity, elements that could be given such semantic labels as "agent",
"action", and "goal". In Jo forgot Jean, for example, all three lexical
elements convey ideational meaning.
The second set of elements mentioned above is the textual set. In Halli-
day's view, textual meaning is "relevance to the context: both the preced-
ing (and following) text, and the context of situation" (Halliday 1985:
53). Textual meaning enables writers to mark how they are binding
clauses together into coherent texts and how they are relating these texts
to contexts. Textual meaning often manifests itself in what Halliday calls
continuatives (words such as yes, no, well, oh, and now) and conjunctive
adjuncts (words and phrases such as moreover, however, and as a result),
in coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, and in definite relatives
(who, where) and indefinite relatives (whoever, wherever). In However, Jo
forgot Jean, the lexical element However conveys textual meaning.
Finally, Halliday describes interpersonal meaning as "meaning as a
form of action: the speaker or writer doing something to the listener or
reader by means of language" (1985: 53). Elements functioning within
the interpersonal domain reveal "language as the mediator of role, in-
cluding all that may be understood by the expression of our own person-
alities and personal feelings on the one hand, and forms of interaction
and social interplay with other participants in the communication situa-
tion on the other hand" (Halliday 1973: 58). These elements allow writers
to do such things as reveal aspects of their personalities, evaluate and
react to the ideational material, show what role they are choosing in the
communicative situation, and indicate how they hope readers will re-
spond to their ideational material. Some examples of these in clauses are
the modal verbs, adverbs such as possibly, and vocatives (words such
as Bob). In Unfortunately, however, Jo forgot Jean, the lexical element
Unfortunately conveys interpersonal meaning.
In this chapter we wish to focus attention on the interpersonal domain,
because hedges such as we studied belong there. As Halliday (1970: 335)
shows, plausibility shields provide an indication of modality, and mod-
ality "is a form of participation by the speaker in the speech event.
Through modality, the speaker associates with the thesis an indication of
its status and validity ..." In other words, when speakers utter a clause
that includes a linguistic element indicating modality, they both convey
some propositional material and step prominently into the communica-
tive situation to offer a personal angle on the truth of that material. With
modality, the speaker does not affect the truth value of propositions;
those propositions still would have to be judged on the basis of how they
relate to the world. Instead, the speaker engages in interpersonal action
by trying to bring his or her personal views of propositions to bear on
the views of his or her audience on those propositions. Those personal
views would have to be judged on the basis of the speaker's character
and judgement, those qualities Aristotle referred to as ethos.
4. Methods and materials
4.1. Subjects
The subjects in this study were ninth-grade students from three middle-
class junior high schools in a fairly large midwestern city in the United
States. In the spring of the school year, students were randomly assigned
to either experimental (Ν = 74) or control conditions (N = 35). All data
were gathered within a two-week time period in regular classrooms.
4.2. Text materials

The passage used in this study is from a science textbook, Ginn science
program: Advanced level Β (Asimov-Gallant 1975). It comprises 1,170
words, is written at the ninth-grade readability level, and addresses the
topic of the evolution of primates, a topic enveloped in controversy on
many levels of culture in the United States. Controversial topics are espe-
cially suitable in studies such as this because they can naturally contain
hedges and because they appear in many commonly used curricular mate-
rials.
In fact, this passage originally contained hedges. Of the eighty-eight
independent clauses in the passage, twenty of them included one hedging
expression, and one of them included two hedging expressions. A few of
these hedging expressions took the form of main clauses with noun clause
direct objects or of the expletive it, a form of a linking verb, and a noun
clause serving as the true subject: It may be that somewhere in the rocks
there exist fossils of the tree-living apes of that period of increasing dryness.
One took the form of an adverbial phrase: An upright-walking ground-
ape, with a backward-curved spine and arched feet, would represent, accord-
ing to this explanation, the first early man. Most took the form of modal
verbs: In search of food, they [groups of apes] might have wandered, aban-
doning one patch of forest for another. And a few took the form of ad-
verbs: Perhaps the key to their [the apes'] survival was their ability to
change eating habits.
To adapt this passage for students in the control condition, we re-
moved all hedges, producing a "factual" text. To adapt the "factual" text
for students in experimental conditions, we added hedging clauses to the
beginning of targeted sentences. As often as possible, we targeted senten-
ces that had been hedged in the original passage. For example, the first
sentence of the passage in the textbook begins with the hedging expres-
sion It is possible to speculate about and then goes on to focus on the
evidence for the biological change that took place in primates. Students
in the control condition read that sentence in this form: Scientists can
explain the biological change that took place in primates on the basis of
the evidence. Students in some of the experimental conditions read that
sentence in this form: It seems to me that scientists can explain the biologi-
cal change that took place in primates on the basis of the evidence.
Hedging clauses we added appeared in several different forms: (1) in
either personal voice or impersonal voice; (2) in only the first half of the
passage, only the second half of the passage, or in both halves of the
passage; and (3) with low or high intensity.
Hedges presented in personal voice included personal pronouns (/, me,
for me), and those presented in impersonal voice used the third person
pronoun it. Table 1 shows the specific hedges used in personal and imper-
sonal voice. Among the eight hedges in personal voice, to me occurs twice
(clause internal), for me occurs twice (clause initial), and / occurs four
times (clause initial). Among the eight hedges in impersonal voice, it
(clause initial) occurs each time.
Table I. The hedge constructions used
Personal Voice Impersonal Voice
1. It seems to me that It seems that

2. For me it is conceivable that It is conceivable that
3. I presume that It is presumed that
4. It appears to me that It appears that
5. / theorize that It is theorized that
6. For me it is possible that It is possible that
7. I suppose that It is supposed that
When hedges were presented in the low-intensity condition for one

half of a passage, five of them appeared. Thus, the passage for one experi-
mental condition would have hedges in low intensity in its first half, and
the passage for another experimental condition would have hedges in low
intensity in its second half. The five hedged sentences were fairly evenly
distributed throughout one or the other half of the passage, with three
of the five hedged clauses introducing the first sentence of a paragraph,
and two introducing sentences internal to paragraphs. When hedges were
presented in the low-intensity condition for the entire passage, one set of
five hedges mentioned above in either personal or impersonal voice was
used twice (once for each half of the passage), producing a total of ten
hedges in the passage.
When hedges were presented in the high-intensity condition for one

half of a passage, three hedges were added to the five mentioned above,
in consecutive sentences near the middle of one half of a passage. Thus,
one passage would have eight hedges in its first half, and another would
have eight in its second half. When hedges were presented in the high-
intensity condition for the entire passage, one set of eight hedges would
be expressed twice, producing a total of sixteen hedges in the passage.
Further, when hedges were presented in the high-intensity condition
for one half of a passage, four of the eight hedges were attached to sen-
tences adult expert readers had judged as expressing ideas essential to
understanding the passage; these sentences were labeled "central-idea sen-
tences". The other four hedges in one half of a passage were attached
to sentences the same readers had judged as expressing ideas somewhat
peripheral to the gist of the passage; these sentences were labeled "periph-
eral-idea sentences".
4.3. Pretests and post tests

4.3.1. Ability measure
As a means of assessing whether experimental subjects differed in ability
from control subjects, the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT) =
developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in 1962 - was given
as a measure of students' general ability. Analysis of the WRAT scores
revealed no significant differences between control and experimental sub-
jects: t = 1.64, ρ > .105 (control Μ = 89.51, S. D. = 52.17; experimental
Μ = 107.77, S. D. = 58.49).
4.3.2. Content attitude test
A five-item questionnaire, the Science Content Attitude Test (SCA), was
developed to measure students' attitudes toward the content of the pas-
sage. This test was deliberately text-dependent. Two questions were based
on content expressed in the first half of the passage, and three questions
were based on content expressed in the second half of the passage. The
SCA test required students to indicate how positive or negative they felt
about ideas discussed in the test passage.
The five questions on this test are as follows:
1. How would you describe your attitude toward the idea that once there
were new kinds of monkeys with a particular development of the
bones and muscles of the arms, shoulders, and chest that allowed them
to swing by the arms from branches?
2. How would you describe your attitude toward the idea that scientists
can explain biological changes in primates on the basis of the different
kinds of evidence they have gathered so far?
3. How would you describe your attitude toward the idea that early man
developed from the apes that were unfortunate enough to be forced
to the ground when dry periods came and forests disappeared?
4. How would you describe your attitude toward the idea that there is a
missing link between early primates and early man?
5. How would you describe your attitude toward the idea that there were
different species of early man and that those with better brains sur-
vived?
Students were asked to respond to each of these five questions by choos-
ing one of the following four responses: (1) very positive, (2) somewhat
positive, (3) somewhat negative, and (4) very negative.
4.4. Procedure
On the first day of testing, students were given the Wide Range Achieve-
ment Test (WRAT) and the Science Content Attitude Test (SCA). Ap-
proximately one week later, students read a version of the science pas-
sage - those in experimental conditions reading a version with hedges,
and those in the control group reading a version without hedges. They
then retook the Science Content Attitude Test.
5. Results
The ninth graders' composite scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills
(median = 295.5) revealed that they were average students, and t-tests
revealed no statistically significant differences between the scores of the
experimental and control groups. The mean scores for the Iowa Reading
subtest indicated that there were no significant differences in reading abil-
ity between the total population of females (37.53) and males (35.48),
and that the students in the experimental groups were somewhat better
readers (mean = 40.64) than were the students in the control groups
(mean = 31.87); but the experimental students were statistically not sig-
nificantly better readers than were the controls. When we investigated
whether there were differences in reading ability between the two groups
based on gender, our analysis of the Iowa Reading subtest scores showed
that there were no statistically significant differences between the scores
The effects oj hedges and gender on the attitudes of readers in the U. S. 233
of the females in the experimental groups and those in the control group.
The scores for the males in the experimental groups (mean = 40.72),
however, were statistically significantly higher than those for the males
in the control group (mean = 30.24; t = .03).
As we noted above, the Science Content Attitude Test was given to all
students both before and after they read a passage; this was done to
measure how their attitudes toward the content of the passage were af-
fected by reading the passage and by seeing or not seeing hedges. A four-
point scale (1 = very positive, 2 = somewhat positive, 3 = somewhat
negative, 4 = very negative) was used to code their responses to each of
the five questions on the Science Content Attitude Test. Thus their scores
for the total test could range from 5 (very positive responses to each of
the five items) to 20 (very negative responses to each of the five items).
On the SCA test given before they read a passage, students in the
overall experimental groups and in the control group had mean scores
indicating that they were somewhat to very negative about the five items
and were most negative about questions 3 and 5. Table 2 shows that the
mean score for the control group was 13.8. The mean score for the com-
bined experimental groups shows that students in these groups were ini-
tially more negative than those in the control group; the score for the
students in the combined hedge groups was 14.41, which is very close to
the figure (15) that would have obtained had all the subjects in the hedge
groups chosen the "somewhat negative" response for all five questions.
After reading the passage, students in both groups became more posi-
tive, as indicated by the mean scores displayed in Table 2 (control group
mean = 13.6, a difference from the prereading score of —.20; hedge group
mean = 13.65, a difference from the prereading score of —.76). Informa-
tion in hedged and nonhedged form helped students become more posi-
tive.
Note, however, that the difference between the pre- and post-SCA
scores was —.76 for the combined hedge groups, while for the control
group it was only - . 2 0 ; the attitudes of students in the hedge group
moved about three times further toward the positive end than the atti-
tudes of students in the control group. Thus these results show that
hedges do make a difference when students in the midwestern United
States encounter them in a science passage.
In fact, we found that each of the difference scores for the hedge
groups representing our three variables was higher than the control
group's mean difference score, and thus reflected more positive attitudes
on the part of subjects in these hedge groups. In addition, 10 of the 12
Table 2. Control and hedge means and S.D.s for the S.C.A. pre, post, and difference scores
(a 4-point scale: 1 = very positive; 4 = very negative; 20 = total possible)
Item Control Group (N = 35) Hedge Group (N = 74)
Post Pre Difference Post Pre Difference
1 2.26 2.00 .26 2.07 2.36 -.30

(.85) (.84) (.85) (.78) (.84) (1.03)
2 2.43 2.46 -.03 2.38 2.50 -.12
(.85) (.85) (.85) (.79) (.85) (.83)
3 3.49 3.54 -.05 3.27 3.54 -.27
(.78) (.82) (.80) (.88) (.65) (.71)
4 2.71 2.84 -.12 2.99 2.82 .16
(1.10) (.99) (1.05) (.96) (.93) (.92)
5 2.71 2.97 -.26 2.95 3.18 -.23
(.89) (.95) (.92) (.92) (.91) (1.01)
Total 13.60 13.80 -.20 13.65 14.41 -.76

(3.08) (2.80) (2.94) (3.06 (2.63) (2.85)
hedge treatment groups in which students saw different combinations of

the three variables had higher mean difference scores than the control
group. The students who saw hedges throughout the passage (those in
the both-halves location group) shifted the most toward positive about
the content (a mean difference score of -1.27), followed by those in the
high intensity group (-1.05) and those in the impersonal voice group
(-.97).
Perhaps our most interesting finding was that hedges helped the fe-
males more than the males to become more positive. Table 3 shows that
for the control group the mean difference score for the females was
only -.11, while for the males it was - . 2 9 . However, for the hedge group,
the mean difference score for the males was - .47, while it was - 1 . 0 3 for
the females — more than twice the difference shown in the males' score.
Table 3 also shows that males in both groups moved more toward posi-
tive than the females for question 3, while females in both groups moved
more toward positive than the males for question 5. Females in both
groups also moved more toward positive than males for question 1. Thus
females who saw hedges moved more toward positive (-1.03) than males
who saw hedges (-.47), and when hedges were absent the females were
less likely (-.11) than males (—.29) to become more positive. The mean
difference scores for the males in the combined hedge groups (-.47) were
much higher than those for the males in the control group (—.29). The
standard deviation scores shown in Table 3 reveal much more variation
for females in the hedge group than for females in the control group, and
they also reveal more variation for females than for males in both the
control group and the hedge groups, indicating that hedges can have
differential effects on females, perhaps because of individual differences.
The mean difference scores of females were primarily responsible for the
greater positive movement of the combined hedge groups in their atti-
tudes toward the content of the science passage.
Table 3. Control and hedge ,male and female means and S.D.s for the S.C.A. difference
scores
Item Control Scores (N = 35) Hedge Scores (N = 74)
Com- Males Females Com- Males Females

bined C (N = 17) (N = 18) bined Η (N = 36) (N = 38)
1 .26 .18 -.33 -.30 -.14 -.45

(1.07) (1.02) (1.14) (1.03) (1.10) (.95)
2 -.03 .00 .06 -.12 -.06 -.18
(1.04) (1.32) (.73) (.83) (.75) (.90)
3 -.05 -.35 .22 -.27 -.36 -.18
(.84) (.86) (.73) (.71) (.83) (.56)
4 -.12 -.06 -.17 .16 .25 .08
(1.02) (1.20) (.86) (.92) (.91) (.94)
5 -.26 -.06 -.44 -.23 -.17 -.29
(-92) (.66) (1.10) (1.01) (.85) (1.16)
Total -.20 -.29 -.11 -.75 -.47 -1.03

(2.27) (2.59) (2.00) (2.73) (2.47) (2.97)
6. Discussion
We wish to discuss in greater detail two of the findings. First, we will

focus on the finding that hedges helped readers from the midwestern
United States develop more positive attitudes toward controversial mate-
rial about which they were initially quite negative. Second, we will focus
on the finding that hedges helped females more than males to develop
more positive attitudes about this same material.
Before getting into these discussions, though, we must keep in mind

that the experimental subject were somewhat but not significantly better
readers (as measured by the Iowa Reading Test) than were the control
subjects. We must also keep in mind that the males in the experimental
groups were significantly better readers (again, as measured by the Iowa
Reading Test) than were the males in the control group. Thus there is
some evidence of better reading skills present in our experimental sub-
jects; these skills may account for some of the degree of attitude change
experienced by the readers in experimental groups, but most likely not
all of that change.
How then might one work toward an explanation of why hedges
helped readers in the experimental groups to become more positive about
the material the hedges were associated with? Recall that these readers
initially were somewhat negative about the material expressed in the pas-
sage, and that they were particularly negative about aspects of primate
development the passage described as evolutionary in nature.
How would middle-class ninth graders from the midwestern United
States be likely to read controversial material about which they have
somewhat to very negative attitudes? One possible response would be to
disregard the material altogether. This is the "I don't want to read this"
response. In our test situation in a school setting, however, these students
did not close their booklets and stop reading, but read the passage and
took the attitude test.
Once they decided to read the passage, they faced at least two other
possible courses of action. The first of these goes beyond the "I don't
want to read this" response just a little. That is, students could read the
material dismissively, looking it over while assuming that it was not true
and not worth taking seriously. Such reading would probably lead to
little attitude change. Dismissive reading is not an implausible response.
Lipson (1982, 1983) has found that third graders in the United States
will disregard information in texts if it does not accord with their prior
knowledge. As a result, when they are tested on information from texts,
they are more likely to get an item correct if it asks about information
that is new to them than if it asks about information that clashes with
information they already know. These students' problem, Lipson notes,
appears to be a "failure to resolve conflicts between existing world knowl-
edge and new information in text" (1983: 456).
Some researchers might object that such an explanation cannot apply
to how our ninth-grade subjects responded to material on primate devel-
opment because ninth graders are more mature and secure than third
graders and are no longer inflexible when it comes to modifying their

views of the world, or because they perhaps "read in" hedges in contro-
versial material. We will not be able to respond to this objection fully
until we complete additional research. For the present, however, we main-
tain our view that the dismissive response was possible for our subjects.
After all, the most likely reason that they had a negative attitude toward
the material on primate development is that it clashed with information
they viewed as true.
If students wanted to give the passage more than a dismissive reading,
they could read it carefully, analyze it thoroughly, and evaluate it com-
pletely. They could take pains to analyze ideas they felt negative about
in order to determine whether their attitude was justified or not. If their
attitude was justified, they could work to build as good a case as possible
against the ideas. If their attitude was not justified, they could begin to
change it. Reading and responding in this manner can lead to marked
and lasting attitude changes.
Dole and Sinatra (1994) have pointed out that when students' beliefs
or attitudes clash with those expressed in a passage, the primary route to
a change in those beliefs or attitudes is what social psychologists call the
"central" or "systematic" route. Dole and Sinatra would say that this
route requires deep thinking and critical reflection. It appears, then, that
in order to become more positive in attitude regarding material about
primate development, our subjects had to be led to give it a deeply analyt-
ical and evaluative reading, the kind of reading that could show that
perhaps their fears about what could be claimed and implied in such
material might not be entirely founded.
We propose that the nonhedged (control) passage encouraged students
to read dismissively. We also propose that the hedged passages led to
greater positive changes in attitude because they encouraged students to
read evaluatively. Why? Because hedges clearly mark the passage as an
expression of opinions or hypotheses. Since this is precisely how many
of the students probably viewed the status of the material in the first
place, they might have appreciated the "measure of honesty" (Bolinger
1982: 322) they saw the hedges bringing to the text. Beyond this, the
students did not have to feel they were expected to accept the ideas, but
could set their own ideas about the history of humankind over against
those of the passage in an evaluation process. In fact, in their signaling
of truth assessments, hedges call readers' attention to the fact that those
assessments were made by others and probably should be evaluated be-
fore being accepted. In this sense, hedges might help to build up within
readers what Dole and Sinatra (1994) call a sense of "ownership" of ideas
and of comprehension processes.
Hedges associated with controversial material might even have been a
pleasant surprise for students. Both Bruner (1986) and Olson (1980) re-
port that much of the discourse of teachers to students in North America
presents material as factual. And Crismore (1985) has found that most
textbooks in the United States present material as if all matters were
settled and agreed upon. Olson suggests one reason for this: textbooks,
being written material, naturally "separate speech from speaker, and that
separation in itself may make the words impersonal, objective, and above
criticism" (1980: 192). Luke, de Castell, and Luke (1989), however, argue
that "it is in the contextualized interaction with the text as semiotic arti-
fact that the construction of meaning occurs" (cited in Young 1990:
138) — that is, students' reactions to a textbook are dependent on the
status of the textbook" as part of a comprehensive and rule-bound insti-
tutional order" ( L u k e - d e Castell-Luke 1989: 258). More important for
our purposes, Olson also stresses that "children, too, have the right to
hold their opinions, to express them, and to have them taken seriously if
they are honest, informed, considered, or significant" (1983: 130).
We suggest that hedges were a pleasant surprise for our experimental
subjects because they probably encouraged the subject to hold their own
opinions as valid and to put them up against the opinions expressed in
the passage in the course of an evaluative reading. And that evaluative
reading could reveal to our student readers the full story about the sub-
ject matter and lead them to see that their negative attitudes might not
be entirely justified. Hence, through the pleasant process of being invited
to hold their own opinions as valid and through the processes of evalua-
tive reading that probably led subjects to see that their negative attitudes
were not fully justified, the students who read hedged passages became
more positive in their attitudes toward the subject of primate develop-
ment.
Moving to our second focal point, we ask why and how hedges helped
the females more than the males to become more positive about the mate-
rial on primate development. In research in various academic fields such
as anthropology, composition theory, developmental and social psychol-
ogy, reading theory, speech communication, and sociolinguistics, much
evidence has emerged recently that, although there is certainly much vari-
ation among representatives of each gender, in general females in Western
culture more than males in Western culture are attuned to, and concerned
about, other persons and relationships with them. In reviewing such re-
search, one frequently finds associated with females in Western culture

and their ways of looking at the world words such as affiliation, connec-
tions, communion, empathy, interdependence, and relations. In the same
research, one frequently finds associated with males in Western culture
and their ways of looking at the world words such as competition, hierar-
chy, independence, individuation, separation, and status.
In the following sentences from widely recognized research on gender
differences in Western culture, several different researchers point toward
more concern in females than in males with one's relations with others
and with the social networks in which these relations are maintained.
Drawing on her work as a therapist, Jean Baker Miller asserts that
"women's sense of self becomes very much organized around being able
to make and then to maintain affiliations and relationships" (1976: 83).
After work on how females might develop different moral systems from
the ones that males do, Carol Gilligan writes that "women not only de-
fine themselves in a context of human relationships but also judge them-
selves in terms of their ability to care" (1982: 17). Bridging from her
work in anthropology, sociology, and psychoanalysis, Nancy Chodorow
generalizes that "a quality of embeddedness in social interaction and per-
sonal relationships characterizes women's life relative to men's" (1989:
57). Finally, on the basis of work on speech styles and conversational
patterns, Deborah Tannen writes that "women speak and hear a language
of connection and intimacy, while men speak and hear a language of
status and independence ..." (1990: 42). What has emerged in recent re-
search, then, is the generalization that females in Western culture are
more interpersonally attuned than are males from the same culture. And
this generalization, we believe, helps explain why in our study the females
more than the males became more positive about the material all the
subjects read.
Recall that according to Halliday's model of language, hedges are an
expression of modality, and modality is essentially interpersonal in its
meaning and function. Modality represents a person's assessment of the
status and validity of propositions. It presents a personal angle on the
truth or reliability of those propositions. And if the modality takes the
form of hedges, then expressions of modality explicitly signal hearers and
readers that they have room to judge the propositions for themselves.
Hedges, then, stimulate a personal interaction between a producer and a
receiver of language in that they convey a message to the effect that
"Here is my judgment of tentativeness about the truth of this material;
you have some room to evaluate and judge the material for yourself."
We propose that since generally females in Western culture are judged

to be more interpersonally attuned than are males, the girls in our study
would be more likely than the boys to notice the hedges and to experience
their positive effects as outlined above. That is, we believe that the girls
more than the boys would appreciate the measure of honesty hedges
could be seen as bringing to material that has been enveloped in contro-
versy in Western culture for decades. And we believe that the girls more
than the boys would feel that they could put their own ideas up against
those expressed in the passage and engage in processes of deep analysis
and evaluation. They could analyze precisely what position is being ad-
vanced in the passage, determine to what extent that position clashes
with their own, and then evaluate whether their own position is as valid
as they had assumed it to be. Such processes are necessary if people are
to move from negative attitudes about material to more positive atti-
tudes. As opposed to many of the girls, many of the boys probably simply
dismissed the textual material once they realized they had somewhat to
very negative attitudes about it.
If indeed hedges were seen as a pleasant surprise by our student read-
ers, we believe that this was especially true for the girls. Hedges probably
helped them to cast the passage about sensitive material not as discourse
taking an unalterable position but as discourse in which all participants
are invited to interact actively and in which the face needs of all the
participants are respected. This latter kind of discourse, Jennifer Coates
shows, is highly valued among women (1988: 115-119).
7. Issues to be explored in future research

The findings reported and discussed above leave us many issues to ex-
plore in more detail. Many of these are related to particular aspects of
the hedge variables. For instance, we have much to analyze yet about the
ideal number, the ideal voice (personal or impersonal), and the ideal loca-
tion of hedges to stimulate positive attitude changes toward material such
as we used. We also have much to learn yet about how the voice, number,
and location variables might interact with one another. And once we can
take steps toward answering questions about such possible interactions,
we should then try to learn how such variables might interact with one
another as they apply to passages that are either more or less controver-
sial than the one we used. Finally, this study opens up questions about
how changes in readers' attitudes toward some subject matter can affect
what and how much they learn from reading a passage about that subject
matter. Many researchers would no doubt assume that the readers show-
ing the greatest positive attitude changes would probably also be the
readers showing the greatest possible learning gains. If the variables pro-
ducing the greatest positive attitude changes turn out not to be the same
as those producing the greatest possible learning gains, however, then all
those involved with the educational system face some interesting and
important discussions.
The findings we report here indicate that a particular kind of linguistic
element can have an important effect on how readers from the midwest-
ern United States respond to a text. They also indicate that that kind of
linguistic element elicited different responses from female readers than it
did from male readers. Thus these findings should be of interest to all
those studying differences between males and females from the United
States in use of, and responses to, written language. These findings
should also have relevance for all those interested in how a text express-
ing ideas to which readers might initially have negative reactions could
be written so that the readers stand open to the possibility of developing
more positive attitudes about those materials. Of course, this possibility
raises the ethical issue of if and when a writer should or should not try
to change negative attitudes in readers. But the possibility and the issue
should be explored in detail by all those who have a hand in producing
written texts; perhaps the possibility and the issues should be explored
particularly by those who have a hand in producing written texts to be
used in educational settings. In such settings, of course, subject matters
such as the one addressed in our experimental passage, subject matters
that can alienate and threaten some readers, are common. Such subject
matters might be particularly common in science classrooms in Western
culture. Thus those who write and edit texts about such subject matters
would be wise to spend time considering the specific linguistic elements
constituting those texts in the light of how those elements are likely to
affect the attitudes of various readers.
Aspects of this study can also open up interesting questions for those
interested in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural research. Halliday would
maintain that any natural language will convey ideational, interpersonal,
and textual meaning, but the specific ways in which these meanings are
conveyed will probably vary from one language to another. Moreover,
one language is likely to differ from another in what it makes possible
within each of these three domains of meaning. For example, how do
different languages indicate modality? How many such indications are
possible and common in ordinary linguistic interactions? To what extent

do expressions of modality derive their force from pragmatic factors,
such as the social status of those using language to interact? These and
many other related questions could provide focal points for a significant
amount of cross-linguistic research in the future.
Aspects of this study also show how important it is to continue to
explore differences in the ways representatives of various cultures see the
world. Some of the relevant possible differences have to do with gender.
Do women in cultures other than Western culture come to a sense of
themselves mainly in terms of their relationships with other people? Do
they judge their actions largely in terms of how they show care and con-
cern for others? Do men in cultures other than Western culture come to
a sense of themselves mainly in terms of their status and independence?
Do they judge their actions against codes they see as absolute? However
men and women in cultures other than Western culture come to a sense
of themselves and judge their actions, it would be interesting to learn
exactly how they developed these senses and codes of judgment and what,
if any, pressures are presently being brought to bear on them to alter
their senses and codes.
Other possible differences between representatives of various cultures
have to do with views of the origin of humankind. Some questions that
could guide research are as follows: What different views of the origin of
humankind exist in various cultures? How did these views develop, and
how are they disseminated today? How do they actually affect people's
beliefs and behavior, and how likely are they to be maintained in their
present nature and strength? Finally, how do people react when they feel
pressure from sources outside of their own culture to change their view
of the origin of humankind?
Other aspects of the study reported here raise interesting questions
about how cultures regard the act of writing and written materials them-
selves. Researchers might wish to pursue questions such as these: How
do representatives of various cultures write about material they are not
certain about? How do they write if they know their audience will find
their subject matter controversial and perhaps even offensive? What dif-
ferent kinds of linguistic and rhetorical moves do they have to make in
order to meet and respect the face needs of those in their audience, partic-
ularly if their subject matter is of uncertain truth value or is likely to
offend?
Researchers pursuing questions such as these might wish to bridge into
questions having to do with written educational materials as used in vari-
ous cultures. To what extent do those materials invite students to hold

their own opinions of various subject matters as valid? In what specific
ways do these materials do such inviting? Or do educational materials
used in other cultures resemble those used in much of Western culture in
treating matters as being settled, as being open to no interpretation on
the part of students? If they do, how exactly do they affect how those
who read and study them view themselves and their own opinions and
judgments? Further, how do they affect the development of critical think-
ing in those who read them?
Finally, some aspects of the study reported here raise interesting ques-
tions about reading practices and attitudes in various cultures. For in-
stance, how do people from various cultures regard material in print?
Are they inclined to accept it since it is in print? Do they ever dismiss
material in print that they do not agree with? How often do they engage
in processes of deep thinking and critical reflection when they read vari-
ous kinds of materials? It would also be interesting to learn what is neces-
sary in texts to change negative attitudes toward various subject matters
held by persons from various cultures. D o kinds of hedging devices
change such attitudes? Or do signs of uncertainty actually increase the
strength of negative attitudes? Do other kinds of linguistic devices con-
tribute to changing such attitudes?
In sum, then, we have presented some material on how hedges can
affect the attitudes of readers in the United States toward controversial
material about which they originally were quite negative. And we hope
to have shown how issues raised in our study could lead to valuable
cross-cultural and cross-linguistic research in the future.
References
Allen, Harold B.-Michael D. Linn (eds.)

1982 Readings in Applied English Linguistics. (3rd edition.) New York: Knopf.
Arnold, Carroll-John Bowers (eds.)
1984 Handbook of rhetoric and communication. New York: Allyn and Bacon.
Asimov, Isaac—Roy A. Gallant
1975 Ginn science program: Advanced level B. Lexington, Mass.: Ginn.
Beach, Richard
1983 "Attitudes, social conventions, and response to literature", Journal of Re-
search and Development 16: 4 7 - 5 4 .
Breckler, Steven—Elizabeth Wiggins
1989 "Affect versus evaluation in the structure of attitudes", Journal of Experimen-
tal Social Psychology 25: 253-271.
Bolinger, Dwight
1982 "Truth is a linguistic question", in: Harold B. Allen-Michael D. Linn (eds.),
318-328.
Brown, Penelope-Stephen Levinson
1978 "Universale in language usage: Politeness phenomena", in: Ε. N. Goody (ed.),
56-289.
Bruner, Jerome
1986 "On school as a place to consider possible worlds", College English 48: 149-
150.
Chafe, Wallace
1986 "Evidentially in English conversation and academic writing", in: Wallace
Chafe-Johanna Nichols (eds.), 261-272.
Chafe, Wallace—Johanna Nichols (eds.)
1986 Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.
Chaiken, Shelly
1987 "The heuristic model of persuasion", in: Mark P. Zanna-James M. O l s o n -
Peter Herman (eds.), 3 - 3 9 .
Chodorow, Nancy
1989 Feminism and psychoanalytic theory. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Coates, Jennifer
1988 "Gossip revisited: Language in all-female groups", in: Jennifer Coates-
Deborah Cameron (eds.), 94—122.
Coates, Jennifer-Deborah Cameron (eds.)
1988 Women in their speech communities. New York: Longman.
Crismore, Avon
1985 Metadiscourse as rhetorical act in social studies texts: Its effect on student
performance and attitude. [Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illi-
nois.]
1989 Talking with readers: Metadiscourse as rhetorical act. New York: Peter Lang.
Davison, Alice—Georgia M. Green
1988 Linguistic complexity and text comprehension: Readability issues reconsidered.
Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.
de Castell, Suzanne-Allen Luke-Carmen Luke (eds.)
1989 Language, authority, and criticism. Philadelphia and East Sussex: Falmer/Tay-
lor Press.
Dillon, George L.
1978 Language processing and the reading of literature. Bloomington: Indiana Uni-
versity Press.
1982 "Styles of reading", Poetics Today 5: 77-88.
Di Pietro, Robert (ed.)
1982 Linguistics and the professions. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.
Dole, Janice Α.—Gale M. Sinatra
1994 "Social psychology research on beliefs and attitudes: Implications for re-
search on learning from text", in: R. Garner—P. Alexander (eds.), 245—264.
Eagley, Alice H.-Shelly Chaiken
1993 The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
Educational Testing Service
1962 Wide Range achievement Test, Princeton, N. J.
Fazio, R. H.
1986 "How do attitudes guide behavior?", in: Richard M. Sorrentino-E. T. Hig-
gins (eds.), 204-243.
1989 "On the power and functionality of attitudes: The role of attitude accessibil-
ity", in: Anthony R. Pratkanis-Steven J. Breckler - Anthony G. Greenwald
(eds.), 153-179.
1990 "Multiple processes by which attitudes guide behavior", Advances in Experi-
mental Social Psychology 3: 106-130.
Fish, Stanley
1980 "Literature in the reader: Affective stylistics", New Literary History 2: 123—
162.
Fiske, Susan T . - S . E. Taylor
1991 Social cognition. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Garner, Ruth-Patricia Alexander
1994 Beliefs about text and instruction with text. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Gilligan, Carol
1982 In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development. Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Goody, Esther (ed.)
1978 Questions and politeness: Strategies in social interaction. Cambridge: Cam-
1970 "Functional diversity in language as seen from a consideration of modality
and mood in English", Foundations of English 6: 322-361.
1973 Explorations in the functions of language. New York: Elsevier-North Holland.
Holmes, Janet
1982 "Expressing doubt and uncertainty in English", RELC Journal 13: 9 - 2 8 .
Horning, Alice
1993 The psycholinguistics of readable writing: A multidisciplinary approach. Nor-
wood, N.J.: Ablex.
Huebler, Alex
1983 Pragmatics and beyond, Vol. IV.6: Understatements and hedges in English. Am-
sterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Hynds, Susan
1985 "Interpersonal cognitive complexity and the literary response processes of
adolescent readers", Research in the Teaching of English 19: 386-404.
Irwin, Judith
1986 Understanding and teaching cohesion comprehension: A research review. New-
ark. Del.: International Reading Association.
LakofT, George
1972 "Hedges: A study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts", in:
P. Peranteau-J. L e v i - G . Phares (eds.), 183-228.
Le Ney, John-Walter Kintsch (eds.)
1982 Language and comprehension. New York: North Holland.
Lipson, Marjorie Y.
1982 "Learning new information from text: The role of prior knowledge and read-
ing ability", Journal of Reading Behavior 14: 243-261.
1983 "The influence of religious affiliation on children's memory for text informa-
tion", Reading Research Quarterly 18: 448-457.
Luke, Carmen-Suzanne de Castell-Allen Luke
1989 "Beyond criticism: The authority of the school textbook", in: S. de Castell-
A. L u k e - C . Luke (eds.), 245-260.
Mathewson, George C.
1989 "Toward a comprehensive model of affect in the reading process", in: Harry
Singer-Robert B. Ruddell (eds.), 655-676.
Martins, Daniel
1982 "Influence of affect on comprehension of a text", Text 2 (1 - 3 ) : 141 - 1 5 4 .
Miller, Gerald R.-Michael Burgoon-Judec K. Burgoon
1984 "The functions of human communication in changing attitudes and gaining
compliance", in: R. E. Arnold-J. W. Bowers (eds.), 400-474.
Miller, J. B.
1976 Toward a new psychology of women. Boston: Beacon Press.
Olson, David
1980 "On the language and authority and authority of textbooks", Journal of Com-
munication 30: 186-196.
1983 "Sources of authority in the language of the school: A response to ,Beyond
criticism"', Curriculum Inquiry 13: 129—130.
Peranteau, Paul-Judith Levi-Gloria Phares (eds.)
1972 Papers from the eighth regional meeting, Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Petty, Richard E . - J o h n T. Cacioppo
1981 Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches. Dubuque,
Iowa: Brown.
1986 Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude
change. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Pratkanis, Anthony R.-Steven J. Breckler-Anthony G. Greenwald (eds.)
1989 Attitude structure and function. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Prince, Ellen F.
1976 "The syntax and semantics of neg-raising, with evidence from French", La«-
guage 52: 404-426.
Prince, Ellen F.-Joel Frader-Charles Bosk
1982 "On hedging in physician discourse", in: R. J. Di Pietro (ed.), 83-97.
Purves, Alan
1981 Reading and literature: American achievement in international perspective. Ur-
bana, 111.: National Council of Teachers of English.
Quirk, Randolph-Sydney Greenbaum-Geoffrey Leech-Jan Svartvik
1985 A comprehensive grammar of the English language. New York: Longman.
Richards, Ivor A.
1929 Practical criticism. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Singer, Harry-Robert B. Ruddell (eds.)
1989 Theoretical models and processes of reading. (2nd edition.) Newark, Del.: In-
ternational Reading Association.
Sorrentino, Richard M . - E d w a r d T. Higgins (eds.)
1986 Handbook of motivation and cognition: Foundations of social behavior. New
York: Guilford Press.
Spiro, Rand J . - A v o n Crismore-Terrance J. Turner

1982 "On the role of pervasive experiential coloration in memory", Text 2 (1-3):
253-262.
Tannen, Deborah
1990 You just don't understand: Women and men in conversation. New York: Ballan-
tine Books.
Tesser, Abraham-David R. Schaffer
1990 "Attitudes and attitude change", Annual Review of Psychology 41: 479-523.
Tyler, Sherman W.-James F. Voss
1982 "Attitude and knowledge effects in prose processing", Journal of Verbal
Learning and Verbal Behavior 21: 524—538.
Vande Kopple, William J.
1985 "Some exploratory discourse on metadiscourse", College Composition and
Communication 36: 82—93.
Van Dijk, Teun A.
1982 "Opinions and attitudes in discourse comprehension", in: J. F. Le Ney—
W. Kintsch (eds.), 35-51.
1985 Prejudice in discourse: An analysis of ethnic prejudice in cognition and conversa-
tion. New York: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Wood, Wendy-Carl Kallgren—Rebecca M. Priesler
1985 "Access to attitude-relevant information in memory as a determinant of per-
suasion: The role of message attributes", Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology 21: 73-85.
Young, Benjamin
1990 "Post-critical fables and post-modern criticism (a review essay)", Discourse
10: 133-139.
Zanna, Mark P.-James M. O l s o n - C . P. Herman (eds.)
1987 Social influence: The Ontario symposium, Vol. 5. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
Part 3
Variation in the genre
Journal abstracts from three academic fields
in the United States and Sweden:
national or disciplinary proclivities?
Björn Melander, John M. Swales and Kirstin M. Fredrickson
1. Introduction
As the rate of publications devoted to new scholarly and research infor-
mation continues to increase worldwide, the abstract continues to grow
in importance. Publications that consist of little but abstracts, such as
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA), are increasingly
consulted as an initial step in the literature search process. The number
of conferences that do not screen potential presentations by reviewing
abstracts is shrinking. Relatively few journals today publish articles with-
out requiring authors to submit abstracts, the remaining holdouts being
largely concentrated in areas of the humanities where "essayist" traditions
still flourish — presumably because of the view that the richness and sub-
tlety of essays cannot be "boiled down" into a cramped abstract format. 1
Another well-known phenomenon is for journal editorial policy to re-
quire abstracts in English for papers in other languages (Ventola 1994 a,
1994 b). We also know that such policies can create difficulties for at least
some nonnative speakers of English. St. John (1987) details the anxieties
of Spanish agricultural scientists at the University of Cordoba. Ventola
(1994 a: 284) is able to show that German scientists have problems at
various levels with their English abstracts despite publishers' claims to
the contrary (e. g., "no, we provide no help, because our authors are all
perfect in english language [sic]"). Johns (1992), as indicated by the first
part of his title ("It is presented initially"), describes how Brazilian aca-
demics from a range of fields can run into difficulties as they try to
translate Portuguese syntactic patterns into English. More generally, Sa-
lager-Meyer (1990) claims that almost half the abstracts published in
leading medical journals, by both native and nonnative speakers of Eng-
lish, suffer from weaknesses in organization.
So far we have commented on some of the uses of abstracts in the
contemporary academic world. For analytical purposes, we believe it is
important to keep these uses separate. Conference abstracts, the so-called
"homotopic" abstracts in journals, and the abstracts in abstracting jour-
252 Björn Melander, John M. Swales and Kirstin M. Fredrickson
nals all function differently and have different intertextual relations. Con-
ference abstracts are stand-alone documents that enter into a competition
for slots on the conference program (Swales 1993; Berkenkotter-Huckin
1995). Because of these features, they tend to be longer and more rhetori-
cal. Berkenkotter and Huckin conclude that good conference abstracts
(submitted to a composition convention) have "interestingness" achieved
through (a) addressing topics of current interest, (b) having a clearly de-
fined problem, (c) discussing the problem in a new way, and (d) showing
an "insider ethos" through terminology, topoi, and references.
It is unlikely that such high levels of promotional advocacy will be
required for a homotopic abstract, since these functions can be better
fulfilled by the accompanying paper. On the other hand, Bazerman (1988)
does show that experts make heavy use of abstracts when scanning for
literature, thus suggesting that persuasive elements are not entirely out
of place. In the case of the abstracting journal, the intertextual relations
are with the surrounding abstracts. Abstracting journals pull abstracts
from many different journals and then mold them to conform to house
style in terms of length, sentence structure, tense, voice, pronominal use,
acceptable abbreviations, and so on.
A fair amount of work has been done on journal abstracts, from the
viewpoints of both information science and text analysis. The former is
well reviewed in Hartley (1994); the latter is of greater relevance to this
paper. Graetz (1985), in a widely cited paper, found that typical abstracts
from a range of fields consisted of full sentences, used the past tense, and
had many transitive verbs in the passive. On the other hand, the abstracts
avoided first (and second) person pronouns, negative statements, repeti-
tions, subordinate clauses, and adjectives. Later work suggests that the
claim for past tense is too broad. Studies of abstracts in genetics by Gut-
kowski and Urquhart (1988), in medicine by Salager-Meyer (1992), and
in biomedicine by Huckin (1994) show that the present tense is used for
conclusions, recommendations, and problem statements. Gutkowski and
Urquhart further suggest that Graetz's conclusions about voice need
modification, while Swales and Feak (1994) report that we is commonly
used in astrophysics article abstracts.
The other topic in Graetz's paper that continues to be discussed is
how best to account for the rhetorical structure of article abstracts. She
characterizes this as P r o b l e m - M e t h o d - R e s u l t s - D i s c u s s i o n , a structure
largely supported by Jordan (1991). However, Ventola (1994 a) did not
find this in three of the four English medical abstracts she examined,
and Nwogu (1990), also working with medical English, found no regular
rhetorical structure.
Journal abstracts in the United States and Sweden 253
We suggest that the greatest difficulty with this research lies not so
much in the absence of data as in the lack of comparable data. In other
words, the differences in the findings might simply reflect differences in
the emerging abstract writing conventions in the major disciplinary areas,
or might reflect differences in national cultural conventions (as expressed
in national or international languages), or some combination of the two.
In order to investigate this, we have examined and compared abstracts
drawn from three fields. We chose medicine (more precisely, obstetrics)
because there have been more studies on medical abstracts than on any
other field. We then chose biology (more exactly plant pathology) as a
counterpart science, since much is known about biological writing in
general (e. g., Myers 1990; Selzer 1993). Finally, we opted for linguistics
(more exactly descriptive/applied linguistics) since, obviously enough, this
is the area of the social sciences/humanities with which we are most famil-
iar. We then compared abstracts from these three fields written by North
Americans and by Swedes writing in both Swedish and English. (We
found no Americans writing abstracts in Swedish.) Swedish was chosen
because two of the authors are familiar with it.
Our study is, therefore, designed to attack - in at least a preliminary
way - the question of variability in linguistic and rhetorical features of
abstracts. We attempt to assess how much variability exists, and how
much of it would seem ascribable to differences in field and how much
to authors' nationality. We are also interested in seeing whether there are
grammatical and structural differences between the abstracts of Swedes
writing in English and writing in Swedish. This in turn leads to a further
question. Fredrickson and Swales (1994) argue that the somewhat unu-
sual character of article introductions written in Swedish by Scandinavian
linguists is better accounted for in sociological terms than by the tradi-
tional assumptions of contrastive rhetoric. They suggest that the charac-
ter of these introductions derives principally from the fact that Scandina-
vian linguists are a small, well-networked, and noncompetitive group of
scholars. We are interested in seeing whether our texts will also reflect
differences in discourse community size and pressure.
2. Text corpus
Our text corpus is, as noted above, made up of article abstracts from
three different disciplinary fields (viz., biology, medicine, and linguistics)
and with three different backgrounds: written by Americans in English,
254 Björn Me lander, John Μ. Swales and Kirs tin M. Fredrickson
by Swedes in English, and by Swedes in Swedish. The abstracts, ten in

each category, 2 were collected from well established U.S. and Swedish
journals, such as Växtskyddsnotiser [Notes on Plant Protection], Obstet-
rics and Gynecology, and Nordic Journal of Linguistics. A list of the jour-
nals used is given in Appendix A.
Table I. Length in words and sentences
Biology Medicine Linguistics Mean
Sw-Sw 128/7.2 75/4.2 165/7.5 123/6.3

Sw-Eng 147/7.0 182/8.4 107/4.1 145/6.5
American 218/9.2 201/9.8 176/6.8 198/8.6
Mean 164/7.8 153/7.5 149/6.1 155/7.1
In order to give a general picture of the size of the corpus, Table 1

gives the mean length of the abstracts (in words and sentences). As can
be seen, there is some variation in the length of the abstracts. Most obvi-
ously, it is evident that the Swedish medical abstracts are considerably
shorter than the others (less than half the average length). The explana-
tion of this is fairly simple (but also shows how important various journal
"house rules" might be for the design of the abstracts). The journal from
which these abstracts were collected (Läkartidningen 'Doctors' Newslet-
ter') requires that abstracts not exceed 80 words in length. There are also
other important differentiating characteristics of Läkartidningen that will
be discussed later. Secondly, it may be noted that the abstracts written by
Swedes (in both languages) are shorter than those written by Americans.
Finally, it should also be mentioned that the figures for Swedish linguists
show considerable variation: the number of sentences varies from 2 to
20.
3. Findings and observations
Our findings and observations derive from both a quantitative and a

qualitative analysis of the material. The numerical results, displayed so
as to provide an "update" on Graetz (1985), are given in a series of
tables in Appendix B. These results are also referred to in the following
discussion, which is primarily organized according to disciplinary field.
3.1. The biology/plant pathology abstracts

The thirty texts in this subcorpus show considerable homogeneity both
within and across the three language subgroups. As the figures in the
Appendix reveal, these texts make extensive use of the passive — or pas-
sive plus equative be in the North American case - and eschew first
person pronouns. 3 The past tense predominates, although less dramati-
cally in the Swedish language texts. There are no direct references to, or
citations of, the work of others. There is, among the thirty abstracts, but
a single use of metatext: I uppsatsen 'In the paper'. On the other hand,
negatives are more common here than in the medical and linguistics sub-
groups. The fact that about 15 percent of the sentences contain at least
one marker of negation suggests a need to qualify Graetz's conclusion
about this feature.
The general character of these abstracts can be seen from the following
typical examples, the first drawn from the American subgroup and the
second from the Swedes writing in English subgroup. (The sentences have
been numbered for ease of reference.)
1
(1) The ability of a series of wild-type and transconjugant Agro-
bacterium tumefaciens and Agrobacterium rhizogenes strains
to incite galls on four pinaceous gymnosperm hosts was deter-
mined. 2The hosts were Pseudotsuga menziesii, Pinus pon-
derosa, Tsuga heterophylla, and Abies procera. 3Transforma-
tion was confirmed by identification of gall opines. 4The fre-
quency with which galls were incited depended upon the identity
of the infecting strain and the identity of the host. 5Several
strains were highly virulent on all hosts. 6 With one exception,
an agropine strain, these strains harboured nopaline Tiplasmids.
7
Restriction enzyme digestion and gel electrophoresis of a set of
nopaline Ti plasmids from among the highly virulent strains
showed that they differed significantly from each other. 8Such
strains may serve as a basis for the construction of efficient
vectors for gymnosperm transformation. (Morris, John W.—
Linda A. Castle-Roy O. Morris 1989. "Efficacy of different
Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains in transformation of pina-
ceous gymnosperms", Physiological and Molecular Plant Pa-
thology 34: 451-461.)
(2) 'The aphid population on potato plants was estimated by count-

ing aphids on 100 randomly chosen leaves from upper, middle,
and lower parts of the plant. 2This was usually done during a
period of 14 days in mid-July in 5—10 potato fields in each of
5 to 7 regions in southern and central Sweden from 1975 to
1980. 3The aphid population on potato plants varied consider-
ably between years and regions from 0.1 to 20 aphids per leaf
in most areas and years. Âphis nasturtii and Aphis frangulae
were the dominating aphid species and 99 to 100% of the apter-
ous population consisted of these two species, but Myzus persi-
cae, Macrosiphum euphorbiae and Aulucorthum solani were
also present in small numbers. 5The association between the oc-
currence of apterous aphids on potato foliage and spread of po-
tato virus Y° was very weak. (Sigvald, Roland 1990. "Aphids
on potato foliage in Sweden and their importance as vectors
of potato virus Y°", Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica 40: 53 —
58.)
As these two texts illustrate, the plant pathology abstracts are essen-
tially bald narratives of what was done and what was found. Both begin
with an "indicative" statement of results (Swales-Najjar 1987): in (1) an
as yet unspecified ability was determined, and in (2) an as yet unrevealed
population was estimated. These openings are then followed by summary
statements about the organisms, the methods, and the findings. Only in
the final sentences of each abstract is there any attempt to broaden the
scope: in (1) by commenting on the implications of the results; in (2) by
offering a more general conclusion.
On the textual surface at least, then, plant pathology abstracts in all
three groups are strongly marked by the absence of those persuasive de-
vices that seem a general feature of conference abstracts as a whole, and
of "homotopic" abstracts in certain other disciplinary areas. What we
read are potted versions of methods/materials and results with only mar-
ginal engagement with introduction and discussion. In the actual intro-
duction to the Agrobacterium tumefaciens paper, for example, there is
reference to "Crown gall disease", and a claim is made that "little is
known regarding the ability of different Agrobacterium strains to incite
galls on conifers", but neither pathological significance nor gaps in
knowledge are mentioned in the abstract. Similarly, the aphids introduc-
tion talks about "the great economic importance" of aphid species and
"that in Sweden potato virus Y° ... seems to be far more important"
than other potato viruses, but again neither of these "selling points" finds
its way into the abstract.
In fact, only three out of the 30 abstracts begin with some kind of
prefacing statement:
(3) In April 1985 a severe wilting and root rotting on tomato plants
was seen in a greenhouse in northern Sweden. (Sw-Eng)
(4) Different ryegrass and legume species are considered to have
potential value as intercrops used to reduce nitrogen leaching.
(Sw-Eng)
(5) Rostringar i potatis är ett allvarligt kvalitetsproblem som har
drabbat potatisen i ökad omfattning under de senaste ären.
[Corky ring spot in potato is a serious quality problem that
has affected the potato to an increasing extent in recent years.]
If there is little in the way of an opening "frame", the closing state-

ments also tend to be similarly subdued. Most tend to end with state-
ments more like that in example (2) than in example (1). There is only
one clear call for further research:
(6) Long-term field experiments will be needed to elucidate the role

of intercrops as source of inoculum for pathogens of main crops.
(Sw-Eng)
In contrast, especially in the two Swedish subgroups, the narrative

character is often reinforced by the use of time phrases in marked pre-
subject position:
(7) In April 1985 ...At intervals of seven days ... During 1986 and
1987 ... In later examinations ...By the peak in flowering ...
The American plant pathologists, on the other hand, showed a slightly

greater use of logical sentence-connectors. Either way, however, the ex-
perimental-method schema is the engine that drives the great majority of
these 30 abstracts. However, the linguistic realization of this schema is
curiously detached from its customary motivating forces, such as overt
hypothesis-testing, explicit problematization, or the rhetorical creation of
a research space.
Agricultural science as a whole is known to be an area where scientific
publication in national languages tends to be fairly strong, at least as
evidenced by Velho and Krige (1984) for Portuguese and Najjar (1989)
for Arabic. As outsiders, we can see no differences in orientation and

ambition among the three groups. Indeed, we had originally thought
there would be a cline from "big" to "small" research as the focus shifted
from North American publications to Scandinavian works written in
English to those written in Swedish, but we found all the abstracts -
almost without exception - to be amazingly specific and low-key. We
suspect that the fairly frequent use of negative statements contributes to
this impression.
It appears to us, therefore, that there has arisen a strong multinational
set of conventional restrictions on journal abstracts in plant pathology.
We see here, to borrow a term from agriculture itself, a disciplinary "mo-
noculture". As outsiders, it would not be difficult for us to criticize these
abstracts on stylistic, informational, and rhetorical grounds in ways com-
parable to those of Salager-Meyer (1990) and Ventola (1994 a). However,
to do so would seem to require a more direct access to the norms and
beliefs of this far-flung discourse community than a textual analysis can
achieve per se. The striking absence of persuasive elements on a rhetorical
level does not mean that, within the community, persuasion cannot per-
sist by the nomination and description of topic, research site, methodol-
ogy, and finding. After all, if a member of a discourse community knows
that a topic is "hot" he or she does not need reminding of this fact. If
the expert reader of example (2) is fully aware of the consequences of
aphid infestations, then there may be no need for the author to dwell
on its significance. Indeed, such tacitness and taciturnity may well be a
characteristic of abstracts in "normal" or "mature" research areas in a
Kuhnian sense.
3.2. The gynecology abstracts

In contrast to the biology abstracts, there is more variation among the
medical abstracts: in particular those written in Swedish stand out from
the other two subgroups. As can be seen from the tables in the Appendix,
this is clearly noticeable on the language surface: the Swedish abstracts
are dominated by the present tense, rather than the past; they make
hardly any use of negative statements; and they are much shorter (cf.
section 2). More importantly, the Swedish abstracts are also clearly dif-
ferent from the others in rhetorical terms. The basic rhetorical structure
of the Swedish abstracts is a Problem-Recommendation pattern. Both the
problem and the recommendation are usually fairly practical, and the
general aim of the abstracts seems mainly to be to arouse the interest of
practicing gynecologists. 4 These abstracts have adopted a journalistic

tone wherein interestingness and practical implications are emphasized.
A typical example is:
1
(8) Pä grund av en overdriven rädsla för östrogeninducerad cancer
är vi i Sverige idag alltför äterhällsamma med hormonell substi-
tution under och efter klimakteriet. 2Östrogeninducerad cancer
är sannolikt ett litet problem jämfört med de vinster som be-
handlingen kan ge vad gäller morbiditet och mortalitet i hjärt-
kärlsjukdom och osteoporosrelaterade frakturer. 3 Om en kvinna
ges ett peroralt eller parenteral östradiolpreparat med ett ges-
tagentillägg tre ä fyra gänger ärligen och är i välbefinnande
finns det ingen anledning att frän risksynpunkt upphöra med
substitutionen. (Silferstolpe, Gunnar 1990. "Alltför stor re-
striktivitet med hormonell substitution under och efter kli-
makteriet", Läkartidningen 87: 4220-4221.)
['Due to an exaggerated fear of estrogen-induced cancer we
are in Sweden today too restrictive with hormonal substitu-
tion during and after menopause. 2 Estrogen-induced cancer is
very likely a small problem compared to what can be gained
from the treatment regarding morbidity and mortality due to
diseases of the heart or the blood vessels and fractures related
to osteoporosis. 3 If a woman is given a peroral or parenteral
estradiol preparation with a gestagen supplement three to four
times a year and is in good health there is, from a risk point
of view, no reason to stop the replacement.]
Generally speaking, these abstracts do not seem to address the re-

search discourse community directly; for instance, there is very little go-
ing on that indicates any fight for research space. Nor are there any direct
references to other work. When previous studies, established knowledge,
and such matters are touched upon this is done indirectly. The goal does
not seem to be to "establish a niche" for the following research by, e. g.,
implying a "knowledge gap", making a counterclaim, or raising a ques-
tion (cf. Swales 1990: 141); instead the main function appears to be to
emphasize the practical importance and relevance of the article, as in the
following example:
1
(9) Vara kunskaper om vinster och eventuella risker med post-
menopausal hormonsubstitutionsbehandling har ökat betydligt
under senare ar, men det finns fortfarande motsägande resultat.

2
Mycket talar dockför övervägandepositiva resultat. ... 31arti-
keln redogör författaren för egna och andras resultat frän
studier αν av menopausen och postmenopausal hormonsubstitu-
tion.
['Our knowledge about benefits and possible risks of post-
menopausal hormone replacement therapy has increased sig-
nificantly during the last years, but there are still contradic-
tory results. 2 However, most would indicate largely positive
results. ... 3 In the article the author describes his own and
others' results from studies of menopause and postmeno-
pausal hormone replacement.]
In this example we also find the only instance of a direct reference to

the author(s) of the article.5 As can be seen the reference is made not, as
could have been expected, by a first person pronoun, but by a third
person construction. This gives the impression that the abstract has been
written by somebody else (such as the editor of Läkartidningen). This
can, therefore, perhaps be taken as an indication of the abstract being
rather detached from the subsequent article — an impression underscored
by the use of the definite form in the preceding I artikeln 'In the article'
rather than the normal demonstrative I denna artikel 'In this article'. 6
Thus, one can say that the overall impression is low-key with regard
to the researcher(s) behind the presented work. The impersonal tone is
furthermore clearly shown by the high incidence of passives, most of
them agentless (cf. Appendix B). Another indication of the general char-
acter of these texts is perhaps the above-mentioned lack of negative state-
ments. If practical solutions and newsworthiness are what the journal is
after, then it is probably unwise to dwell on what is not the case (as
compared to a more scientific hypothesis-results driven text where nega-
tive outcomes might also be highly interesting).
The medical abstracts in English, of both Swedish and American ori-
gin, are directed much more toward strictly scientific issues, and have a
more theoretical inclination. The American abstracts are structured by
four obligatory headings - Objective, Methods, Results, and Conclu-
sion — and thereby place the research activity within a standardized ratio-
nalistic framework. In this case, the practical implications of the research
are not foregrounded, as is clearly shown by the following example:
(10) Objective: 1 To address the hypothesis that multiphasic oral con-

traceptives (OCs) increase rather than decrease the risk of
functional ovarian cysts.
Methods: 2In this single-center, randomized controlled study,

women were assigned to a multiphasic pill, a lower-dose mono-
phasic pill, a higher-dose monophasic pill, or nonsteroidal con-
traception. 3Forty volunteers were randomized (ten each) to
three different pill regimens or to nonsteroidal contraception.
4
During 6 months of treatment, follicular development was mea-
sured by vaginal ultrasonography and ovulation was indicated
by serum progesterone levels.
Results: 5 The relative risk (RR) of developing a follicular struc-
ture greater than 30 mm in diameter during the cycle with the
higher-dose monophasic pill was 0.5 (95% confidence interval
[CI] 0.1—1.9; P — .49) compared with the multiphasic pill.
6
The risk with the lower-dose monophasic pill was comparable
to that with the multiphasic pill (RR 1.3, 95% CI 0.5—3.6; Ρ =
.56). 7 With the multiphasic pill, the maximum ovulation rate
over 60 cycles was 1.7 per 100 cycles (95% CI 0.0-8.9).
Conclusion: 8This multiphasic pill more closely resembled the
lower-dose monophasic pill than the higher-dose monophasic pill
in its suppression of follicular development. (Grimes, David
A . - A m y J. Godwin-Arkady Rubin-Judith A. S m i t h - M a -
ria Lacarra 1994. "Ovulation and follicular development asso-
ciated with three low-dose oral contraceptives: A randomized
controlled trial", Obstetrics and Gynecology 83: 29-34.)
As can be seen, what these results might mean for a practicing gynecol-
ogist is not even touched upon.
The Swedish medical abstracts in English closely resemble the Amer-
ican texts in that they are also mainly concerned with scientific investi-
gations and their results. However, they show less concern for situating
the research via stating the purpose, aim, or objective of the study.
As a result, they have more of an in medias res character than the
American abstracts. This is, for example, how one of the Swedish
abstracts starts:
(11) 'Specimens of the human uterine artery and its branches were
taken at hysterectomy. 2By microscopical dissection, three
groups of arteries were obtained with respect to size — main
stem, medium and small branches (inner diameters of >1, 0.6—
0.8, and <0.4 mm, respectively). 3 The contractile effects of dif-
ferent vasoactive substances were studied and the responses ex-
pressed as percentages of that of K^-depolarization calculated.

4
The most potent vasoconstrictor (the lowest EC50 concentra-
tion) war arginine vasopressin (AVP) followed in order by en-
dothelin, oxytocin, prostaglandin (PG)F2a, noradrenalin and
dopamine.
While both groups of medical abstracts in English devote space to

describing the study design, procedures, and results, only the American
abstracts give attention to the overall setting of the research reported,
but even here they do this more in terms of adding to knowledge than of
suggesting practical importance. The importance and interestingness of
the studies seem mostly to be taken for granted, and it is hard to notice
any explicit fight for research space or readership. There are no direct
references to other research, and in general the authors do not posit in-
complete knowledge or understanding. The abstracts are also quite im-
personal. First person pronouns or other references to the author(s) are
scarce (but not totally debarred), and the passive rate is high (cf. Appen-
dix B).
Comparing the three groups of medical abstracts, we therefore do not
find - as in the case of the biology abstracts - a strong multinational
standard for journal abstracts in medicine. But we do not find a clear
pattern of national proclivities either. Instead it seems to be more a case
of different genres. Both subgroups in English contain abstracts accom-
panying fairly "normal" research articles, while the articles in Swedish
are not primarily devoted to presenting the latest developments and find-
ings in medical research, instead addressing issues of more general and
practical importance for practicing physicians.
This is not a situation unique to medicine. As science becomes more
internationalized it also becomes more Anglophone. In the case of Swe-
den there are several areas where scientific articles {stricto sensu) are no
longer published in Swedish. Telling examples of this trend are the facts
that the leading journal of technology during the first half of this century,
Teknisk Tidskrift [Journal of Technology], no longer exists, and that the
foremost economics journal, Ekonomisk Tidskrift [Journal of Economics],
stopped using Swedish altogether in 1966 and consequently changed its
name to The Swedish Journal of Economics (later The Scandinavian Jour-
nal of Economics). In science and technology the remaining journals pub-
lishing in Swedish seem to be aiming at slightly peripheral groups of
consumers of research and other kinds of applied users.
3.3. The linguistics abstracts

Within linguistics, the variation between the language groups is quite
marked, especially in rhetorical terms. The Swedish language abstracts
exhibit considerable intragroup variation with regard to both form (cf.
the variation in length noted above in section 2) and content. Some of
them are fairly "normal" summaries of the most important points:
1
(12) Denna uppsats beskriver arbetet med att koda ett autentiskt
talspräksmaterial i ett antal betydelsekategorier. 2Materialet är
ett stickprov ur en stor talspräkskorpus som innehäller 66
försökspersoners, barn och vuxna, beskrivningar av upplevda
stillikheter i konstbilder och barnteckningar. 3Uppsatsen be-
handlar dels upprättandet av kategorischema och kodningsma-
nual, dels resultatet av tre oberoende bedömares kodning. 4Upp-
satsen tar sin utgängspunkt i att det räder en konflikt mellan ä
ena sidan inherenta drag i autentisk spräkanvändning (spräket
är vagt, mängtydigt och antydande) och ä andra sidan de krav
som gängse vetenskaplig metodik ställer pä betydelsebaserad
klassificering av yttranden (precision, entydighet, objektivitet).
5
Denna konflikt aktualiserar en rad semantiska problem som
diskuteras iuppsatsen (Gustavsson, Lennart 1983. "Form,
färg eller mittemellan. Om semantiska problem vid kodning
av autentiskt talspräk", Arbetsrapporter frän Tema Κ [Work-
ing Papers from Tema Κ] 1983: 4. Linköpings universitet.)
[^This essay describes the work of encoding an authentic ma-
terial of spoken language in a number of semantic categories.
2
The material is a representative sample from a large corpus
of spoken language which contains the descriptions from 66
persons, children and adults, of experienced similarities of
style in pictures of art and children's drawings. 3 The essay
deals with both the establishment of a scheme of categories
and a coding manual, and the result of three independent
judgers' encoding. 4 The starting point of the essay is that there
is a conflict between, on the one hand, inherent features of
authentic language use (language is vague, ambiguous and im-
plicational) and, on the other, the requirements that common
scientific methodology puts on a semantic classification of ut-
terances (precision, nonambiguity, objectivity). 5 This conflict
brings up a number of semantic problems that are discussed
and exemplified in the essay: ...]
Other abstracts, however, have a rather different appearance. For ex-

ample, one starts with a kind of story: 7
(13) I en stor nationell Studie rörande matematikundervisningen

förekom bl a uppgiften [...] Uppgiften förefaller enkel men i
äk 6 var det bara 7% av eleverna som klarade den ...
[In a large national study regarding the teaching of mathemat-
ics, among other things the task ... occurred. The task may
appear simple, but in 6th grade only 7% of the pupils could
solve it ...]
There are no citations of other work in these abstracts, and in other ways
as well the authors do not seem to try to place their work in the context of
previous research. There are some attempts to state that the study solves a
problem or is otherwise important, but these moves are not strongly
marked: they are sometimes placed rather late in the text (cf. example 12,
where the content is related first and the "starting point" - that there is a
conflict between the messiness of real language data and the neatness re-
quired by scientific method - is presented at the end, in sentences 4 - 5 ) . An
impersonal stance dominates: there are only two references to the author(s)
(by the first person pronouns jag Τ and Vart 'Our'), and the number of
passives is high. They do, however, make quite frequent metatextual refer-
ences to the paper they accompany. One peculiar feature of these refer-
ences, occurring in eight out of twelve, is the use of the definite article,
rather than the expected demonstrative pronoun: Rapporten belyser 'The
report illuminates', Studien visar 'The study shows' (see also sentences 1, 3,
4, and 5 in example 12, and sentence 3 in example 9).
The linguistics abstracts by Swedes in English are more uniform. They
focus mostly on methods and results and devote very little space to intro-
ductions and conclusions (although conclusions appear slightly more fre-
quently than introductions). A typical example:
J
(14) The article deals with Themes (the function associated with
left-dislocated structures) and Tails (the function associated
with right-dislocated structures) in English conversation. 2The
noun phrase is placed as Theme in "our maths chap he is an
Indian" and as Tail in "they very often are these Eastern Euro-
peans". 3It is shown that Themes and Tails are functionally dif-
ferent phenomena. 4Themes are explained interactionally in
terms of the negotiation of information which takes place be-
tween speaker and hearer, while Tails are associated with the
interpersonal or polite function of speech. (Aijmer, Karin. 1989.
"Themes and tails: The discourse functions of dislocated ele-
ments", Nordic Journal of Linguistics 12: 137—154.)
As with the earlier subcorpora, these abstracts are largely disengaged

from other work and scientific controversy: there are only five references
in total, few instances of first-person pronouns or similar references to
the author(s), and a high frequency of passive voice. As with the linguis-
tics abstracts in Swedish, however, these abstracts make comparatively
frequent metatextual references to their papers (we also find here exam-
ples of what in this corpus seems to be typically Swedish definite article
constructions: "The paper presents", "The article deals with").
Most of the texts in the final group (the American abstracts) contain
all the fundamental rhetorical parts of a research article. Especially strik-
ing is the amount of rhetorical work carried out in the opening sentences:
1
(15) A crucial event in the historical evolution of scientific English
was the birth of the scientific journal. 2This event, and its early
rhetorical consequences, have been well described in recent re-
search. 3In contrast, few details are known concerning subse-
quent developments in scientific writing from the eighteenth cen-
tury onward. 4In this paper, the changing language and rhetoric
of medical research reporting over the last 250 years are charac-
terized and the underlying causes of these changes investigated.
5
Research articles from the Edinburgh Medical Journal, the old-
est continuing medical journal in English, constitute the corpus
in this study. 6Sampling took place at seven intervals between
1735 and 1985, with two types of data analysis being performed:
rhetorical text analysis focusing on the broad genre characteris-
tics of articles; and linguistic analysis of these articles' registral
features using Biber's system of text analysis.
7
Results indicate that the linguistic!rhetorical evolution of medi-
cal research writing can be accounted for on the basis of the
changing epistemological norms of medical knowledge, the
growth of a professional medical community, and the periodic
redefinition of medicine vis-ä-vis the non-medical sciences. (At-
kinson, Dwight. 1992. "The evolution of medical research
writing from 1735 to 1985: the case of the Edinburgh Medical
JournaF\ Applied Linguistics 13 (4): 337-374)
In the first paragraph we can see most of the important moves of an

article introduction (as they are summarized in Swales 1990: 141): claim-
ing of centrality (SI); reviewing items of previous research (S2); indicat-
ing a gap (S3); announcing present research (S4). The next two para-
graphs give information that basically corresponds to three of the stan-
dard parts of a research article: material and methods, results, and discus-
sion/conclusion.
In sharp contrast to the other groups of abstracts, the American lin-
guistics abstracts also frequently establish their relationship to other re-
search. This is done in several different ways. The most obvious is direct
references to other work:
(16) ... the Kintsch and van Dijk text-processing model (1978) ...
(17) The formal study of such practices [a footnote with nine refer-
ences follows]
Sometimes the intertextual relationship expressed is more general, but

the author still seems to relate to a particular study (or set of studies),
and the lack of direct references appears to be mainly the result of space
limitations:
(18) The current interest in ...
(19) ...the current treatment of oral language in the literature on ...
Finally, there are quite broad and unspecified comments such as:
(20) My findings indicate a need for analysis re-evaluating basic con-

cepts ... my findings call for revision of current materials for
teaching ...
In comparison to the two other disciplines, then, the linguistics ab-

stracts show a clear tendency toward national proclivities. Although on
the language surface they show some similarities (the use of the present
tense, high frequency of passives, few negative statements), in rhetorical
terms they are definitely different. The American abstracts in particular
stand out with their clear framing of the research, positioning with re-
spect to previous studies, and so on, but there are also differences be-
tween the two groups of Swedish provenance: those in Swedish do not
seem to follow any established schema, while those in English are rather
closed in on themselves, stating what has been done but only occasionally
making any self- (or other-) evaluation.
4. Discussion
The question posed by our title is whether national or disciplinary pro-

clivities are most important in forming the rhetorical and linguistic struc-
ture of abstracts. The general answer we can offer on the basis of this
study is that it seems to depend on the field. Within linguistics there
appear to be strong national or cultural differences, within biology re-
markable homogeneity, and within medicine a rather uncertain picture.
Table 2 summarizes the basic rhetorical structure of the abstracts in our
corpus, which in turn corroborates our general answer.
Table 2. Basic rhetorical structure
Biology Medicine Linguistics
Sw-Sw methods --results problem- varying

recommendation
Sw-Eng methods - results methods - results— methods—results—
conclusions (conclusions)
American methods--results Structured: introduction-
objective—methods - material/
results—conclusions methods - results -
conclusions
Whether there are grammatical and structural differences between the

abstracts of Swedes writing in English and writing in Swedish can on the
whole be answered negatively. There are exceptions to this, however. One
is the different character of the Läkartidningen abstracts, but this differ-
ence can almost certainly be ascribed more to "house rules" than to the
wider socio-rhetorical context. The second is that the linguists writing
abstracts in Swedish seem to be more "idiosyncratic" than those writing
in English. The third is more interesting: the fairly common Swedish
practice of making reference to the accompanying paper by use of the
definite article instead of a demonstrative pronoun (a construction never
used by the Americans). Such constructions emphasize the distinction
between the abstract and the article and give the abstracts a slightly de-
tached status. We tentatively conclude that the American authors, in con-
trast to the Swedish, seem to view the abstract as an integral part of
their publishing efforts, not as a loosely attached summary of the most
important results of the "real" article.
The fact that Swedes seem to look upon the abstracts more as indepen-
dent units than as a part of the article is perhaps related to the factor
introduced by the third issue of the possible effects of discourse com-
munity size and pressure. The abstracts in Swedish (which, of course,
address a much smaller discourse community than those in English) show
several traits that might be attributed to such circumstances. Abstracts
seem to have a more peripheral status in Swedish, especially within lin-
guistics, where we even had difficulties completing the sub-corpus. It is
not unreasonable to assume that within Swedish linguistics author plus
title are likely to call up a more developed schema among the readers
than in larger, more anonymous communities, thus making at least the
"gatekeeping" function of abstracts less vital.
We have argued in this paper that comparative studies of abstracts
need to be undertaken with some care; indeed, we have learned some
lessons too late. Abstract subtype, specialty, language policy, and dis-
course community characteristics all interact in the making of these se-
ductively short and rhetorically simple texts. Out of our nine subgroups,
only the American linguists make overt use of persuasive strategies. Out
of nine subgroups, only the American gynecologists are required to use
rhetorical subheadings. Most of the other abstracts have a "blow-off
character, a character we can recognize in areas where we are expert
members of the community (as in linguistics), and can impute in areas
where we are not (as in biology). Hartley (1994) finds that students - as
apprentices — can process abstracts better if they are given more struc-
ture, and we suggest that writers of journal abstracts might do well to
adopt a more persuasive and structured "intellectual style" in the first
paragraph they present to their readers — especially if those readers are
distanced by specialization, geography, or language.
Appendix A: Journals used
For a complete list of the analyzed abstracts, please contact the first author.
Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica
Acta Obstetrica et Gynecologica Scandinavica
Applied Linguistics
Arbetsrapporter frän Tema Κ [Working papers from tema Κ]
Bulletin OEPP EPPO Bulletin
Läkartidningen [Doctors' Newsletter]
Nordic Journal of Linguistics
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology
Potato Research
Sprak och bild i läroböcker. The state of the art. Dokumentation frän en konferens den 17 jan
1992 [Language and pictures in textbooks]
Växtskyddsnotiser [Notes on plant protection]
Appendix B: Quantitative results
Table Al. Tense-use in percent of the total number of finite verb instances
Sw-Sw present (41.7%) present (95.2%;1 present (86.7%)

past (34.6%)
Sw-Eng past (83.3%) past (84.7%) present (95.4%)
American past (76.5%) past (72.8%) present (74%)
Table A2. Passives (percent of finite verbs)
Biology Medicine Linguistics Mean
Sw-Sw 40.2 30.7 24.8 31.9

Sw-Eng 40.5 44.1 39.5 41.4
American 27.8 27.0 34.0 29.6
Mean 36.2 33.9 32.8 34.3
Table A3. Number of negatives
Sw-Sw 9 1 7
Sw-Eng 8 11 3
American 20 8 6
Table A4. Number of explicit references to own article
Sw-Sw 1 2 12
Sw-Eng 0 7 9
American 0 1 0
Table A5. Number of first person pronouns
Sw-Sw 3 2 2
Sw-Eng 0 2 2
American 0 6 8
Notes
1. We thank Eija Ventola for valuable comments on an earlier draft of this study.
2. One part of the corpus needs to be further commented upon. Linguistics abstracts in
Swedish are considerably harder to find than are the other abstracts. None of the leading
suitable Swedish journals (such as Nysvenska studierlSpräk och Stil [Studies in Modern
Swedish/Language and Style]) publish abstracts with articles, and the same rule applies
to other, more broadly defined linguistic journals (e. g., Spräkvärd [Language Planning]
or Moderna spräk [Modern Languages]). We also looked at Finnish journals in linguis-
tics, but the abstracts therein were written in either English or German, none in Swedish.
Therefore, we have only been able to locate eight Swedish linguistics abstracts, mostly
collected from a series of "working papers" called Arbetsrapporter frän Tema Κ [Working
Papers from Tema Κ],
3. In fact one of the Swedish language texts does contain three instances of vi ,we'; however,
these refer not to the researchers, but to the general situation of "We here in Sweden".
4. In correspondence with the editor, we discovered that authors of articles in Läkartid-
ningen are instructed to "betona nyheter och kliniska konsekvenser" [emphasize news
and clinical consequences] in the abstract.
5. As with the biology abstracts, the only two examples of first-person pronouns in this
subgroup have a very general reference - "We (doctors) in Sweden".
6. It should be noted, however, that the single remaining metatextual reference is made by
a more normal demonstrative pronoun: I denna översikt ,Ιη this survey'.
7. Fredrickson and Swales (1994) found that linguistics journals in Swedish begin with an
introductory story more frequently than might be expected. Given the relative rarity
of abstracts in this discourse community, there may be some sort of transfer of genre
characteristics here. Note that the variation found in this sub-corpus is also indicative
of unstable genre conventions.
References
Bazerman, Charles
1988 Shaping written knowledge: The genre and activity of the experimental article
in science. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Berkenkotter, Carol-Thomas Huckin
1995 Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: Cognitionlculture/power. Hills-
dale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Cmejrkovä, Svetla-Frantisek D a n e s - E v a Havlovä (eds.)
1994 Writing vs. speaking: Language, text, discourse, communication. Tübingen:
Gunter Narr Verlag.
Cmejrkovä, Svetla-Frantisek Sticha (eds.)
1994 The syntax of sentence and text (A festschrift for Frantisek Danes). Amster-
dam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Delia Volpe, Angela (ed.)
1991 The Seventeenth LACUS Forum 1990. Lake Bluff, IL: LACUS.
Fredrickson, Kirstin—John Swales
1994 "Competition and discourse community: introductions from Nysvenska
studier", in: Britt-Louise Gunnarsson-Per Linell-Bengt Nordberg (eds.), 9—
22.
Graetz, Naomi
1985 "Teaching EFL students to extract structural information from abstracts",
in: Jan M. Ulijn-Anthony K. Pugh (eds.), 123-135.
Gunnarsson, Britt-Louise—Per Linell—Bengt Nordberg (eds.)
1994 Text and talk in professional contexts. Selected papers from the international
conference "Discourse and the Professions", Uppsala, 26-29 August, 1992.
(ASLA skriftserie nr 6.) Uppsala: ASLA.
Gutkowski, Janusz-Alexander Urquhart
1988 The structure of genetics abstracts. [Unpublished MS.]
Hartley, James
1994 "Three ways to improve the clarity of journal abstracts", British Journal of
Educational Psychology 64: 331-343.
Huckin, Thomas
1994 Abstracting from abstracts. [Unpublished MS.]
Johns, Tim
1992 "It is presented initially: Linear dislocation and inter-language strategies in
Brazilian academic abstracts in English and Portuguese", Ilha do Desterro 27:
9-32.
Jordan, Michael
1991 "The linguistic genre of abstracts", in: Angela Delia Volpe (ed.), 507-527.
Myers, Greg
1990 Writing biology: Texts in the social construction of scientific knowledge. Madi-
son: University of Wisconsin Press.
Najjar, Hazem
1989 Scientific Arabic: The agricultural research article. [Unpublished Ph.D. disser-
tation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.]
Nwogu, Kevin
1990 Discourse variation in medical texts: Schema, theme and cohesion in profes-
sional and journalistic accounts. (Monographs in Systemic Linguistics 2.) De-
partment of English Studies, University of Nottingham.
Salager-Meyer, Frangoise
1990 "Discoursal flaws in medical English abstracts: A genre analysis per research-
and text-type", Text 10 (4): 365-384.
1992 "A text-type and move analysis study of verb tense and modality distribution
in medical English abstracts", English for Specific Purposes 11: 93-113.
Selzer, Jack (ed.)
1993 Understanding scientific prose. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
St. John, Maggie Jo
1987 "Writing processes of Spanish scientists publishing in English", English for
Specific Purposes 6:113-120.
Swales, John
1990 Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cam-
1993 Citation, research space, and program space: The case of LS A abstracts. [Un-
published MS.]
Swales, John-Christine Feak
1994 Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks and skills. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press.
Swales, J o h n - H a z e m Najjar
1987 "The writing of research article introductions", Written Communication 4:
175-192.
Ulijn, Jan M.—Anthony K. Pugh (eds.)
1985 Reading for professional purposes. Leuven: ACCO.
Velho, L e a - J o h n Krige
1984 "Publication and citation practices of Brazilian agricultural scientists", Social
Studies of Science 14: 45-62.
Ventola, Eija
1994 a "From syntax to text: Problems in producing scientific abstracts in L 2 ", in:
Svetla Cmejrkovä—Frantisek Sticha (eds.), 283-303.
1994b "Abstracts as on object of linguistic study", in: Svetla Cmejrkovä-Frantisek
D a n e s - E v a Havlovä (eds.), 333-352.
Research article introductions in Malay:
Rhetoric in an emerging research community
Ummul K. Ahmad
1. Introduction
With the growing internationalization of the scientific community and
the ever increasing anglicization of academic scholarship, more and more
researchers from nonnative English speaking backgrounds are competing
for academic recognition while expressing their scholarly ideas in a lan-
guage other than their own. The linguistic barriers faced by nonnative
English speaking scientists and researchers are real; as student-research-
ers, those who possess heavy traces of alien patterns in their communica-
tive skills are subjected to extra hours of intensive language training. As
active researchers in the field, they may not get the optimal opportunity
to publish their work internationally if it is coded in a rhetorical style
other than English.
Due in part to this fact, there is now a growing body of literature in
academic writing that focuses on describing, comparing, and contrasting
discoursal and rhetorical patterns of academic writing across languages
and cultures. Since writing is undeniably a social act, scholars naturally
formulate their thoughts and ideas according to the discourse community
to which they belong. They also work within different sociocultural and
socio-rhetorical parameters that directly influence the way their argu-
ments and ideas are organized.
This paper presents some early findings from ongoing research work
on the nature of cross-cultural variation in academic writing within the
genre of scientific research articles. The work reported here is a prelimi-
nary attempt to analyze in depth the nature of contemporary academic
discourse in Malay as found in published scientific and technical research
papers written by Malaysian academics. This study is primarily motivated
by the large gaps in information on discourse analysis of scholarly Malay
in general. The study seeks to answer one main, general question: what
are the linguistic and rhetorical characteristics of academic Malay as
found in published scientific and technical research articles in Malaysia? 1
In this preliminary study, I will focus my analysis on the rhetorical and
informational structure of the introduction sections of scientific research
274 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
papers. Through this study, I hope to take some tentative steps toward
exploring some linguistic, discoursal, and rhetorical elements in Malay
research articles, and toward comparing them to those that have already
been established in English and other languages. I thus hope to create a
foundation for further research on contrastive rhetorical analysis between
English and Malay scientific research articles.
In section 2 I will discuss briefly the development of Malay as an aca-
demic language in Malaysia. Section 3 discusses in detail the chosen
framework for this study, and reviews previous studies on the rhetorical
move patterns in research articles across languages and cultures. In sec-
tion 4 I will detail the data collection and methodology of the study. Here
I will provide more information on the corpus: the types and the fields
of research from which the data originate. In the results and discussion
section I will discuss in detail the macro-rhetorical and informational
structure of the introduction, the pattern of rhetorical moves made by
Malay research article writers. In discussing these findings, I will make
cross-language comparisons with the findings of other studies currently
available in the literature.
2. Malay as an academic language
In colonial Malaya, the local Bahasa Melayu (lit., Malay language, here-
after referred to as Malay for brevity) had never been used to express
modern scientific thinking. Under the British rule, Malay was regarded
as sociolinguistically inferior to and less prestigious than English; func-
tionally, it was assumed to be deficient in lexical and terminological speci-
fication and specialization. As a medium of instruction, it was restricted
to elementary, vernacular, and religious education; its usage was confined
to limited, nonprestigious situations. (See Chai 1967; Roff 1967; Salleh
1980; Khoo 1991; Jaafar et al. 1992; Mohd. Tahir 1987; and Johan 1984
for summaries of the history of Malay education, and the development
of modern Malay language and literature during the colonial period.) Yet
the newly independent government of the then Federation of Malaya
proclaimed in Article 152 of its constitution that the national language
would be the Malay language, and that it would gradually replace Eng-
lish as the official language over the ten years following the end of British
rule in 1957.
Considerable progress in this direction has been achieved since then.
Malay finally became the sole medium of instruction in all subjects, from
Research article introductions in Malay 275
elementary schools through university level, in 1983. In addition, many

studies have been undertaken on the post-independence language devel-
opment of modern Malay. These generally focused on topics of language
planning, language standardization, and the implementation of modern
Malay as the national language as well as the medium of instruction in
Malaysian educational institutions. (See Omar et al. 1981; Omar 1975,
1979, 1983, 1985, 1987 b, 1992; Hassan 1981, 1987 a and b, 1988; Karim
1971, 1989 for collections of papers and individual studies on this sub-
ject.) A number of studies focused specifically on the challenges of teach-
ing various academic subjects in Malay at university levels: i. e., Smith
(1981) for social sciences, Voon et al. (1981) for geography, Suhaimi
(1981) for natural sciences, Soepadmo (1981) for biology, Mohamed Zain
(1981) for mathematics, and Nik (1981) for law. Unfortunately, these
studies concentrated for the most part on the development of lexical
items, such as the coining of new terminologies in social sciences as well
as in science and technical subjects, and other linguistic complexities that
came with the process, rather than on broader rhetorical concerns of the
teaching and writing of academic Malay as a language.
Although Malay has been used as the medium of instruction for social-
science subjects at the tertiary levels much longer than for science and
technical subjects, there has only been lukewarm interest from scholars
in studying the discourse of academic texts. Indeed, intensive studies fo-
cusing on the discourse analysis of modern academic Malay are rare; the
few that exist are largely inaccessible since they are generally masters'
theses produced in local universities (e. g., Nathesan's 1992 study on lin-
guistic registers in history textbooks for Malaysian schools).
In general, studies published on modern academic Malay are more
concerned with the "register" of academic texts; this is considered
through analysis of lexis, grammaticality, syntax, and cohesive devices.
Omar (1981, 1987) explores the morphological and phonological trans-
formations in the formation of academic terms in various subjects in
Malay based on borrowed items and loan-words from other languages.
Karim (1989) focuses her analysis on syntax: types and patterns of sen-
tences commonly found in academic texts and their frequency of occur-
rence. These studies however, were not based on a well-defined corpus
classified according to one or more specific genres; nor did they focus on
the socio-rhetorical function of the texts within a larger linguistic perspec-
tive. Consequently, these earlier studies on academic Malay have little
direct relevance for the work presented here.
Perhaps the only comprehensive work on academic Malay that specifi-
cally aims at analyzing academic texts is Omar (1987). Even so, the focus
276 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
of this book remains at the structural and lexical levels: the analysis of
morphophonemics and the morphographemic transformations in scien-
tific Malay terminology formations, the formation of noun and verb
phrases, etc. However, in the final chapter of the book, Omar focuses her
analysis on lexical devices commonly employed in academic texts in order
to achieve textual coherence and cohesion, such as endophoric and ana-
phoric pronouns, adverbials, conjunctions, paraphrase, and repetition.
The book nonetheless has considerable importance, as it paves the way
for more detailed studies in the future.
3. Analytical framework
3.1. Underlying rhetorical pattern of research articles

Research articles have been the target of scrutiny in the field of teaching
English for Science and Technology (EST), driven partly by the quest for
a legitimate foundation on which to build explicit teaching materials that
would characterize EST texts based on hard textual evidence. Indeed,
studies examining the textual properties of English research articles are
too numerous to be listed here. Swales (1990) reviews the studies carried
out up to the late 1980s. Since then, several other studies have contributed
further to our understanding of the complex nature of research articles:
on the distribution and discourse functions of marked theme at the onset
of sentences (Gosden 1992); on the selection of reporting verbs (Thomp-
son-Ye 1991); and on expressions of evaluations (Hunston 1993).
A group of studies have focused specifically on analyzing the rhetori-
cal structure of specific parts of research articles: Bruce (1983) and Wood
(1982) study the method sections of medical and chemistry research arti-
cles respectively; Hopkins and Dudley-Evans (1988) look at the rhetorical
structure of discussion sections in research articles and dissertations; and
Thompson (1993) analyzes the rhetorical moves in results sections of bio-
chemistry texts. However, the introduction section of the research articles
has received the most attention over the years.
Most of the studies done on the introduction section of research arti-
cles have been inspired by the seminal study by Swales (1981, 1990).
Swales postulates three underlying move-step patterns, collectively
known as Create a Research Space (CARS). The model shows preferred
sequences of moves and steps, which are largely predictable in article
introductions; it also explores the relationships between forms and func-
tions by giving the common or typical linguistics exponents and signals

(see Bhatia 1993 for a lengthy discussion of the form-function correla-
tion). The CARS Model is presented in Figure 1.
Move 1 Establishing a territory
Step 1 Claiming centrality

and/or
Step 2 Making topic generalization(s) Declining
and/or
rhetorical
Step 3 Reviewing items of previous research effort
Move 2 Establishing a niche
Step 1 A Counter-claiming
or
Step 1 Β Indicating a gap
or
Step 1 C Question-raising Weakening
or knowledge
Step 1 D Continuing a tradition claims
Move 3 Occupying a niche
Step 1 A Outlining purposes

or
Step 1 Β Announcing present research
Step 2 Announcing principle findings Increasing
Step 3 Indicating R A structure explicitness
Figure 1. A C A R S model for article introductions (Swales 1990: 141)
The moves described in the CARS model may not appear in their
canonical order. Crookes (1986), Hopkins and Dudley-Evans (1988), and
Swales and Najjar (1989) have all pointed out that moves 1 and 2 may
appear in a cycle depending on the length of the introduction as well as
on the field of research.
3.2. Previous studies on move analysis

The CARS model proposed by Swales has in fact been adopted by several
studies to analyze rhetorical strategies not only across disciplines, but
also across languages and cultures. Most of these studies have also used
materials from a rather wide range of research areas. Table 1 summarizes
the main features of previous studies on move analysis in research arti-
cles.
278 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
Table 1. Previous studies on moves in article introduction sections
Authors(s) # of RAs Areas of research Language(s)
1. Swales (1981) 48 Mixed English

2. Lopez (1982) 21 Mixed Spanish
3. Swales and Najjar 110 Physical Science English
(1987) Educ. Psychology
4. Najjar (1990) 48 Agriculture Arabic
5. Gnutzmann and 40 Linguistics English and German
Oldenburg (1991)
6. Taylor and Chen 31 Hard Sciences English and Chinese
(1991)
7. Duszak (1994) 40 Language English and Polish
8. Fredrickson and 26 Language Swedish
Swales (1994)
Swales (1981) analyzed the introductions of 48 research articles written

in English in the physical, medical, and social sciences. Forty of the ana-
lyzed research articles (83 percent) clearly had move 2 identified either
by indicating a gap, raising a question, or extending a finding. Lopez
(1982), studied 21 articles published in Spanish from Latin America from
various fields and found that only 12 (53 percent) had move 2. Najjar
(1990) examined 48 article introductions published in Arabic in agricul-
tural science and reported that only 13 of the 27 articles (48 percent) that
could fit within the CARS model had move 2. While their study was also
on article introductions, Swales and Najjar (1987) restricted their analysis
to the statements of principal findings (step 2 in move 3). Gnutzmann
and Oldenburg (1991) did a comparative study of the introductions and
conclusions of 40 articles written in English and German from two spe-
cific linguistic journals from the United States and Germany.
Taylor and Chen (1991) surveyed a total of 31 "hard science" papers
written in Chinese by Chinese writers (10), in English by Chinese writers
(10), and in English by native English-speaking writers (11). They had in-
teresting results; the major difference is not in move 2, but in the handling
of previous literature (move 1, step 3). Chinese scholars writing in English
and Chinese, unlike their English counterparts, tend to deemphasize the
summary of previous research, as they "find it less acceptable to identify by
name and to summarize the work of others whom they will then proceed to
'expose', as ... in the following move ... which focuses on the gaps or the
shortcomings in previous research" (Taylor-Chen 1991: 331).
Fredrickson and Swales (1994) studied 26 research articles published

by Swedish scholars in an academic journal on the modern Swedish lan-
guage, Nysvenska Studier. They found that only 14 had all three moves
identified in the CARS model. Twelve research articles had one move or
more missing; out of these twelve, nine did not have move 2. Interest-
ingly, the authors report that instead a majority within this latter group
had a story-like feature, carefully positioned at the beginning of the arti-
cle as an attention-getting device. They suggest that in a small discourse
community where there seems to be no competition for creating a re-
search space, scholars compete for readership. For Swedish writers, tell-
ing stories is one plausible way of making their article attractive to read-
ers from neighboring discourse communities or even readers from outside
of the academic community.
Duszak (1994) compares and contrasts the rhetorical strategies
adopted by Polish and English writers in 40 articles from various estab-
lished academic sources in Poland and the United States. She reports
that based on her corpus, the main difference between the two languages
lies in move 3: her Polish texts tend to understate and marginalize the
occupying-a-niche move as an "avoidance strategy", and Polish writers
are prone to announce their move 3 indirectly. Even more interestingly,
Duszak's analysis reveals that Polish writers are more concerned than
Anglo writers with making statements of what she calls "preparing the
tools" (1994: 307), where they make overt declarations of clarifying con-
ceptual terminologies as a strategic demonstration of their expertise in
the field. Polish writers also employ elaborate face-saving strategies by
explicitly announcing, from a rather defensive position, what they intend
or do not intend to say.
Indeed, the notion of "face" is highly relevant in studies of the moves
in research article introduction sections. For example, it is clear that
move 2 involves pointing out the weaknesses of previous research, deny-
ing earlier claims made by previous experiments done by others, and
making claims that may supersede other people's work. This claim-mak-
ing and claim-staking involves intricate socio-rhetorical moves, consti-
tuted as what Brown and Levinson (1987), in their classic work on the
pragmatics of politeness in face-to-face social interactions, call "face-
threatening acts". Myers (1989) in turn expands the use of politeness
devices to study the interaction between writers and readers in written
texts in 60 research articles on molecular biology. Even though he does
not focus specifically on the study of moves, it is clear that the strategies
used to challenge and to deny claims made by previous researchers are
280 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
the essential components in move 2 as identified in the CARS model.

Based on his corpus, Myers points out, inter alia, that the pronoun "we"
(when referring to the whole field vs. referring to the writer's self) is used
as a positive politeness device as well as an indicator of solidarity, espe-
cially when mitigating both claims and denials of claims. In contrast,
hedging, impersonal constructions, and strategic use of pessimism are
forms of negative politeness indicating the writer's deference to the dis-
course community.
4. Data and methodology

I have selected twenty research articles from various sources as the corpus
of this study. Fourteen research articles were chosen from the proceedings
of a 1991 seminar organized by a local university and the Ministry of
Science, Technology, and Environment of Malaysia. The fourteen re-
search articles were chosen at random, largely based on length (the
average is 6 pages) and experimental nature (conducted in laboratories),
though I later discovered that one research article is actually a report of
a longitudinal experimental case study. These fourteen research articles
were presented and discussed in seminars, and were later compiled in the
proceedings; the other six were published in journals produced by various
academic and research institutions around the country. A list of all the
sources is given in Appendix A. The research articles chosen are listed
under several broad categories of research fields: 7 from agriculture,
7 from biological sciences, 4 from applied science, 2 from engineering.
The majority of the research articles analyzed in this study are experimen-
tal in nature; they all involve some kind of laboratory experiments or
tests of some hypotheses, except for two that are case studies and one
that is quantitative in nature. For reasons of comparability, I have ex-
cluded articles that are in the form of reviews, that are mathematical in
nature, and articles written exclusively by nonnative speakers of Malay.
Academic journals in Malaysia are typically bilingual; most accept and
publish papers either in Malay or English. The circulation and distribu-
tion of the journals cited in this corpus, however, are not known. Nor is
the exact number of academic journals in active circulation in the country
available at this stage. Since scientific and technical research work and
research programs are relatively new endeavors in Malaysia, I suspect
that the number of active academic journals is small (but it may be grow-
ing); that they have a low volume number indicates their relatively recent
inception, and possibly their irregular publication schedule.
For the purpose of this study, I coded each of the introduction sections
according to Swales's (1990) CARS model for research article introduc-
tions. The coding of the moves was checked twice after the first attempt,
and only minor changes were made. Since there seem to be no systematic
differences between the move patterns and the subject areas or the types
of research, I will assume that these variables are not the determining
factors that influence the rhetorical moves chosen by the authors, and
therefore will not discuss them in this study.
5. Results and discussion

The analysis of the structure of the introduction sections of Malay re-
search articles in this corpus show a high resemblance to the rhetorical
and informational structures as discussed above for research published
in English. In fact, thirteen of the twenty research articles (65 percent)
have all three moves identified in the CARS model. Of these, seven follow
it religiously (1 - 2 - 3 ) ; four have cyclical moves where one or two of the
moves are repeated; one has a deviating ( 2 - 1 - 3 ) pattern; and one has
move 1 in its introduction section followed by moves 2 and 3 immediately
in the first three sentences in the Method section. However, six (30 per-
cent) of the research articles in this corpus have only moves 1 and 3.
Move 2 (establishing a niche) is notably missing. One research article
(5 percent) has only move 1 in its introduction section. This anomalous
research article offers no clear evidence of either move 2 or move 3; the
authors simply proceed to the Method section. The summary of findings
is illustrated in Table 2. The list of all the research articles analyzed in
this study is included in Appendix A.
In general, the Malay research articles in this corpus are written under
the standard paradigm or schema. They basically follow the Introduc-
tion, Method, Result, and Discussion (IMRD) format typically found in
English scientific research articles. Even though the I M R D has become
the most common structure adopted by researchers in many fields, sev-
eral variations may be found in different disciplines. Sixteen out of twenty
Malay research articles studied here collapsed their results and discussion
sections into one single section called Hasil dan Perbincangan 'Results
and discussions'. This is followed by another section called Kesimpulan
'Conclusion' or Rumusan 'Summary'. In addition to the I M R D headings,
282 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
Table 2. Structures of 20 introduction sections in Malay RAs
No. Area of Type # of # of # of Move/structure # of references

research auth. para. sent.
intro whole
1. App. Experi- 3 8 28 1-2-3 15 29

Chemistry mental
2. Biochemistry Exp. 3 2 6 1 —[2—3]-2-3 none 16
Nat. Resource
3. Biochemistry Exp. 4 5 15 2-1-3 7 11
Nat. Resource
4. Biochemistry Exp. 4 6 18 1 —2—[1 —2]—3 8 21
Nat. Resource
5. Agriculture/ Exp. 4 3 15 1 —2—[1 —2]—3 11 28
Environment
6. Agriculture/ Exp. 7 3 14 1 —2—[1 —2]—3 7 16
Veterinary
7. Agriculture/ Exp. 2 4 12 1-3 8 12
Microbiology
8. Biochemistry Exp. 2 4 12 1-3 8 25
Nat. Resource
9. Biochemistry Exp. 3 3 10 1-2-3 5 17
Nat. Resource
10. Agriculture/ Case 6 2 11 1 —[2—3]* 6 44
Technology Study
11. Agriculture/ Exp. 3 3 16 1-2-3 1 19
Microbiology
12. Biochemistry Exp. 4 5 9 1-3 4 11
Bioengineer.
13. Environment Exp. 1 4 16 1-3 4 12
Technology
14. Environment Exp. 2 3 14 1 4 5
Technology
15. Cancer Quanti- 1 3 13 1-2-3 6 13
Studies tative
16. Agriculture/ Exp. 2 3 6 1-2-3 3 12
Soil Science
17. Agriculture/ Case 2 3 16 1-3 none 2
Agronomics Study
18. Civil Exp. 1 5 18 1-2-3 2 14
Engineering
Table 2. Continued
No. Area of Type # of # of # of Move/structure # of references

research auth. para. sent.
intro whole
19. Mechanical Exp. 3 6 17 1-2-3 15 29

Engineering
20. Applied Exp. 3 3 10 1-3 3 5
Physics
Averages 3 3.9 13.9 6.5 17.5
* moves 2 and 3 appeared in the first three sentences of the method section.
eighteen out of twenty research articles have abstracts written in both

English and Malay; one has only a Malay abstract while the other has
only an English abstract. Sixteen research articles also end with an Ac-
knowledgment.
Example 1 reproduces an introduction section of a Malay research
article with a complex move pattern, in rough English translation, except
that citations have been indicated by the letter (R). The original division
of paragraphs has been preserved, and I have identified all the moves
and steps according to the CARS model. Sentence numbers have been
added. The original Malay text is included in Appendix B.
(1) Para Move- Key phrases

[RA #6] Step (my emphasis)
1-1 [1] Melioidosis is a disease caused by Pseu-

domonas pseudomallei infections in hu-
mans and animals (R). [2] In this country,
melioidosis is endemic in goats, sheep, and
pigs; the breeding of sheep and goats that
has been actively growing will be in jeop-
ardy if melioidosis is not controlled (R).
[3] The serum agglutination test (SAT)
which has been used to detect melioidosis
in animals is not very effective (R).
1-3 [4] Thomas et al. (1988), after reevaluating
four serology tests for diagnosing meli-
oidosis, suggested that indirect hemaglu-
284 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
tanation assessment (IHA) followed by

conformation through a complementary
tie test (CF) is suitable for diagnosing mel-
ioidosis in goats.
2— 1 Β [5] However, the CF test was found insensi-
tive to chronic melioidosis. [6] Besides,
these serology tests used surface cell anti-
gen P. pseudomallei which in general are
not specific. [7] A more specific tracing of
P. pseudomallei antigen is needed so that
sera diagnosis of melioidosis is more effec-
tive.
1—2 [8] Current evidence suggests that fatal

exotoxin P. pseudomallei has an important
role in the pathogenesis of melioidosis
(R).
2— 1 Β [9] Nonetheless it has yet to be confirmed if
exotoxin P. pseuomallei produced in vivo
follows the infection of P. pseudomallei.
1—3 [10] The detection of antitoxin antibodies
or exotoxin in serum can be done through
the ELISA technique (R) and is suitable
to be used for diagnosing melioidosis.
1—2 [11] Lately, it has been reported that sev-
eral goat and sheep farms in this country
face melioidosis problems (R).
3—IB [12] We take this opportunity to test the
presence of antitoxin antibodies in the se-
rum of the animals involved.
3—1 A [13] This is an effort towards establishing
a melioidosis diagnosis method. [14] The
detection of antitoxin and antihemolysin
antibody P. pseudomallei in sera of ani-
mals naturally infected with P. pseudomal-
lei is also important to verify the roles of
exotoxin in the pathogenesis of this bacte-
ria.
In example 1, move 2, step 1 Β (sentences 5 and 9) are interwoven with

move 1, step 3 (reviewing items of past literature) of sentences 4 and 10
respectively, and move 1 - 2 (making topic generalization) of sentence 8.
Move 3 (occupying the niche) comes at the very end of the introduction
section; it comprises merely three brief sentences announcing and out-
lining the present work. I will shortly discuss in greater detail the charac-
teristics of move 3 in Malay research articles.
Example 2 represents an introduction section that has no move 2 (see
Appendix C for the original Malay text).
(2) Para Move- Key phrases

1 1-2 [1] Alginate is a linear copolymer which

consists of ß-D-manuront and a-L-gulur-
onate bound by a glychocide 1—4 tie ...
2 1-2 [2] Polysaccharide alginate is synthesized
as the main ingredient in the cell wall of
brown seaweed (Phaeophyta) such as Sar-
gassum spp.
1-3 [3] Certain species such as Azato bacter vi-
nelandii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa have
also been reported to produce alginate
(R). [4] The composition of uronate and
its percentages are different not only be-
tween species but also within-species (R).
[5] Studies of different genera and dif-
ferent levels of growth will show different
results. [6] The seaweed habitation has
also been reported to influence the percen-
tage of alginate content.
3 1—2 [7] Alginate has been used widely especially

in food industries as a coagulant agent
and stabilizer. [8] From an industrial point
of view, the most important characteristic
of alginate is its capability of forming
thick solutions and gels in water. [9] This
characterization is influenced by the com-
286 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
position of uronate, while the ratio be-

tween M/G is the thickness index of the
formed gel in which the lower the M/G
ratio, the stronger and more brittle the gel
produced [R].
4 3 —IB [10] This research aims at looking at the

percentage ingredient variation and the
composition of alginate blocks from three
seaweeds of Sargassum species. [11] Varia-
tion within the same plants of different tis-
sue and of different stage of growth will
also be determined.
Further scrutiny of the results and discussion sections of this particular

research article has revealed that the writers did indeed find some other
additional factors that influence the composition of uronate and the
content of alginates in the three brown seaweeds studied and so justify
the research. However, the findings were announced only in the Results
and Discussion section. The missing move 2 phenomena will be discussed
in detail later.
5.1. Move 3 (occupying a niche) analysis

Besides the variations in move patterns, an interesting and persistent
pattern found in this corpus concerns statements that can be classified as
Move 3 in which the writers explicitly outline the purpose (step 1 A) or
announce their present research (Step 1 B). They may also opt to an-
nounce the major findings of their research article (Step 2), or simply
outline the structure of their research article (Step 3). However, most re-
search articles in this study merely give a general, rather vague, one-
sentence statement of the purpose of the research (Step 1). Further, only
one step 3 (indicating research article structure) is found in the corpus,
and there is no occurrence of step 2 (announcing principal findings). In
contrast, Swales and Najjar (1987) found that 45 percent of 66 physics
articles studied included Step 2, while Cooper (cited in Swales 1990)
noted than 10 out of 15 electronics/engineering articles announced the
research article structure (Step 3).
Example 3 is a fragment of an introduction that has an implicit an-
nouncement of the statement of purpose (move 3):
(3) Move- Key phrases

1—3 [1] Salah satu daripada spesies rumpai laut yang

kini semakin mendapat perhatian para penyelidik
kerana sumber agarnya ialah Gracilaria (Hansen
1984), yang secara perlahan-lahan mulai mengam-
bil tempat Gelidium ( Yang 1982). [2] Di bahagian
pantai barat Sabah, Gracilaria sp. ini didapati tum-
buh bermusim iaitu di antara bulan April hingga
Jun.
[1] One of the seaweed species that has attracted
the attention of many researchers due to its being
a potential source of agar is Gracilaria (R) which
is slowly beginning to replace Gelidium (R). [2] On
the western coast of Sabah, this Gracilaria sp. has
been found seasonally from April to June.
2—1 Β [3] Oleh kerana usaha untuk melakukan domesti-

kasi terhadap spesies ini dirasakan amat berguna di
masa hadapan, beberapa kajian asas seperti bio-
kimia, fisiologi, genetik malah pembiakan rumpat
laut ini perlulah diberi perhatian.
[3] It is felt that the domestication of this species
is important for the future; therefore several fun-
damental experiments such as biochemical, physi-
ological, and genetics experiments, even the culti-
vation of this seaweed, need to be given attention.
3— 1 A [4] Salah satu teknik ke arah usaha ini ialah mela-
(1—3) lui kultur tisu iaitu suatu kaedah yang begitu meluas
penggunaannya di dalam berbagai bidang biologi
(Street 1973).
[4] One of the techniques employed in this effort is
tissue culture, which is a method that is used
widely in the biological fields (R).
In this particular research article, the authors begin with a short history
of the development of seaweed cultivation into an important food source
in Asia. It is only in the third paragraph that the authors introduce the
red seaweed, Gracilaria sp., which is said to have become more popular
288 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
than any other type of seaweed. The writers do not explain the impor-
tance of documenting and studying this particular seaweed; perhaps it is
assumed that the target readers already share this information. The fact
that basic experiments need to be done on the seaweed implies that not
much research has been carried out on this subject (sentence 3). There-
fore, the writers are taking the initiative to provide the much-needed
information by carrying out a study on tissue culture of the red seaweed.
Sentence 4 is an indirect reference to the announcement of the present
research; it is only alluded to, never explicitly announced. It refers to a
popular technique that has been widely used in the field of biology
(Move 1, Step 3), but the same sentence also indirectly announces that
tissue culture will be the technique adopted in the experiment described
in the research article. Following this paragraph, the writers jump
straight ahead to the method section.
In 40 percent of the research articles analyzed in this corpus, Move 3
merely consists of a one-sentence announcement of the aim of the paper,
in a rather broad and highly generalized manner, without further elabora-
tion or detail. These sentences are usually situated at the very end of the
Introduction section, before the authors move to the Method section.
Consider the following textual fragments:
(4-6) Move- Key phrases

Step (my emphasis)
3—1 A Ini telah mendorong penyelidikan ini dijalankan,

untuk mengkaji fenomena, jerapan anion sulfat
oleh tanah-tanah Malaysia. [RA #16]
[This has motivated this research to be carried out,
to study the phenomena of sulphate ions absorption
by Malaysian soils.]
3-1 Β Kertas ini akan membincangkan pengeksplotasian

tindak balas metatesis khususnya terhadap getah
asli dan minyak kelapa sawit. [RA #1]
[This paper will discuss the exploitation of metathe-
sis reactions specifically in natural rubber and
palm oil.]
3— 1 Β Penyelidikan ini telah dijalankan bagi memperolehi

maklumat pengaruh lokasi terhadap taburan seba-
tian-sebatian fitokimia yang dikaji. [RA #4]
[This research was carried out to gather more infor-

mation on the influence of location on the distri-
bution of phytochemical extracts studied.]
Compare the above examples with the following group of Moves 3. These
paragraphs (examples 7 - 8 ) represent the group of research articles that
have more explicit announcements of the purpose of their studies:

Step (my emphasis)
3—IB Selain dari membincangkan hasil kerja-kerja

pengecaman sebatian-sebatian organik berklorin
yang terdapat di dalam efluen [kilang] tersebut,
kertas ini juga memerihalkan hasilpenentuan corak
penyerakan efluen ini di Teluk Brunei, seperti yang
diperhatikan dalam tempoh September 1987 hingga
Disember 1988. [RA #13]
[Besides discussing the identifications of chlori-
nated organics found in the [mill] effluent, this pa-
per will also describe the pattern of effluent disper-
sion in Brunei Bay, based on observations made
from September 1987 to December 1988.]
3— 1 A Dengan hasrat untuk memperbaiki keadaan yang ti-

dak seimbang ini, satu penyiasatan percubaan meng-
gunakan teknik pengenalpastian parameter telah di-
jalankan .... Tujuan kertas ini adalah untuk
memperkenalkan beberapa ukuran percubaan pek-
ali-pekali redaman dan inersia bendalir terbaharu
.... [RA #19]
[With the intention of improving the unbalanced
situation, an experimental investigation using
parameter identification technique has been con-
ducted The purpose of this paper is to introduce
several new measures of experimental damping co-
efficients and fluid inertia ....]
In examples 7 - 8 above, the announcements of move 3 are more specific;

they also include descriptions of what the authors consider to be the main
290 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
features of their research articles, thus making the moves longer than
mere one-sentence announcements.
One final point: all Move 3s as found in this corpus stop short at
Step 1; further information about major findings is withheld until the
results and discussion sections. With the exception of one research article
which has Move 3, Step 3, there were few or no intertextual signals indi-
cating the structure of the research articles.
5.2. Move 2 (establishing a niche) analysis

Move 2 is a relatively recent phenomenon in English research article in-
troduction sections, according to Bazerman (1988) and Dudley-Evans
and Henderson (1990). The high percentage of research articles (35 per-
cent) in this corpus lacking move 2 is therefore especially intriguing.
In the relatively small academic community of Malaysian scientists,
where everybody may be familiar with the work of others in the com-
munity, and may share approximately the same domain of knowledge
and interest in what others are doing, writing and publishing research in
Malay is akin to writing to and for one's colleagues. Writing and publish-
ing research findings in Malay also means addressing a smaller, perhaps
merely local readership. Malay scholars writing for institutional publica-
tions may not be addressing their research findings to a larger interna-
tional audience. Thus, indicating a gap in others' research seems not to
be of prime concern here. Furthermore, in a developing country such as
Malaysia, where research activities in many areas are only at the begin-
ning stage, there are huge gaps wherever one turns. The metaphor of
competing for an ecological niche in a wider research ecosystem (Swales
1990) may not necessary apply here.
Having established that the Malaysian academic environment is some-
what different from its Western counterparts, I will now explore some
possible socio-rhetorical reasons that might have contributed to the dif-
ferent organizational structures in the introduction sections of the re-
search articles studied here. Unlike English research article writers, Ma-
lay research article writers seem on average to use more sentences to
introduce their research topic as defined by Move 1: by giving definitions;
by providing a brief history of the field and how it has been developed
in the West; and by explaining how a particular research project could
be recast using local materials for local consumption. Table 3 shows the
weight accorded to each move by the writers as indicated by the number
of sentences per move. The figures here are derived from only those re-
search articles that have all three moves specified in the CARS model
(n = 12).
Table 3. Average number of sentences per move
Moves Average # of sentence
1 8.5
2 3.25
3 2.6
While the numbers in the table are fairly typical of all studies of re-
search article introductions, Move 1 seems to be given slightly greater
emphasis in the corpus studied here. This seems especially true with areas
that are new or yet to be developed as a field of research in the country.
Research writers may feel they need to justify why such studies are impor-
tant to the country and therefore need to be developed, possibly also as a
means of justifying expenditure of public funds on lesser-known projects
involving obscure materials or subjects. They might even have felt com-
pelled to elaborate this move so as to educate and familiarize others out-
side their field.
Another important point to be observed from the data is that most of
the Move 2s made by Malay writers are of types Step 1 Β and Step 1 D —
indicating a gap and continuing a tradition, namely the one originating
from and involving the authority and valorization of the West. Most of
the Malay establishing-a-niche claims (Move 2) merely point out the lim-
ited (or nonexistent) research in the country on the particular topic. The
textual fragment in Example 9 will illustrate the point:
(9) Key phrases

[RA #1] (my emphasis)
Move 2 ... [ 1 ] Pendahuluan ringkas irti menunjukkan ba-
hawa tindak balas metatesis telah meluas digunakan
di negara-negara maju. [2] Oleh itu tidaklah men-
jadi mustahil untuk negara kita turut mengeksplo-
tasikan tindak balas tersebut terhadap barangan ko-
moditi utama seperti gas aslilminyak mentah, mi-
nyak kelapa sawit dan getah asli bagi menjadikan
ianya lebih kompetatif di pasaran. [3] Getah asli
dan minyak kelapa sawit berpotensi diubahsuai sec-
ara tindak balas ini disebabkan adanya kumpulan
olefin yang sedia ada di dalam bahan semulajadi
sebatian tersebut.
292 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
[... [1] This short introduction shows that metathe-

sis reaction has been used widely in advanced
countries. [2] It is therefore not impossible for our
country to also exploit the same reaction amongst
the primary commodity goods such as natural gas/
crude oil, palm oil, and natural rubber to make
them more competitive in the market. [3] Natural
rubber and palm oil have the potential to be modi-
fied through this reaction due to the natural pres-
ence of olefin substance in them.]
Move 3 [4] Kertas kerja ini akan membincangkan pengeks-
plotasian tindak balas metatesis khususnya terhadap
getah asli dan minyak kelapa sawit.
[[4] This paper will discuss the exploitation of the
metathesis reaction specifically to natural rubber
and palm oil.]
This "brief' introductory paragraph comes after a lengthy introduction

(six paragraphs long; about 25 sentences) discussing how the exploitation
of metathesis reaction of natural resources has been developed over the
years in more advanced and industrialized countries. The statements
about the natural resources (sentence 2) and their current potentials (sen-
tence 3) become the backdrop that leads to the motivation for carrying
out the study (sentence 4). Sentences 2 and 3 constitute Move 2, while
sentence 4 announces the present research (Move 3, Step 1 B). Notice also
that the authors choose a guarded, almost pessimistic stance (cf. Myers
1989) in sentence 2, "It is therefore not impossible for our country to
also exploit ..." in announcing the gap.
Other typical Move 2s are listed below. These moves may seem rather
evasive and diffident when compared to the Move 2s commonly found in
English research articles (cf. Swales 1990), as they do not really point to
specific research gaps or weaknesses. Malay research article writers in
these cases clearly do not face any pressure from fierce competition in
establishing a research space for themselves.

Step (my emphasis)
2-IB Kajian fitokimia di Sabah adalah terhad. Hanya
beberapa kajian sahaja pernah dilaporkan (R). Kaj-
ian yang telah dilaporkan merupakan penyelidikan
yang umum tehadap beberapa famili; tetapi kajian

khusus secara terperinci terhadap sesuatu genus
sahaja tidak pernah dilaporkan. [RA #4].
[Phytochemical studies in Sabah are limited. Only a
few studies have been reported (R). Studies that
have been reported are general research work on
several families; but a specific and detailed study on
a certain genus has never been reported.]
2—1 Β Pengekstrakan agen aktif biologi daripada tumbu-
han merupakan salah satu bidang penyelidikan
hasilan semulajadi yang belum begitu dipelopori
Penyaringan biologi merupakan satu bidang
yang mustahak tetapi agak ketinggalan di Malay-
sia. [RA #3],
[The extraction of active biological agents from
plants is one of the research areas in natural re-
sources which has not been explored much Bio-
logical extraction is an important area but still un-
developed in Malaysia.]
2— 1 D Selain POME, bahan enapcemar daripada sisa-sisa
buangan kawasan perumahan awam iaitu domestic
sludge (DS) telahpun digunakan secara meluas di
negara-negara barat bagi tujuan membaikpulih ta-
nah pertanian. Sehingga kini, Malaysia belum lagi
menjalankan usaha-usaha untuk mengeksploitasi-
kan penggunaan DS. [RA #5].
[Besides POME, sludge that comes from public
housing areas, i. e., domestic sludge (DS) has been
used widely in Western countries in the treatment
of agricultural soil. Till today, Malaysia has yet to
carry out the effort to exploit the use of Z)5.]
In the above examples, constant reference is made to the country's

needs and development in relation to a research program in some specific
area of studies. The popular target of comparison is always the "Western
countries".
Only two research articles in this corpus have a "stronger" version of
Move 2, Step 1 B, while one research article raised a doubt (Step 1 C)
about previous research findings of others. Compare the above Move 2s
with the following moves:
294 Ummul Κ. Ahmad

Step (my emphasis)
2- 1 Β Kedua-dua model diatas hanya mengambil-kira

pergerakan arah graviti. Pergerakan mengufuk ti-
dak langsung disentuh dengan mengambil kira ba-
hawa cecair sentiasa menyamakan arasnya apabila
ada keselanjaran. [RA #18]
[Both models above only took into account the di-
rection of gravity movement. Horizontal move-
ment was not considered at all by taking into ac-
count that liquid always equalizes its level when
there is parallel pressure.]
2-1 Β Walaupun kemajuan memahami secara teori kesan

inersia bendalir berkembang maju, persetujuan di
antara teori dan keputusan percubaan yang ada sec-
ara amnya adalah tidak memuaskan [R]. Dengan
hasrat untuk memperbaiki keadaan tidak seimbang
ini, satu penyiasatan percubaan menggunakan
teknik pengenalpastian parameter telah dijalankan.
Teknik ini menghasilkan pekali redaman dan inersia
daripada data ujian fana [RJ. [RA #19]
[Even though advanced theoretical understanding
of the theory of the effect of fluid inertia has devel-
oped well, the agreement between the theory and
the results of experiments in general is not satisfac-
tory [R]. With the intention of improving this un-
balanced situation, an experimental investigation
using the parameter identification technique has
been carried out. This technique produces damp-
ing coefficient and inertia from experimental free-
decay data. [R]
2— 1 C Bukti-bukti terkini mencadangkan bahawa eksotok-

sin maut R pseudomallei mempunyai peranan pent-
ing dalam patogenesis melioidosis (R). Namun de-
mikian setakat ini belum lagi disahkan sama ada
eksotoksin R pseudomallei dihasilkan in vivo beri-
kutan infeksi R pseudomallei. [RA #6]
[Current evidence suggests that the fatal exotoxin

P. pseudomallei has an important role in the patho-
genesis of melioidosis (R). Nonetheless, it has yet
to be confirmed if the exotoxin P. pseudomallei pro-
duced in vivo follows the infection of P. pseudo-
mallei.]
It is also interesting to note that a closer look at the first two research
articles (#18 and #19) indicates that the research was carried out outside
the country. Judging from the reference list, there is also an indication
that some version of the study has been written and published in English
with another English-speaking coauthor. Both research articles are in
fact, a part of the author's (in the case of RA #19, the first author's)
doctoral dissertation research. Evidence from the reference list of the
third example (RA #6) also suggests that the authors have published
their work in two international journals and have presented papers at
four international conferences on the same subject. These facts might also
explain the more confident "anglo-like" tenor of these research articles.
As discussed earlier, many research areas in Malaysia, some of them
pointed out earlier in my analysis of Move 2, are either new or have just
recently been developed at the local universities. The academics cited here
may be the first generation of Malaysian scholars doing this kind of
research locally; they basically face no local competition. Move 2 might
not be perceived in the same light if they were writing their research
findings in English for international publication and readership.
In the Malaysian university system, where areas of specialty are cen-
tered in only one or two institutions, subject specialists in many areas are
relatively few in number and they usually form a close-knit academic
relationship. To further illustrate this point, all agriculture and agricul-
ture-related subjects are taught mainly in Universiti Pertanian Malaysia
in Serdang, Selangor. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor Bahru spe-
cializes in physical sciences, technical, and engineering-related degree
courses. It is thus possible that move 2 may be truncated because writers
do not feel comfortable pointing out weaknesses of their colleagues, with
whom they might have "multiplex" relationships (Milroy-Milroy 1992),
especially as nonegalitarian practices and customs persist in Malaysian
academic communities. The close-knit relationships among researchers
might also allow them to assume much shared knowledge, in which case
mere mention of key words would suffice to trigger a chained informative
mental reaction related to the subject discussed in the paper.
296 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
One might also attribute the lack of Move 2 in a substantial number

of research articles in this corpus to the fact that the writers, being new
to the game, may still be in the early development stage of learning the
craft of research writing. Also, in fields with research interests new to the
country, it might be that the researchers do not have access to the wealth
of resources one might find in a more established field or in advanced
and more established laboratories and libraries. This is indeed suggested
by a count of the references cited for all of the research articles; they
average about 6.5 per research article introduction (as compared to 9.3
average for Anglo-American writers, 2.1 for Chinese scholars writing in
Chinese and 3.9 for Chinese scholars writing in English - in Taylor-
Chen 1991). Many of the references cited in this corpus are also more
than ten years old, and very few are from scholarly journals.
6. Conclusion
I have explored the organization of the rhetorical structure of scientific

research written in Malay by Malaysian academics. Specifically, I have
focused my study on the introduction section, using the CARS model
developed by Swales (1990). The results revealed that only approximately
65 percent of Malay research article introduction sections have the move
patterns commonly found in English research articles. The most signifi-
cant difference was found in Move 2 (establishing a niche); 35 percent of
the research articles did not have Move 2 in their introduction sections.
More importantly, those research articles that did have Move 2 described
and summarized, but rarely criticized or evaluated previous work of oth-
ers. Malay research article authors are also somewhat cautious and hesi-
tant in announcing their Move 3 (occupying a niche). In this corpus,
Move 3s generally constitute only a brief mention of the purpose of the
study, without giving further textual cues to the readers about what to
anticipate. The Malay research articles introductions studied here show
greater tolerance for ambiguity; there is no attempt to indicate the struc-
ture of the whole research article, nor is there evidence for the announce-
ment of principal findings. Duszak (1994) pointed out that Polish writers
too are more restrained in this respect than are Anglo research article
writers.
These differences may be attributed to the nature of the Malaysian
academic community itself. In general, Malay research article writers do
not feel the pressure of competing for a research space, especially when
writing for a small, local readership audience in Malay. Instead, the ma-
jority of research article writers studied in this corpus tended to concern
themselves more with establishing and justifying their subject as a valid
and rigorous area of research and with emphasizing Malaysia's need to
develop the same research programs as found in more developed coun-
tries in the West. This is due to the fact that quite a number of research
areas have only recently been introduced; these "new" research areas
have yet to develop a research tradition in Malay. Based on the limited
textual analysis of the corpus in this study, it seems evident that Malay
scientific research articles are still at the embryonic stage of developing
their own conventions, and that they may have modeled many features
after English research articles. Unlike Duszak (1994), who suggests that
Polish research articles may have been influenced by the German tradi-
tion, and Taylor and Chen (1991), who describe the influence of the an-
cient Chinese scientific rhetorics, pioneering research article writers in
Malay may have yet to develop a clearly established rhetorical convention
for academic scientific writings. Malay as the medium of scholarly re-
search publication for scientific and technical writings is a relatively new
phenomenon in Malaysia; it has yet to establish itself firmly there as it
has in other genres such as in literary Malay, or in religious or Malay
Studies writings.
Appendix A: List of sources studied
1. Mohd Ambar Yarmo-Arisol Alimuniar. 1991. "Pengeksplotasian tindakbalas metatesis

terhadap sumber asli negara" [Exploitation of metathesis reaction of natural resources],
in: Zakri A. Hamid-Ismail Sahid-Mohd. Noor Embi (eds.), Prioritipenyelidikan un-
tuk kemajuan sains dan teknologi: Bengkel IRPA-UKMpertama, 2—3 September, 1989,
Air Keroh, Melaka. [Research priorities for the advancement of science and technology:
the first IRPA-UKM workshop] 135-144. Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
2. Norhadi Ismail-Gires Usup-Fasihuddin Ahmad-Markus Awang. 1991. "Pengkult-
uran rumpai laut dan penggunaannya" [Cultivation and utilization of seaweed], in:
Zakri et al. (eds.), 8 0 - 8 8 .
3. Fasihuddin Ahmad - S a n t h y Veerasamy—Kamarudin Mat Salleh-Siraj Omar. 1991.
"Penyaringan fitokimia dan antibakteria ekstrak tumbuhan" [Phytochemical and anti-
bacterial screening of plant extracts], in: Zakri et al. (eds.), 7 1 4 - 7 2 0 .
4. Fasihuddin A h m a d - W . Ahmad Tukol-Kamarudin Mat Salleh-Siraj Omar. 1991.
"Penyaringan fitokimia ke atas spesies-spesies Goniothalamus di Sabah" [Phytochemical
screening of Goniothalanus spp.], in: Zakri et al. (eds.), 728-734.
5. Syed Omar Syed Rastan-Y. M. Khanif-Md. Ghazaly Saaban-Ahmad Badri Moha-
mad. 1991. "Kesan bahan-bahan enapcemar terhadap hasil dan pengambilan logam-
298 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
logam berat oleh tanaman bayam" [The effect of sludge on the yield and uptake of
heavy metal in spinach], in: Zakri et al. (eds.), 594-599.
6. Noor Embi-Siti R o h a n a - R a h m a h Mohamad—Sharifah Hamidah S. Mohammed-
Zamri S a a d - A n u a r Osman-Ghazally Ismail. 1991. "Eksotoksin Pseudomonas pseu-
domallei dan diagnosis melioidosis dalam biri-biri" [The exotoxin of Pseudomonas
pseudomallei and diagnosis of melioidosis in sheep], in: Zakri et al. (eds.), 368-375.
7. Ismail Sahid-Mohd. Azib Salleh. 1991. "Kesan penggunaan racun rumpai ke atas
aktiviti mikrob tanah" [Effects of weedicides on soil microbial activity], in: Zakri et al.
(eds.), 362-367.
8. Maria Abdul Latip-Fasihuddin Ahmad. 1991. "Variasi komposisi uronat dan peratus
kandungan alginat dari rumpai Sargassum spp" [Variation in uronate composition and
percentage content of alginates from brown seaweed Sargassum spp.], in: Zakri et al.
(eds.), 346-351.
9. Norhadi Ismail-Elisabeth Mengan James Tutong. 1991. "Kajian awal terhadap kultur
tisu rumpai laut merah, Gracilaria sp. (Rhodophyta: Gigarfinales)" [A preliminary
study of red seaweed tissue culture, Garcilaria sp. Rhodophyta: Gigartinales], in: Zakri
et al. (eds.), 339-345.
10. Hamid Lazan-Zainon Mohd. Ali-Aminah Abdullah-Osman Hassan-Mamat Shafie
Embong-Halimah A. Sani. 1991. "Ke arah memajukan teknologi selepas tuai komod-
iti-komoditi tropika segar di Malaysia: Stragtegi and perspektif" [Towards developing
the postharvest handling technology of fresh tropical commodities in Malaysia: strate-
gies and perspectives], in: Zakri et al. (eds.), 52-61.
11. Nor M. M a h a d i - M . Sanusi Jangi-Wan Mohtar YusofF. 1991. "Penghasilan bioinsek-
tisid Bacillus Thuringgiensis dan bakulovirus" [Production of the bioinsecticides Bacillus
Thuringiensis and baculovirus], in: Zakri et al. (eds.), 30-38.
12. Jalil K a d e r - O t h m a n O m a r - W a n Mohtar Yusoff-Fauzi Daud. 1991. "Penggunaan sei
dan penghasilan enzim bagi mengubah bahan-bahan berselulosa" [Cell utilization and
enzyme production to convert cellulose], in: Zakri et al. (eds.), 236-243.
13. Murtedza Mohamed. 1991. "Pencirian dan penyurihan efluen kilang pulpa dan kertas
SFI, Sipitang, Sabah" [The characterization and tracing of SFI pulp and paper mill
effluents], in: Zakri et al. (eds.), 756-762.
14. Jumat Saliman-Maimunah Sulaiman. 1991. "Kesan pencemaran logam berat ke atas
hidupan akuatik di sekitar lombong tembaga Mamut" [The effect of heavy metal pollu-
tion on aquatic life around Mamut copper mine], in: Zakri et al. (eds.), 770-778.
15. Abdul Aziz Jemain. 1992. "Kajian simulasi kadar negatif palsu dengan min masa kemb-
ara" [A simulated study on the rate of false negative with mean sojourn time], Sains
Malaysiana 21 (4): 27-39.
16. Zaharah A. Rahman—Samsiah Taib. 1980. "Jerapan sulfat oleh beberapa jenis tanah
Malaysia" [Sulphate absorption by some Malaysia soils], Pertanika 3 (2): 87-91.
17. O. Siti D o y a h - B . Ibrahim. 1987. "Kajian kes: Sistem tanaman sayur-sayuran di Mel-
aka" [Vegetable cropping system in Melaka: a case study], Teknologi Sayur-sayuran 3:
1-6.
18. Kamarudin Mohd Yusof. 1989. "Mekanisma aliran lembapan dalam konkrit keras"
[Mechanism of moisture movement in hardened concrete], Jurnal Kejuruteraan 1: 3 7 -
49.
19. Mohamed Dahalan Mohamed Ramli-Ahmad Suhaimi Abd. Rahim. 1991. "Penentuan
pekali dinamik bendalir galas peredam filem himpitan dengan menggunakan ujian
fana" [Determination of the fluid dynamic coefficient of squeeze-film damper bearings

using the free-decay experiment], Jurnal Utama Teknologi dan Pengurusan 1 (4): 1 — 12.
20. Beh Kian L i m - A h m a d Kamal Yahya-Tong Swee Foong. 1991. "Kefahaman pelajar
tentang pemasangan litar elektrik piawai" [Students' understanding of standard electric
circuit connections], Ikhtisar 2 (1): 35-44.
Appendix B: Malay text [RA #6]
[1] Melioidosis ialah penyakit akibat infeksi Pseudomonas pseudomallei pada manusia dan
haiwan (Smith et al. 1987). [2] Di negara ini, melioidosis adalah endemik bagi kambing,
biri-biri dan babi; justeru itu usaha penternakan kambing dan biri-biri yang sedang giat
diperkembangkan terancam sekiranya melioidosis tidak dikawal (Ismail et al. 1988).
[3] Ujian aglutinasi serum (SAT) yang dewasa ini digunakan untuk mengesan melioidosis
dalam haiwan tidak begitu berkesan (VRI, komunikasi peribadi). [4] Thomas et al. (1988)
setelah membuat penilaian semula empat ujian serologi untuk diagnosis melioidosis, menca-
dangkan ujian hemaglutinasi tidak langsung (IHA) yang diikuti dengan pengesahan melalui
ujian pengikatan komplimen (CF) sesuai untuk diagosis meliodosis dalam kambing. [5] Na-
mun demikian ujian C F didapati tidak sensitif bagi melioidosis jenis kronik. [6] Disamping
itu ujian-ujian serologi tersebut menggunakan antigen permukaan sei P. pseudomallei yang
pada lazimnya adalah tidak spesifik. [7] Pengesanan antigen P. pseudomallei yang lebih
spesifik diperlukan supaya sera diagnosis melioidosis adalah lebih berkesan.
[8] Bukti-bukti terkini mencadangkan bahawa eksotoksin maut P. pseudomallei mempu-
nyai peranan penting dalam patogenesis melioidosis (Nyonya Razak et al. 1987; Rahmah
et al. 1989). [9] Namun demikian setakat ini belum lagi disahkan sama ada eksotoksin
P. pseudomallei dihasilkan in vivo berikutan infeksi P. pseudomallei. [10] Pengesanan anti-
bodi antitoksin atau eksotoksin dalam serum boleh dilakukan melalui teknik ELISA (Is-
mail et al. 1987 a dan Ismail et al. 1987 b) dan sesuai digunakan untuk diagnosis melioidosis.
[11] Dewasa ini dilaporkan bahawa beberapa ladang kambing dan biri-biri di negara ini
mengalami masalah melioidosis (komunikasi peribadi). [12] Kami telah mengambil kesem-
patan ini untuk menguji kehadiran antibodi antitoksin dalam serum haiwan yang terlibat.
[13] Ini merupakan suatu usaha ke arah mewujudkan kaedah diagnosis melioidosis.
[14] Pengesanan antibodi antitoksin dan juga antibodi antihemolisin P. pseudomallei dalam
serum haiwan yang terinfeksi P. pseudomallei secara natural juga penting untuk mengesah-
kan peranan eksotoksin dalam kepatogenan bakteria ini.
Appendix C: Malay text [RA #8]
[1] Alginat merupakan kopolimer linear yang terdiri dari residu ß-D-manuront dan a-L-
guluronat yang dihubungkan oleh ikatan glikosida 1 - 4 ...
[2] Polisakarida alginat disintesis sebagai kandungan utama dinding sei rumpair coklat
(Phaeophyta) seperti Sargassum spp. [3] Species-species tertentu bakteria seperti Azato
bacter vinelandii dan Pseudomonas aeruginosa juga dilaporkan menghasilkan alginat
(Larsen 1981; Gacesa et al. 1983) [4] Komposisi uronat dan peratus alginat adalah berbeza
bukan sahaja di antara spesies tetapi juga di dialam spesies yang sama (Hang et al. 1974;
300 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
Chapman dan Chapman 1980; Stockton et al. 1980) [5] Jenis-jenis yang dikaji dan peringkat
tumbesar tumbuhan yang berbeza akan menunjukkan hasil yang berbeza. [6] Habitat rum-
pair juga dilaporkan boleh mempengaruhi peratus kandungan alginat.
[7] Alginat telah digunakan secara meluas khususnya dalam industri makanan sebagai
agen pengental dan penstabil. [8] Dari segi perusahaan, sifat alginat yang paling penting
adalah keupayaannya membentuk larutan likat dan gel dalam air. [9] Ciri pembentukan
adalah dipengaruhi oleh komposisi uronat dan nisbah M/G pula merupakan indeks likat
gel yang terbentuk di mana semakin rendah nisbah M/G semakin kuat dan rapuh gel yang
dihasilkan (Penman dan Sanderson 1972).
[10] Kajian ini bertujuan untuk melihat variasi peratus kandungan dan komposisi blok
alginat dari tiga spesies rumpair Sargassum. [11] Variasi pada tumbuhan yang sama iaitu
di antara tisu-tisu yang berbeza dan di antara tumbuhan yang berbeza peringkat tumbesar-
annya juga ditentukan.
Note
1. I would like to thank John Swales for his many insightful and valuable comments on
earlier versions of this paper.
References
Bazerman, Charles
1988 Shaping written knowledge: the genre and activity of the experimental article
in science. Madison: University of Wisconsin.
Bhatia, Vijay K.
1993 Analysing genre: language use in professional settings. London: Longman.
Brown, Penelope-Stephen C. Levinson
1987 Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press.
Bruce, Nigel
1983 "Rhetorical constraints on information structure in medical research report
writing". Paper presented at the ESP in the Arab World Conference, Univer-
sity of Aston, England, August 1983.
Chai, Hon-Chan
1967 The development of British Malaya 1896—1909. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford Uni-
versity Press.
Crookes, Graham
1986 "Towards a validated analysis of scientific structure", Applied Linguistics 7:
57-70.
Dudley-Evans, Tony-Willie Henderson
1990 "The organization of article introductions: Evidence of change in Economics
writing", in: T. Dudley-Evans and W. Henderson (eds.), The language of eco-
nomics: the analysis of economics discourse (ELT Document 134.), 67—78.
Modern English Publications and The British Council.
Duszak, Anna
313.
Fredrickson, Kirstin-John Swales
1994 "Competition and discourse community: Introductions from Nysvenska
Studier", in: B. Gunnarsson-B. Nordberg-P. Linell (eds.), 9 - 2 2 .
Ghadessy, M. (ed.)
1993 Register analysis: theory and practice. New York: Pinter Publishers.
Gnutzmann, Claus-Hermann Oldenburg
1991 "Contrastive text linguistics in LSP-research: theoretical considerations and
some preliminary findings", in: Hartmut Schröder (ed.), 103-136.
Gosden, Hugh
1992 "Discourse functions of subject in scientific research articles", Applied Lin-
guistics 14: 56-75.
Gunnarsson, B . - B . Nordberg-P. Linell (eds.)
1994 Text and talk in professional context. Uppsala: ASLA.
Hassan, Abdullah
1981 "Some issues and problems in implementing Bahasa Malaysia as medium of
instruction on tertiary education", in Omar at al. (eds.), 163-77.
1987a Isu-isu perancangan bahasa: pengintelektualan Bahasa Malaysia, [Issues in lan-
guage planning: the intelectualization of Bahasa Malaysial] Kuala Lumpur:
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
1987b 30 Tahun perancangan Bahasa Malaysia.[30 years of planning Bahasa Malay-
sia] Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
1988 Penerbitan kata dalam Bahasa Malaysia. [Word formations in Bahasa Malay-
sia] Kuala Lumpur: Fajar Bakti.
Hopkins, Andy-Tony Dudley-Evans
1988 "A genre-based investigation of discussion sections in articles and dissert-
ations", English for Specific Purposes 7: 113-121.
Hunston, Susan
1993 "Evaluation and ideology in scientific writing", in: M. Ghadessy (ed.), 5 7 -
73.
Jaafar, J o h a n - M o h d . Thani Ahmad-Safian Hussain
1992 Sejarah kesusasteraan Melayu jilid I. [The history of Malay literature volume
I] Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Karim, Nik Safiah
1971 "Modernizing Bahasa Malaysia: the Malaysian experience in implementing
its national language", Philippine Journal of Linguistics 2(2): 57-70.
1981 "Bahasa Malaysia as a medium of instruction in a modern, plural society",
in Omar et al. (eds.): 4 4 - 5 6 .
1987 "Bahasa Malaysia and the language of advertisement", in Omar (ed.),
315-25.
1989 Laras Bahasa. [Language Register] Kuala Lumpur: Nurin Enterprise.
Khasnor, Johan
1984 The emergence of the modern Malay administration elite. Singapore: Oxford
University Press.
Khoo, Kay Kim
1991 Malay society: transformation and democratization. Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk
Publications.
302 Ummul Κ. Ahmad
Lopez, G. S.
1982 Article introductions in Spanish: a study in comparative rhetoric. [Unpub-
lished M.Sc. dissertation, Language Studies Unit, University of Aston at Bir-
mingham.]
Milroy, Lesley-James Milroy
1992 "Social network and social class: towards an integrated sociolinguistic
model", Language in Society 21: 1 - 2 6 .
Mohamed Zain, Shaharir
1981 "Towards a systematic and consistent way of Malaysianization of mathemati-
cal and general English terms", in Omar et al. (eds.), 287-94.
Mohd Tahir, Ungku Maimunah
1987 Modern Malay Literary Culture: A Historical Perspective. (Research Notes
and Discussions Paper No. 62.) Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies.
Myers, Greg
1-35.
Najjar, Hazem Yousef
1990 Arabic as a research language: the case of the agricultural sciences. [Unpub-
lished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.]
Nathesan, S.
1992 "Laras buku teks Sejarah: Satu analisis linguistik" [The register of history
textbooks: a linguistic analysis], Jurnal Dewan Bahasa (December): 1123-
1139.
Nik, Abdul Rashid
1981 "The teaching of law in the Malay language: an assessment", in: Omar et al.
(eds.), 295-305.
Omar, Asmah Haji
1975 "The role of language standardization in the coining of technical terms in
Bahasa Malaysia", in Omar (ed.) Essays an Malaysian Linguistics, 102-22.
Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
1979 Language Planning for Unity and Efficiency: A Study of the Language Status
and Corpus Planning of Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbitan University Ma-
laya.
1981 "The Malaysian national language in academic discourse", in Omar et al.
(eds.), 73-92.
1983 "The development of the national language of Malaysia", Philippine Journal
of Linguistics. 14—15: 7—23.
1985 Perancangan Bahasa dengan Rujukan Khusus kepada Perancangan Bahasa
Malaysia. [Language planning with specific reference to the planning of Ba-
hasa Malaysia] Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
1987 Bahasa Malaysia Saintifik. [Scientific Bahasa Malaysia] Kuala Lumpur: De-
wan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
1992 Kajian dan perkembangan Bahasa Melayu. [Studies and developments of Ba-
hasa Melayu] Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Omar, Asmah Haji (ed.)
1987 National language and communication in multilingual societies: papers pre-
sented at the seventh conference of the Asian Association of National Languages
(ASANAL). Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Omar, Asmah H a j i - N o o r Ein Mohd. Noor (eds.)

1981 National langugage as medium of instruction: papers presented at the fourth
conference of the Asian Association on National Language (AS AN AL). Kuala
Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Roff, William R.
1967 The origins of Malay nationalism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Salleh, Awang Had
1980 Pembelajaran dan perguruan Melayu di Malaya: Zaman British. [Malay learn-
ing and teaching in Malaya: the British Era] Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa
dan Pustaka.
Schröder, Hartmut (ed.)
1991 Subject-oriented texts: languages for special purposes and text theory. Berlin:
de Gruyter.
Smith, B. D.
1981 "Teaching the social sciences: linguistic problems and perspectives", in: Omar
et al. (eds.), 221-254.
Soepadmo, E.
1981 "Malay as a medium of instruction in teaching biological subjects: problems
and prospects", in: Omar et al. (eds.), 278—286.
Suhaimi, Ariffin
1981 "National language in the teaching of natural sciences", in Omar et al. (eds.),
272-277.
Swales, John
1981 Aspects of article introductions. Birmingham: The University of Aston, Lan-
guage Studies Unit.
Swales, J o h n - H a z e m Najjar
1987 "The writing of research article introductions", Written Communication 4:
175-192.
Taylor, G o r d o n - C h e n Tingguang
1991 "Linguistic, cultural, and subcultural issues in contrastive discourse analysis:
Anglo-American and Chinese scientific texts", Applied Linguistics 12: 317—
336.
Thompson, Dorothy
1993 "Arguing for experimental 'facts' in science: a study of research article results
sections in biochemistry", Written Communication 10: 106-128.
Thomson, Geoff-Ye Yiyun
1991 "Evaluation in the reporting verbs used in academic papers", Applied Linguis-
tics 12: 365-382.
Voon, P. K . - Z a h a r a h Haji M a h m u d - S . H. Khoo
1981 "Formula for dynamism in the teaching of geography in Bahasa Malaysia",
in: Omar et al. (eds.), 255-271.
Wood, A. S.
1982 "An examination of the rhetorical structures of authentic chemistry texts",
Applied Linguistics 3: 121-143.
If not given, then what?
Things that come first in academic discourse
Lyubov A. Prozorova
1. Description of the approach

The proposed approach to analysis of academic discourse can be seen as
an elaboration of the taxonomy of given-new information developed by
Prince (1981).
1.1. Original model

Let us take a closer look at the model suggested by Prince. She distingu-
ishes three basic areas on the given-new (assumed familiarity) scale:
evoked (given in the preceding discourse), inferable (retrievable, e. g., due
to the existence of set-member relationship between discourse entities; cf.
university — students), and new. These distinctions are drawn more or less
universally, by the majority of linguists, with variations in specific aspects
of definitions. For instance, given information has been defined as some-
thing known to the hearer/reader and accepted as true (Clark-Haviland
1977: 4); something old and predictable, recoverable from the preceding
context (Kuno 1978: 282-283); "that knowledge which the speaker as-
sumes to be in the consciousness of the addressee at the time of the
utterance" (Chafe 1976: 30); information that is known because it is de-
rivable either from the preceding verbal context or from the situational
context of immediate concern, and/or because, in regard to the develop-
ment of communication, it is put in a relation derivable from these
contexts (Firbas 1975: 318); information the speaker assumes the hearer
"knows", assumes, or can infer, but is not necessarily thinking about
(Prince 1981: 230). Each of these definitions may be useful for explaining
different sets of language phenomena. For our purposes here, it appeared
convenient to assume that given information is that information men-
tioned in, or inferable from, the preceding discourse. Thus Peter in (1)
will be considered given when mentioned for the second time, although
the hearer obviously still does not know the referent of the personal
name.
306 Lyubov A. Prozorova
(1) Who is Peter? - Peter, I don't know.
One possible exception may be in order for entities (and other constitu-
ents) mentioned in titles or headlines, but these cases were not included
in the present analysis.
It would be much more cumbersome and precarious to try to establish
the speaker's assumptions, unless of course we agree that these assump-
tions (that the reader "knows" or assumes something) can exist only if
this something has been previously evoked, textually or situationally. If
this is so, then it still makes more sense to be guided by what we see in
the discourse. Indeed, Prince's analysis shows that this is what she actu-
ally does. However, she makes further distinctions within the above three
areas. Singled out within new information is (1) brand new (something
the hearer is not assumed to have in his own model, the introduction of
which is for the hearer akin to "going out and buying a suckling pig".
For example, in the sentence A guy I work with says he knows your sister
the entity A guy I work with is brand new) and (2) unused (something the
hearer is assumed to have in his/her own model and simply has to place
in the discourse model, akin to taking some staple off the shelf when its
presence is taken for granted in a recipe, e. g., salt. Thus, in the sentence
Noam Chomsky went to Penn the entity Noam Chomsky is considered
unused).
Within brand new information Prince distinguishes anchored and un-
anchored. Anchored entities are represented by NPs, linked by means of
another NP or anchor properly contained in it, to some other discourse
entity (cf. A guy I work with). Unanchored entities are not linked to any
entity in this fashion (cf. a bus in the sentence I got on a bus yesterday
and the driver was drunk).
Inferrables can be (1) containing (where what the inference is drawn
from is properly contained within the inferrable N P itself — cf. One of
these eggs) or noncontaining (cf. the driver in I got on a bus and the driver
was drunk).
Finally, evoked entities can be evoked textually or situationally (i. e.,
given in the preceding text or situation).
In order to link Prince's model more explicitly to the familiar notions
(of given, retrievable, and new information), let us present this model in
Table 1, where the familiar terms are placed on the left-hand side and
Prince's model on the right. Prince also adds that all seven types of enti-
ties may occur with one or two new attributes.
Things that come first in academic discourse 307
Table 1. Traditional versus Prince's given-new taxonomy
Textually
Given Evoked
Situationally
Containing (one of these eggs)

Retrievable Inferrable
Noncontaining (bus-driver)
Unused Anchored {Noam Chomsky)

New Unanchored {a guy I work with)
Brand new (a guy)
Applying this model to academic discourse and to informal oral narra-

tive (only one short part of a text was used for illustration in each case,
although broader material was obviously analyzed), Prince arrives at the
following conclusions:
(1) Academic discourse is less explicit - it leaves more out, more infer-
encing is required.
(2) There is much metalinguistic inferencing (based on the assumption
that the reader is familiar with various linguistic paradigms).
(3) Entities involved are highly abstract.
(4) There is an increased incidence of containing inferrables, coupled
with a blurring between unused and inferrable entities (which is not
the case with oral narrative).
(5) Cultural assumptions required for the inferencing are highly complex
and abstract in nature.
(6) Entities are larger in academic discourse.
(7) No brand new entities are used at all, although there are some unused
entities.
(8) Fifty percent of all subject NPs represent evoked entities, and one-
eighth of the nonsubjects do. More than 40 percent of the subjects
are inferrables, mostly of the contained inferrable type.
(9) In academic discourse, as in oral narrative, subjects are more likely
to be evoked than inferrable, and more likely to be inferrable than
new (unused), which indicates a tendency toward a greater degree of
givenness in subjects.
The latter point would be in agreement with Kuno's (1979) "from-old-
to-new" principle if all sentences started with subjects; but this is not so,
especially in academic discourse. What correlation exists between the two
tendencies remains to be established.
A number of additions are in order in regard to point 1; they will be

made later. Certain amendments will be introduced to points 7 and 8
(which are obviously based only on the analysis of two short extracts
analyzed in the text of Prince's paper).
1.2. Amendments to Prince's approach

These amendments may not be an improvement on the approach pro-
posed by Prince; their main purpose is to provide new information about
the structure (in the broad sense) of academic discourse as compared
with other types of discourse, and to enable one to draw more compari-
sons between academic discourse in different languages.
First, some of the observations made earlier (Prozorova-Seliverstova
1990; Seliverstova-Prozorova 1992; Prozorova 1992) suggested that dif-
ferent parts of the text may show different strategies in terms of func-
tional sentence perspective and given-new information. Provided this is
so, these parts should be treated separately, if one wants to obtain a
better picture. Hence the first amendment to Prince's model: such parts
of the academic text as the introduction, main body, and conclusions
were analyzed separately. However, totals for the text as a whole were
also considered.
Second, it appears that the analysis of discourse entities (representable
by NPs) provides a rather limited view of the peculiarities of academic
discourse. Neither does the analysis of sentence topics alone yield a more
or less satisfactory picture (which it often does in fiction — cf. for exam-
ple Prozorova-Seliverstova 1990). The main reason for this is that aca-
demic discourse hinges on an intricate network of intrasentential and
intersentential ties, which are not always achieved through direct rela-
tions of modification (Bolinger 1952)1 between constituents represented
by notional parts of speech (these would be partly accounted for through
analysis in terms of functional sentence perspective). To a great degree,
academic discourse is based on ties established by means of links other
than those representable by notional parts of speech, which set a logical
or attitudinal "scene" for what follows them, in part akin to locatives,
setting the spatial scene. There appears to be a rather fuzzy boundary
between links represented by notional parts of speech and by parts of
speech other than notional. In terms of discourse coherence, a subordi-
nate clause may play the same scene-setting role for the next proposition
as a locative, temporal adverbial, or conjunction (needless to say, seman-
tically each of these "scenes" will be different). In order to understand,
on the highest and therefore least detailed level, the structure of academic
discourse in Russian and English, it appeared logical (although somewhat
unorthodox) to look only at the leftmost constituents in each sentence
(both sentence topics and nontopical "scene-setting" constituents) in
terms of their place on the given-new scale, with some further breakdown
that seemed interesting and relevant, although unrelated to the given-new
taxonomy. The further breakdown is into (1) forward- and backward-
looking constituents (this breakdown is relevant only for links - see be-
low), and (2) type of constituent (the classification applied is hetero-
geneous and was dictated entirely by considerations of relevance and
convenience). All constituents were divided (following Prince 1981: 235)
into entities (representable by NPs, both subjects and nonsubjects), attri-
butes (which were not analyzed separately from entities in academic dis-
course), and links, the latter including subordinate clauses - another
rather unorthodox convention that seemed convenient on this level of
analysis — verbs, and complements, as well as conjunctions, prepositions,
etc.
Sentences starting with consequently, likewise, thus, on the other hand,
nevertheless, however, in other words, moreover, furthermore, and so on
determine a logical, attitudinal (or other) role for the subsequent proposi-
tion (that of conclusion, analogy, etc.), in respect to the preceding dis-
course unit (whose size may vary). This type of constituents will be re-
ferred to as backward-looking links. Other constituents {perhaps, admit-
tedly, as is well known, etc.),2 when used sentence-initially, set a logical,
attitudinal, or other scene for the subsequent proposition without linking
this scene in an obvious manner to the previous discourse (the link with
the previous discourse in such cases is effected through coreference or by
other means). Such constituents will be referred to as forward-looking
links.3 It should be noted that a forward-looking link can be changed to
a backward-looking one if an "anchor" (here, an additional link to the
previous discourse) is added to it (cf. It is only too evident in view of the
above discussion).
1.3. Database: "Conversion codes"

from lower level to the given-new taxonomy
In order to account for all sentence-initial constituents, a number of ta-
bles were drawn up, which were to accommodate all the relevant constit-
uents in all the texts analyzed (four linguistic papers, two in Russian and
two in English, all written by native speakers - see the References -
and two extracts from English and Russian fiction).4 The evoked group
included evoked subjects and locatives (evoked temporal adverbials and
complements occurred in sentence-initial position only in fiction). The
inferrable (containing) group was broken down to account for subjects
and locatives (in fiction, temporal adverbials could be also included in
this group). Inferrables of the noncontaining type formed the biggest and
most varied group. They included subjects and links, the latter including
subordinate clauses (both forward- and backward-looking, without dis-
tinction), other forward-looking links, other backward-looking links, and
attitudinal links (both forward- and backward-looking, without distinc-
tion). To include all links in the inferrable group appeared to be the most
reasonable default solution: they could not be treated as evoked or brand
new. The alternative would be to treat them as unused, but their behavior
seems more similar to inferrable subjects than to unused subjects. Brand
new constituents were very few; therefore a more detailed breakdown (by
type of constituent) was provided for this group. As mentioned above,
generally new attributes were analyzed as one with the NP, to which they
belong (an exception was made for fiction, where separate treatment may
be justified). New sentence-initial numerals, however, were treated as sep-
arate constituents and were included in the analysis as brand new (an-
chored) constituents. The reason behind this distinction was the impor-
tant role new sentence-initial numerals appear to play in academic dis-
course.
2. Sample analysis
In order to see more clearly how the proposed approach was applied, let
us now look at the analysis of a small extract from one of the papers
subjected to numerical analysis.
(2) a. The stylistic preference illustrated in Example 1 does not of

course imply that the only means available in English for refer-
ring anaphorically to an antecedent are repetition and personal
pronouns.
b. Halliday and Hasan (1976: 288) provide an often cited list of
items used for lexical cohesion, although they do not deal with
the specific case of proper nouns and names as antecedents and
that of definite descriptions as anaphoric substituentia.
c. What appears to be avoided by contemporary English language

text producers (outside the special field of media language, on
which see Denton 1988) is variation for its own sake.
d. It is this use of elegant variation that comes in for criticism in
the Anglo-Saxon usage tradition.
e. When this device is used either for evaluativeldescriptive or in-
formative purposes, it is considered to be a legitimate contribu-
tion to text cohesion and coherence.
(Wimsatt 1954: 188-189; Leech and Short 1981: 107)
f. Variation of the following type would be very unusual in contem-
porary English: Ex. 3. (Denton 1992, p. 97)
(3) Notation (also used in Table 3)
E: evoked
I: inferrable (noncontaining)
Ic: containing inferrable
U: unused
BN a : brand new anchored
BN: brand new unanchored
ATT: attitudinal links
FWD. L.: other forward-looking links
BWD. L.: other backward-looking links
SUBORD. CL.: subordinate clauses
SUBJ: subjects
LOC: locatives
NONLOC: nonlocative entities (including subjects)
TEMP: temporal adverbials
NUM: numerals
NEG: negative operator (not)
(4) Analysis (to be taken with an even larger grain of salt than
Prince 1981)
a. E/Subj.: The stylistic preference illustrated in Example 1
b. U: Halliday and Hasan
c. I/Subj.: What appears to be avoided by contemporary English
language text producers (favoring some types of varia-
tion implies avoidance of other types)
I c /Subj.: It is this use of elegant variation (something always
comes in for criticism)
e. I/Subord. CL: When this device is used ... (all links, including
temporal, are assumed to be inferrable)
f. Ic/Subj.: Variation of the following type (variation can be of
different types)
It may also make sense to account separately for subjects represented by

NPs (4 a) and by that- and wh-clauses (cf. 4 c), as well as by the anticipa-
tory it constructions (the frequency of the latter three types of subjects is
notably higher in academic discourse than in fiction). This was not done,
however, in order to limit the number of categories.
3. Fiction versus academic discourse
Let us begin by looking at the totals in Table 2,5 representing percentage

shares of sentence-initial constituents, occupying different positions on
Table 2. Analysis of sentence-initial constituents in fiction and academic discourse
(as a percentage of all sentence-initial constituents in each text)
Given-new scale Academic discourse Fiction
Russian English Rus- Eng-

1 2 1 2 sian lish
Evoked 33.0 21.4 33.3 23.5 56.6 63.3
Containing 22.0 8.6 10.7 7.8 6.6 0.0

Inferable
Noncont. 38.4 62.9 46.7 47.1 20.0 19.9
Unused 5.5 7.1 1.3 11.8 3.3 10.0
Anchored — 10.0
Brand new
Unanchored 1.1 8.0 9.8 3.3 6.6
the given-new scale, in fiction and in academic discourse. One can clearly
see that the number of sentence-initial evoked constituents is much higher
in fiction than in academic discourse, and the contrast is even sharper
than that registered in Prince's (1981) analysis of discourse entities, of
which about 50 percent were evoked in academic discourse as against 100
percent in conversation. On the other hand, even in fiction, only slightly
more than 50 percent of sentence-initial constituents are evoked, which
indicates that the difference between academic discourse and fiction is
one of degree and quality, rather than of absence/presence of some prop-
erties. Another consideration pointing in the same direction is that out

of all sentence-initial entities in fiction, some are unused. Moreover, some
of the sentence-initial entities in fiction are brand new (see for example
Prozorova 1992). It is useful, then, to look at the numbers, but probably
equally useful to see what types of evoked (inferrable, brand new, or
other) sentence-initial constituents are common in academic discourse
but not in fiction, and vice versa.
The overall number of inferrables is considerably higher in academic
discourse (54.9—71.5 percent) than in fiction (26.6 and 19.9 percent). It
is interesting to note that the overall share of inferrables (both containing
and noncontaining) remains well over the 50 percent mark in the four
linguistic papers analyzed: 54.9, 57.4, 60.4, and 71.5 percent. This indi-
cates that the degree of inferrability in academic texts may be a relatively
constant value. It would be premature to draw any conclusions about
fiction on the basis of the two short texts subjected to numerical analysis.
For this reason, the more detailed table will not be presented here. Some
of the preliminary conclusions that suggest themselves: evoked subjects,
locatives, and temporal adverbials form the bulk of sentence-initial con-
stituents in fiction. It is even more important that in fiction temporal
adverbials and locatives serve to structure the represented world, whereas
in academic discourse they play almost exclusively a metadiscoursive
function, referring the reader to certain parts of the paper or introducing
him to new parts. There were no inferrable subjects in the extracts from
fiction, and the links used were different in character from those used in
academic discourse: they were mostly inferrable temporal adverbials and
backward-looking links, such as and and but. Unused constituents are
few in all types of discourse, although perhaps it would be interesting to
establish the difference between the types of constituents that may be
unused in fiction and in academic discourse. Brand new entities are also
few in all texts; in fiction these were numerals (Neskol'ko raz vo vremja
pohoda [Several times during the march ...], Tri povozki byli razgrableny
[Three carriages were robbed ...]), temporal adverbials (At once Astree-
Luce insisted on meeting her), and attributes (So difficult, so difficult is
the process of making oneself good); in academic discourse there was more
variety (see Table 2). Examples of brand new constituents in fiction are
quoted here in order to give the reader an opportunity to judge whether
the classification of these constituents as brand new is justified. It appears
possible to classify them as inferrable (something may happen a number
of times during the trip; there must be some time lag before the effect of
something materializes; a process of making oneself good may be difficult
or easy). However, it appears counterintuitive to adopt such a broad

approach to inferrability (whereby it would be possible to consider all
constituents that are neither evoked nor unused inferrable rather than
brand new).
4. English versus Russian academic discourse

4.1. Compositional structure
What leaps to the eye in Russian academic discourse is that in most cases
there is no graphical division into compositional parts, although in terms
of meaning the division exists. In some Russian journals this appears to be
an unwritten rule (Voprosy jazykoznanija, Kontekst, etc.). In some journals
of more recent vintage, however, graphical division into parts is customary
(e. g., Logiceskij analiz jazyka), although it differs from English academic
discourse in that the introduction practically never has a subhead, but sim-
ply forms the beginning of the text, from the first sentence down to the first
subhead marking the beginning of the main body. Conclusions are practi-
cally never marked graphically, and they are much shorter than in English
(usually no longer than 1—2 sentences). From the point of view of meaning,
it is often difficult or impossible to distinguish compositional parts in Rus-
sian academic discourse, which is not the case in English.
These considerable differences between Russian and English academic
discourse are obviously due to the fact that Russian linguistics was in
isolation for a long time, there were fewer trends, and all or most of the
existing approaches were known to everyone working in the field. Thus
there was less emphasis on achieving maximum structural clarity to facili-
tate understanding. In English-speaking countries, conversely, there were
a lot of trends linguists very often had no time to learn about, there
was lively interaction among different linguistic groups that had to make
themselves understood by people living in other countries and working
within different linguistic paradigms. This required extreme clarity and
transparency of both content and form, which was in part manifest in
the composition of academic discourse and its streamlined graphical rep-
resentation. Given the recent changes of environment, these differences
should obviously be phased out.
4.2. Numerical analysis

Sentence-initial placement of given-new constituents, on the other hand,
appears to be at least very similar in the two languages, which in turn
points to similarities in semantic discourse structure. This is shown by

the figures in Table 2; the more detailed Table 3 also shows a similarity
of discourse structure, although on the more detailed level one can also
see a number of differences.
Proceeding from the assumption (or rather, "suspicion") that different
compositional parts of academic discourse may be structured differently,
the numerical analysis was carried out separately for different parts. Also,
so that the results in the two languages should be comparable, Russian
papers with a fairly clear division into parts were chosen for the analysis.
Whether this approach was justified we can see from Table 3.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the numbers presented
in Table 3 (these conclusions apply only to the papers analyzed; addi-
tional material, however, does not provide any evidence to the contrary).
(a) The share of evoked entities (both subjects and locatives) is on
average higher in conclusions than in other compositional parts; it is in
all cases higher in conclusions than in introductions. This appears to be
logical enough, since conclusions are made with reference to something
already evoked in the previous text. On the other hand, a number of
brand new constituents are used sentence-initially in conclusions, which
points to other tendencies also being present in academic discourse (see
last paragraph of this section).
(b) There is a certain preference for sentence-initial evoked locatives
in Russian academic discourse as compared with English. This is obvi-
ously due to the fact that Russian sentences with locatives in sentence-
initial position can be externally oriented (i. e., they can as a whole attri-
bute a characteristic to a certain role position, evoked in the preceding
discourse - about tests used to establish external orientation see Selivers-
tova-Prozorova 1992), whereas English locative-initial sentences cannot
be thus oriented (cf. He fired a shot. *Into the water fell a big duck. And
the same in Russian: On vystrelil. V vodu upala bol'saja utka).
(c) Unused constituents (all of them subjects) do not show any clear
distributional tendencies, and their number is not significant (except for
the introduction of English 2).
(d) Containing inferrables are mostly subjects and other entities other
than locatives, both in English and in Russian.
(e) Noncontaining inferrables are distributed rather haphazardly over
introduction, main body, and conclusions. On the other hand, two sub-
types prevail in all parts: either "other backward-looking links" or subor-
dinate clauses (both backward- and forward-looking). These results show
that inferential ties in academic discourse are most frequently formed by
Ο
ο Ο ο Ο Ο
Ζ Ö ö © ö Ö
υ τΤ en
η Ο Ο ο ο ο Ο Ο
so •«fr SO <N TT ττ
<N 00
C
ι/">
en Γ<Ί Os Os en e i Os so
3 -fr •<fr <N (N TT TT r s oo'
06 en
Ο Ο ο
Ζ ι/-ΐ vi Ö
υ <N <N w-i
CQ r - en 00 (N <N Tt" fN " f r <N rs) <Ν

SO ΓΛ κ <N <N TT -<fr <N (N «Ν
S <N <N
Ο Os «ο Os Os 'S" Os OO ΓΛ
3 <N Os -<fr r s " f r Os Os'
ai <N r—<
00 Γ-; Γ-; r» C
Ζ en lO Γ-^ _ο •>>
8 1
-
υ >/-> »ι
ο
3 _3
Ό "υ
Ο c
η V) oo <Λ> fsl VI ο
' '
en Os rn r ^ α
S <N
<N I
-C I
Ζ Ζ
00 rn en en r - Ο ΓΛ Ο υ
c oo OO oo SO >o OO
UJ <N rg Χ) Ο Ό
ro en en
en rn fi
υ fi en m
o\
m Tf <N tN os en fN ρ m <Ν oo
IT) SO vo" SO (N Os en SO os
S en >
!<LJ
"o
00 CI (Ν e
a Ζ Γ-- 00 os οο
>{/5
ω «ο <Ν os r— I
—< OS oo ce
os c
1- C
-4-* α> Ο ω ZÜ "5b
Ii *S υ ir >>
nj Τ3 ES ES
u α Ο υ
*c3 £ > 03
υΪΛ nj ο Λ I I
ES Ο c ι-, Ιι I I
υ — tN
£ω Ο -OCX) J3 "ύ S Ob c
cU
c
cd
3 Ο •9 ° 3 Ο 3 g 3 ω 3
c1 'Μ CZJ C 5/3 Ο — <N
Ο t/J ι-1 Ζ —ι ο < £ ζ ζ 1/3
e Ο. 3 3
υ nJ
> S Bä βί
ο Ζ Ζ ES ES
Ö ο ω QQ QQ PJ tu
establishing anaphoric (mostly logical) ties with a role position evoked in

the preceding discourse or "emergency-created" in a subordinate clause.
(f) No brand new constituents are used in any of the introductions,
although the distribution between the main body and conclusions is al-
most even in the four papers.
It is interesting to see what types of new information can be fronted
in academic discourse. In the conclusions of the four texts analyzed these
are subjects (A comparison with both WH-clefts and it-clefts is very much
in order) and numerals (One different but closely related construction that
should be studied is the inverted WH-cleft). Brand new numerals (Of the
three elements which a text receiver can be required to call upon for decod-
ing, the antecedents of anaphoric expressions (syntactic, semantic and
pragmatic ...), the third ...), subjects (The opposite appears to be true in
the Anglo-American tradition), negative forms (Not all the anaphoric ties
connected with the topic entity have been emphasized), and predicates (im-
peratives: Compare 5 with the following; Note also that the WH-cleft dis-
ambiguates ...) are used sentence-initially in the main body. In all cases,
brand new numerals, negatives, and predicates are immediately followed
by evoked entities, which "anchor" them to the preceding discourse. This
is not the case with brand new subjects. No brand new constituents were
used in conclusions in Russian academic discourse. Additional material
showed the same subtypes of brand new constituents used sentence-ini-
tially.
4.3. Qualitative analysis of additional material

This analysis shows that:
(a) Evoked entities are used in the introduction or in the main body
in academic discourse primarily (1) for backward- and forward-looking
reference to examples provided in the text, or (2) for interparagraph (but
not intraparagraph, except for examples) reference to certain previously
introduced entities; in conclusions their scope of reference is broader and
more varied.
(b) Brand new entities in conclusions are normally used to introduce
an aside or a new set of conclusions (cf. similar effects noted in fiction
by Prozorova-Seliverstova 1990).
(c) Attitudinal links have a strong tendency to be fronted in academic
discourse. (This tendency is stronger in English than in Russian.) In the
following sentences, for instance, alternative placement of the predicative
adjectives (attitudinal links) would be very uncharacteristic of academic
discourse:
(2) Immediately striking and deserving of further study is the dif-

ference between active and passive. (Prince 1981)
(3) Relevant to the issue at hand, however, are the differences dis-
played vertically. (Prince 1981)
One of the reasons for this is obviously the fact that attitudes are most
often not questioned in academic discourse; they are used more as a
means of discourse coherence (hence the term "links" applied to them)
than as information about attitudes proper. When this is not the case, an
adverbial denoting attitude can be placed sentence- or clause-finally (In
spite of [and contributing to] the shakiness of the analysis, a number of
systematic differences between the two texts are apparent, all of which
indicate additional complexity in the written text).
(d) Evoked entities in academic discourse tend not to be fronted (ex-
cept for cases mentioned in point (a) above). The final choice depends
(among other factors) on the discourse topic, realized within the text as
a whole or within some part of it (the size of such parts may vary).
Example 4 is a microtext, whose topic is obviously "dependent cases con-
fined to the modification of a single part of speech":
(4) Most of the dependent cases are not confined to the modification
of a single part of speech, but are found occurring with several.
A few, however, seem to be so confined. Exclusively adnominal
and adpronominal seem to be descriptive, possessive, partitive,
contentive and qualitative. Exclusively adadjectival seems to be
the inclinational case; the comparative is adadjectival and also
adadverbial in the case of definite adverbs of manner. Exclu-
sively adverbial are instrumental, accusative, manneral, and
perhaps some ablative and terminal locative cases.
(Blake 1930, p. 47)
Example 4 is a brilliant illustration of how the From-Old-to-New Prin-

ciple can be sacrified to ensure tighter logical unity with the discourse
topic. One may argue that here the End-Weight Principle comes into play,
but the reverse order would be absolutely normal for each sentence, taken
individually, which makes it quite clear that the criteria are not to be
sought on the sentence level. Moreover, the End-Weight Principle is often
broken in academic discourse. Very often it is violated in favor of a struc-
ture whereby a general assumption (starting point) precedes a conclusion.
Cf. example 5:
(5) That in a pioneer study such as the present some essential

case relations may have been inadvertently omitted from the
discussion, and that there may be differences of opinion with
regard to details of this semantic analysis, is entirely likely.
(Blake 1930, p. 48)
It does not seem right to say that here the old-to-new principle is of
primary importance (in example 4 we saw that this may not be the main
consideration). It is more plausible that certain patterns of reasoning
require a certain order of sentence constituents. This is of course a very
preliminary idea that must be tested further.
5. General conclusions
Numerical analysis, restricted as it is, points to the necessity of separate
treatment of different parts of academic discourse. Qualitative analysis
points in the same direction. For instance, evoked entities used in the
introduction and main body of academic texts have a different scope of
reference from those used in conclusions; brand new entities also perform
specific functions in conclusions. It may be even more interesting, how-
ever, to distinguish smaller discourse units (for instance, those reflecting
different stages of the reasoning process), analysis of which may bring
out more details of discourse structure.
Further qualitative analysis of academic discourse would be instru-
mental in establishing more intricate semantic regularities. The categories
of links used in academic discourse appear to be different from those
used in fiction; brand new constituents, commonly used sentence-initially
and clause-initially in fiction, are infrequently or never used in academic
discourse, and vice versa. More research in this area appears to be in
order. It would be very interesting to look at different instances of viola-
tion of the From-Old-to-New, End-Weight, and other principles in order
to establish criteria underlying word order in academic discourse.
Comparing academic discourse with fiction, one can easily see that the
difference is one of degree and quality, rather than absence/presence of
some properties. However, the overall number of inferrables is consider-
ably higher in academic discourse (54.9-71.5 percent) compared with
26.6 and 19.9 percent in fiction. The overall share of inferrables remains
well over the 50-percent mark in the four linguistic papers analyzed: 54.9,
57.4, 60.4, and 71.5 percent. This indicates that the degree of inferability
in academic discourse may be a relatively constant value (cf. Prince's
conclusion No. 1).
Contrastive analysis of Russian and English academic discourse shows

that both graphical and semantic division into compositional parts is
much less distinct in Russian academic discourse, obviously due to the
very special environment in which Russian science developed. There is,
however, an obvious tendency toward more transparency in some of the
more Western-oriented publications.
At the same time, the analysis shows that apart from these differences
there is a considerable similarity in semantic structure between Russian
and English academic discourse: the share of evoked entities is on average
higher in conclusion than in other compositional parts (it is in all cases
higher in conclusions than in introductions); containing inferrables are
mostly subjects and other entities other than locatives; two subtypes of
noncontaining inferrables prevail in all parts (other backward-looking
links and/or subordinate clauses); brand new constituents are not used in
any of the introductions, but are distributed more or less evenly over
conclusions and the main body.
Some of the above results point to the fact that unlike in fiction, where
most of the intersentential ties are referential (well over 50 percent), in
both Russian and English academic discourse inferential ties are far more
numerous than any other type of connection. These ties are most fre-
quently formed by establishing anaphoric (mostly logical) links with a
role position evoked in the preceding discourse or "emergency-created"
in a subordinate clause.
However, a number of semantic differences between Russian and Eng-
lish academic discourse remain to be accounted for. For instance, attitud-
inal links have a stronger tendency to be fronted in English academic
discourse than in Russian. There is a certain prevalence of sentence-initial
evoked locatives in Russian academic discourse as compared with Eng-
lish. The latter may be accounted for by the inability of English locative-
initial sentences to be externally oriented. The use of locative-initial sen-
tences in English would preclude establishment of the tighter intersenten-
tial ties characteristic of academic texts. There are obviously many more
differences and similarities that could be identified on a more detailed
level of analysis.
Notes
1. It has been shown (see for example Seliverstova 1984; Seliverstova-Prozorova 1992)
that multiple relations of modification, connecting all communicative elements within a
sentence (coinciding with sentence elements or with more complex syntactical units),
may be left-to-right and right-to-left, parallel and consecutive, intrasentential and in-
tersentential (external).
2. It is obvious that constituents in both groups are very different. Maybe it would be
reasonable to make further distinctions within these groups on a more detailed level of
analysis. At this stage, however, it seemed more appropriate to stop on this level and to
have heterogeneous elements within one group rather than be bogged down in excessive
details.
3. The term "link" in this case is purely a convention, used solely for the purpose of termi-
nological symmetry. "Link" here means 'something that the proposition is linked to'
rather than 'something that links the proposition to something else'.
4. Needless to say, much more material was analyzed in order to develop the approach and
to arrive at conclusions other than numerical.
5. Here and further shortfalls/overshots (of 0.1-0.3 percent) are rounding errors.
References
Arutjunova, Nina (ed.)

1989 Logiceskij analiz jazyka: problemy intensional'nyh i pragmaticeskih konteks-
tou, [Logical analysis of language: problems of intensional and pragmatic
contexts.] Moscow: Nauka.
Blake, Frank
1930 "A semantic analysis of case", Language Monograph 7: 34—49.
Bolinger, Dwight L.
1952 "Linear modification", Publications of the Modern Language Association of
America 67: 1117-1144.
Bondarko, Aleksandr (ed.)
1992 Teorija funkcional'noj grammatiki: sub"ektnost', ob"ektnost\ kommunikativ-
naja perspektiva vyskazyvanija, opredelennost', neopredelennost' [Theory of
functional grammar: categories of subjecthood, objecthood, communicative
sentence perspective, definiteness, indefmiteness], St. Petersburg: Nauka.
Bulygina, Tatjana-Aleksej Smelev
1989 "Mental'nye predikaty ν aspekte aspektologii" [Mental predicates in the
context of aspectology], in: Nina Arutjunova (ed.), 31-54.
Chafe, Wallace L.
1976 "Givenness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics and point of view",
in: Charles N. Li (ed.), 2 5 - 5 5 .
Clark, Herbert-Susan Haviland
1977 "Comprehension and the given-new contract", in: R. Freedle (ed.), 1 - 4 0 .
Cole, P. (ed.)
1981 Radical pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.
Denton, John
1992 "Elegant variation informativity and co-reference in Italian/English transla-
tion", in: Christian Mair—Manfred Markus (eds.), 95-106.
Dressier, Wolfgang U. (ed.)
1978 Current trends in textlinguistics. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Firbas, Jan
1975 "On the thematic and non-thematic section of the sentence", in: H. Ringbom
(ed.), 317-334.
Freedle, R.
1977 Discourse production and comprehension. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Kuno, Susumu
1978 "Generative discourse analysis in America", in: W. Dressier (ed.), 275-294.
1979 On the interaction between syntactic rules and discourse principles. [Unpub-
lished MS.]
Li, Charles N. (ed.)
1976 Subject and topic. New York: Academic Press.
Mair, Christian-Manfred Markus (eds.)
1992 New departures in contrastive linguistics. Vol. 2. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker
Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft.
Prince, Ellen F.
1978 "A comparison of wh-clefts and it-clefts in discourse", Language 54: 8 8 3 -
906.
1981 "Toward a taxonomy of given-new information", in: P. Cole (ed.), 223—255.
Prozorova, Ljubov
1992 "Functional sentence perspective in seven translations of Anna Karenina",
Meta 37 (1): 127-138.
Prozorova, Ljubov-Olga Seliverstova
1990 "Communicative sentence perspective and style in Russian and English", in:
Aleksander Vasilevich (ed.), 23—50.
Ringbom, Häkon (ed.)
1975 Style and text: studies presented to Ν. E. Enkvist. Stockholm: Scriptor.
Seliverstova, Olga
1984 "Κ voprosu ο kommunikativnoj strukture vyskazyvanija" [On the problem
of communicative sentence structure], Izvestija Akademii nauk SSSR: Serija
literatury ijazyka 43 (5): 443-456.
Seliverstova, Olga-Ljubov Prozorova
1992 "Kommunikativnaja perspektiva vyskazyvanija" [Communicative sentence
perspective], in: Aleksandr Bondarko (ed.), 189-231.
Vasilevich, Alexander (ed.)
1990 Soviet contributions to some topical linguistic issues. Moscow: Nauka.
Vol'f, Elena
1989 "Emocional'nye sostojanija i ix predstavlenie ν jazyke", [Emotional states
and their language representation] in: Nina Arutjunova (ed.), 55-75.
Analyzing digressiveness in Polish academic texts*
Anna Duszak
1. Academic writing and attitudes toward form
Clarity constitutes an important aspect of academic writing. The logic of

argumentation requires, among other things, the selection of a clear the-
matic path and its reasonable development. What is reasonable, however,
depends in part on the intellectual tradition of the particular academic
community. Thus, for instance, rhetorical patterns in academic texts may
show preference for "straight" rather than "branching" progressions in
how ideas are developed. As a result, various levels of elaboration are
sanctioned in viewpoint formulation and defense. Digressions from the
main track of thought meet with varying levels of rhetorical tolerance:
they may be accepted as products of an inquiring mind, or condemned
as signs of an unfocused and rambling style. Writing conventions also
differ in attitudes toward form, viz., in the accepted level of redundancy
in texts. Operation with text space includes variation in the type and the
amount of metatextual cues used for marking salience relations in texts.
Rhetorical differences along such lines are sometimes discussed in
terms of varying levels of linearity in the flow of discourse. The issue
resides at the borderland of logic, rhetoric, and culture. Avoidance of
argumentation fallacies is part and parcel of the rigor of academic rea-
soning. What is forceful in academic communication, however, also de-
pends on the types of rhetorical patterns that are valued on the grounds
of a given language and in a given cultural tradition. Cross-cultural varia-
tion in textual linearity leads to the emergence of various standards of
efficiency and effectiveness in communicating scholarly matters. As a re-
sult, communication problems may arise. This is what happens when the
rhetorical patterns of one language are transmitted into texts in another
language. By and large, therefore, disparities in writing styles in multicul-
tural environments can obstruct academic cooperation and scholarly ex-
change. All this makes insights into the flow of academic argumentation
even more worthwhile.
This paper addresses variation in linearity in academic writing styles
taking the example of linear and digressive patterns or argumentation.
Its main purpose is to explore digressiveness as a style marker in Polish
scientific discourse. Digressions constitute only one aspect of the appar-
324 Anna Duszak
ent nonlinearity of such texts. A complementary concept of elaboration

is introduced here. Digressions and elaborations are discussed in the
context of their thematic and formal characteristics. On the content level,
they are interpreted in terms of background and redundancy. On the level
of form, they are evaluated in terms of various metatextual cues in the
text space. It is argued that formal cueing plays a decisive role in recover-
ing shifts in relevance allocation in academic texts. A reader evaluation
test is provided as an illustration.
2. Linear and digressive argumentation strategies
Contrastive academic rhetoric has at least a decade-long tradition in

modern text-linguistic studies. It associates among other things with a
sweeping distinction that was made between "Saxonic" and "Teutonic"
academic styles (Galtung 1985), viz., between linear and digressive pat-
terns of argumentation (Clyne 1981, 1987 a and b). The Saxonic (linear)
writing convention is said to characterize English, whereas the Teutonic
(digressive) style is attributed to the German scholarly traditions, be-
lieved now to extend to languages such as Polish, Czech, and Russian.
Linear patterns consist in showing only direct connections between
immediately relevant meanings. The writer is expected to come to the
point by moving in a straight line of logical thought through the subject
to an explicitly stated conclusion. Departures from the main course of
argumentation are strongly discouraged. Wordiness leading to unnecces-
ary redundancy is banned on cognitive and aesthetic grounds. In con-
trast, digressive writing appears to involve less rhetorical discipline in
that the importing of secondary material is legitimized, and less attention
is paid to the economical management of linguistic form.
It has been argued that texts loaded with digressions often seem un-
duly complex, unbalanced, incoherent, or redundant; it is believed that
digressiveness puts heavy demands on the reader's processing abilities. In
particular, readers unaccustomed to that kind of rhetoric may have to
expend extra effort in reading, and even then they may still find the main
line of the writer's thought obscure or difficult to follow ( C l y n e - H o e k s -
Kreutz 1988). A separate though not unrelated problem is that digressive
texts do not translate easily into languages in which linearity is preferred
(e. g., Clyne 1987 a and b; Nichols 1988; Duszak 1996). Historically en-
trenched rhetorical values interact here with system-bound dispositions
of the language. Thus, for instance, Polish or German sentences with
Analyzing digressiveness in Polish academic texts 325
multilayer embeddings or extended premodifications of the noun can

hardly be accommodated in English.
Variation in the flow of academic discourse is indeed a legitimate area
of cross-cultural investigation. At the same time, however, the distinction
between linear and digressive styles of argumentation is not sufficiently
clear, because both concepts are rather underspecified. In particular the
idea of digressiveness in text causes some difficulties. First of all, by con-
trasting digressiveness and linearity, we create the impression that digres-
sive texts are nonlinear in some way. In actuality, however, they only
show deviations from a "straight" course - that is, they assume some
sort of zigzag pattern. This interpretation follows from a graphic illustra-
tion of the various flows originally provided by Kaplan (1972) and then
adopted by Clyne (1981). Kaplan (1972: 410) provides three types of
movement (Fig. 1), where (a) has a genetic affinity with English, (b) with
Romance, and (c) with Russian.
(a) (b)
Figure 1
Commenting on the difference between (b) and (c), Kaplan emphasizes

that the former means freedom to digress and to introduce extraneous
material, while the latter is "similar", yet with different lengths and with
parenthetical amplifications of subordinate elements (Kaplan 1972: 409).
As an illustration Kaplan provides samples of French and Russian texts
that show importation of material irrelevant to the central idea of the
text. According to Clyne (1981: 62), Kaplan believes that the difference
between (b) and (c) is that (b) always clearly ends, while (c) "stops rather
than ends". All this, however, does not explain sufficiently the actual
difference between the straight and the broken zigzag lines. The problem
is clouded even further by Clyne's own doubts as to whether German is
actually an instance of the straight or of the broken line (Clyne 1981:
62); Clyne admits that on the basis of his research, German could fall
under either heading. Nonetheless, he still envisions digressiveness as a
dominant style marker of the German academic register and, following
Galtung (1985), argues for style affinities between German and Russian.
326 Anna Duszak
He makes no specific reference to Polish, but his account of German

writing patterns indicates that Polish academic writing too would qualify
as "digressive". The same can be said about Czech (Cmejrkovä 1994).
While examining the sources of the linear-digressive distinction, one
should remember that Kaplan's original concern was with paragraph
structure, and not with text development as such. Moreover, Kaplan was
primarily interested in the teaching of reading and composition to foreign
students. His observations were made on nonnative writing, and thus
they give only indirect evidence for the role of native rhetorical patterns
in developing writing proficiency in a foreign language. Nonetheless
Kaplan's work has been taken as a point of departure for studies in
contrastive rhetoric. Such an extension of his findings has been criticized
as unauthorized (e. g., Hinds 1982; Pery-Woodley 1990). To be fair, how-
ever, Clyne (1981, 1987 a and b) supplied empirical data from native aca-
demic discourse in English and in German that apparently support the
existence of Kaplan's linear and digressive patterns in texts.
3. Thematic and formal digressions
Clyne's work on German is indeed of great interest to scholars exploring

textual phenomena in languages that show no close genetic affinities with
English. This is so even though his perceptive observations can be treated
only as sweeping generalizations or guidelines for future research. One
of the problems that remain underspecified is the essence of digressive -
ness as a dominant style marker in languages of the Teutonic type. The
issue is of particular importance if the alleged difficulty with Teutonic
texts should arise from their high saturation with digressions.
In general, digressiveness is still an unexplored area in text and dis-
course studies. As a result, intuitive assessments often come into play in
deciding what makes a discourse segment digressive. Normally, digres-
sions are explained as intrusions in the current flow of argumentation.
They are believed to convey information that is not directly relevant to
what is in focus. Consider the definition of the verb "to digress" in Web-
ster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1977): "to turn aside, esp. from the main
subject of attention or course of argument in writing or speaking;
swerve". Digressions, then, belong to the background in discourse, viz.,
the material that is somewhat additional, peripheral, or supplementary,
and thus also of lower relevance to the argument in progress. Recognition
of digressiveness therefore depends on the perceived distribution of rele-
vance relations in texts. Normally, judgments of relevance are controlled

by parameters of text type and situation, and thus also by cultural norms
of appropriateness. In the case of academic argumentation, estimates of
relevance are also monitored by the intellectual and rhetorical expecta-
tions of a given academic community. In other words, the observation
that at one point the text digresses from an accepted line of argumenta-
tion may not be shared by all readers.
On the other hand, thematic digressiveness may be confronted with
formal digressiveness. This is what happens when thematic digressions
are made obtrusive in discourse by being formally marked by overt text
characteristics. Formal digressiveness leads to the creation of internal
divisions within the text space that reflect various rankings of relevance:
next to the "main body" of the text there may be quotations, footnotes,
and abstracts, as well as bracketed or italicized segments. These are entire
portions of text that are marked as not belonging to the "text proper"
through metatextual cues such as segment delimitation signals, change of
type, or the author's explicit declarations that she digresses and that she
returns to the main line of argumentation. The formal approach to di-
gressiveness is adopted, for instance, by Sachtleber (1990), who argues
that there are textual planes in the text space (Textgliederungsebenen) that
are metatextually marked for discourse status. Thus, the highest-level or
"running" text does not include quotations, footnotes or parenthetical
expressions. In a similar vein, Gajda (1982: 154ff.) talks about vertical
articulation of academic texts in Polish. He says that an academic text is
normally divided into the main text and a "side" text (tekst poboczny)
that includes digressions, remarks, and excurses, as well as citations, ref-
erences, biographical notes, and illustrations. These are distinguished by
special type, brackets, and other graphic means.
In this view, digressions are often discussed as institutionalized struc-
tures, viz., (lengthy) excurses that assume their own textual identity not
only in terms of meaning, but also through size and delimitation signals
(Schlüter 1974; Lux 1981; Clyne 1987 b; Gajda 1982). Normally, an ex-
cursus comprises a number of paragraphs, and it often has a metatext
that introduces it (e. g., "Let us take note of ...", "Let us sidetrack ..."),
or closes it (e. g., "And now let us return to ...").
Like thematic digressiveness, formal digressiveness can function as a
dimension of cross-cultural contrast in academic discourse (Dressier
1990; Sachtleber 1990). Dressler (1990: 92) notes, for instance, that the
English writing tradition prefers appendices and endnotes. This contrasts
with German, French, and other Continental traditions, where footnotes
328 Anna Duszak
occupy a more central position, being incorporated into the main body
of the text or imported in parallel texts. In other words, the English
tradition chooses to demote subsidiary material, whereas the German
upgrades it by treating digressions as dispersed background elements.
The position adopted here reconciles the thematic and the formal as-
pects of digressiveness. It is argued that the concept of digression in aca-
demic argumentation is a fuzzy phenomenon. Its core meaning is re-
flected by digressions proper, viz., discourse segments that have low the-
matic relevance to what is in focus and that are at the same time metatex-
tually marked for such secondary status. A "discourse segment" is not a
formal unit, so it is not limited in terms of text space. In consequence,
digressions may range from single phrases to entire paragraphs. With
respect to meaning, digressiveness can accommodate a variety of contents
that go beyond the central sense of "diverting from the main track". Next
to obtrusive interruptions of the main course, there are thematic inserts
that dilute the focus. These are the meanings that function as explica-
tions, amplifications, or reformulations of what has already been acti-
vated. In this sense they are not typical swerves-off-the-main-course, but
thematic detours, recyclings, or loops that put things on hold, and thus
also complicate the linear flow of the text. In what follows I describe
them as "elaborations" (the term is borrowed from Halliday 1985; cf.
"usage declaratives" in the sense of van Eemeren and Grootendorst
1992). Both digressions and elaborations increase the level of redundancy
in texts.
Halliday (1985) talks about elaborations while discussing types of rela-
tionships between clauses in discourse. According to him, there exist fun-
damental logical-semantic relations in texts that are formally marked. He
argues (1985: 303 ff.) that there are two categories of elaborative relation,
delivered with the help of various conjunctions: (a) apposition and
(b) clarification. In the case of apposition, some element is re-presented,
or restated, either by exposition (the "i. e." relation) or by example (the
"e. g." relation). Among typical expository conjunctive elements are "in
other words" and "that is (to say)"; typical exemplifying conjunctions
include "for example" and "thus". In the case of clarification the elabo-
rated element is not simply restated, but reinstated, summarized, made
more precise, or clarified in some other way.
Halliday's position is of interest here only for his account of elabora-
tions in terms of either apposition to or clarification of what has already
been imported into the discourse. By admitting elaborations into the
scope of background meanings in discourse, we reformulate our inter-
pretation of digressiveness as a style marker. The original graphic pre-

sentation of digressive patterns in texts (Fig. 1) is revised to incorporate
loops of thematic detours and reformulations (Fig. 2). This leads to an
extended interpretation of digressiveness: in addition to core digressive
meanings (thematic and formal digressions proper), there are meanings
that advance the flow of discourse only superficially by extending meta-
comments on contents that already stand in focus.
Figure 2
I suggest this revision even though I am fully aware that such graphs
are by far too impressionistic to have real explanatory adequacy. As a
matter of fact, Kaplan himself (1987) admitted that his original presenta-
tion was too strong.
By and large, it is assumed here that digressive texts are heavy on
background and full of redundancies. In addition, high metatextual den-
sity in such texts will produce excessive rhetorical density, which may
lead to a disruption of the reader's control over the intended distribution
of salience relations. In what follows the thematic and formal aspects of
digressiveness are discussed using the example of a Polish scholarly text
that was submitted for reader evaluation in terms of linearity.
4. Gradient of digressive meanings in Polish:

reader evaluation test
One of the questions that arise in discussing digressions in argumentation
is their obtrusiveness in academic texts. What makes them ostensive and
psychologically real? When do people qualify text segments as digressive?
Are Teutonic writers, or students of Teutonic writers, or Teutonic stu-
dents aware of digressiveness? Or does the exposure to digressive writings
blunt one's perceptibility of digressive contents in texts? Conceivably, di-
gressiveness might even neutralize the syndrome of a heavy text, since
the context would naturally activate intellectual readiness for deep pro-
cessing. A reader-evaluation test is discussed below as an illustration of
the problems at hand.
330 Anna Duszak
A two paragraph excerpt from a text on metaphor (a total of 254

words) was submitted for reader evaluation (see Appendix). Seventy-two
subjects were tested, all of them senior students of languages, majoring
in English or in a Slavic language. The task included two assignments.
First, the students were asked to reconstruct the author's basic claims
(the "summary" task) in order to show their understanding of the text.
Next, they were asked to say whether, in their opinion, the text contained
digressive parts. Those who answered in the affirmative were asked to
cross out those parts of the text they considered digressive (the "strip-
ping" task). The students were self-paced. The test was administered in
Polish.
An analysis of the students' "summaries" (task 1) shows that the sub-
jects reconstructed the logic of the author's argumentation in a similar
way. This can be seen in their concurrent identification of her main points
(focal claims). More specifically, the following assumptions were attrib-
uted to the author:
(1) metaphor is important for the establishment of coherence in texts;
(2) at first sight metaphor disrupts (damages) cohesion; (3) text cohesion
is (can/must be) restored by an appropriate interpretation of metaphor;
and (4) in order to make that restoration possible, one must go beyond
the formal sphere and into the immanent nature of the text, viz., text is
meant for coherent interpretation.
The two tasks are connected in that coherence in text and task under-
standing requires that what stays in the text under the "summary" task
should not be removed in the "stripping" task. The sentences in the origi-
nal that convey meanings pertaining to the main assumptions recovered
in the "summaries" in fact show the lowest rate of cross-outs in reader-
elicitation papers. On the other hand, text segments with a recognized
digressive character are excluded from what constitutes the skeleton of
the argument, even though they are not the only elements that fall out.
Obviously enough, there are many nondigressive elements that are also
left behind in extracting the gist of the passage.
My primary interest went to the subjects' performance under the
"stripping" task, viz., the distribution of cross-out weights in the text
space. Out of the 72 subjects tested, only five answered the second ques-
tion in the negative, that the text did not contain digressive material.
Those who believed the text did contain digressive elements ranged from
heavy to light strippers in performing the task. The results are shown
graphically on the English version of the text (Fig. 3). Incidentally, the
version has intentionally been left a bit rough in order to preserve some
of the flavor of the Polish original.
The darkness of the shading in Figure 3 reflects the frequency of the
cross-outs — that is, the number of times a given discourse segment was
earmarked as digressive. An eight-point scale was adopted, and divisions
were made every four cross-outs starting with 5 and ending with 45,
which was the highest score (Fig. 4).
In this way, the darker parts in the text represent those parts most
heavily weighted as background material; the lighter sections indicate
material that was found digressive by fewer students. The ultimate layout
of the over- and the under-marked areas in the text reflects the distribu-
tion of perceived relevance relations.
In discussing my findings, I shall focus on the following major obser-
vations. First, I shall point out the role of metadiscursive cuing in recog-
nizing digressiveness in texts. Next I shall argue that meanings perceived
as digressive also include elaborations on content in thematic focus: di-
gressiveness does not have to entail a swerve from the main line of argu-
mentation, viz., it may combine with a branching configuration of mean-
ings that goes in depth rather than sideways. Finally, "detachability" of
digressive segments is interpreted as an indicator of perceived redundancy
levels in texts heavy on background.
First of all, the parts of the text that were most frequently identified as
digressive were marked by the writer's self-committed shifts in relevance
allocation. Namely, high redundancy weights in reader elicitation papers
coincided with formal exponents of digressiveness. Among them were
various graphic and verbal signals, such as brackets, dashes, or semico-
lons. Consider the bracketed part in sentence six in the original text (Ex-
ample 1), and the segment between the dashes in sentence seven (Exam-
ple 2), which received two of the highest scores, [70] and [60] respectively.
(1) Let us right away ask the question about how is it possible
that such coherence-disrupting expressions (sometimes very
difficult, outright impossible for a sensible interpretation) re-
spond nonetheless to the procedure of sense restoration, and,
accordingly - also to the reconstruction of the text's coher-
ence.
(2) An answer to this question should be looked for - as this is
indicated by unsuccessful search for formal exponents of the
metaphor — beyond the formal sphere, for it follows from the
immanent nature of the text, from its objective existence.
332 Anna Duszak
The semantic properties of the metaphor that are outlined here reveal
the importance of this phenomenon for utterance coherence. The
metaphor, received in the first phase of comprehension as a
predication that is unacceptabie b cause at odds wan our lexical
that damages the cohesion
of the text. Therefore the first problem that arises here is that of
restoration of that cohesion through such an interpretation of the
metaphor that would include the identification of both its themes, the
establishment of their relations, and an attempt at understanding the
foundations of their relationship.!In other words, a surprising,
cohesion-damaging metaphorical expression must be understood as
meaningful, and must be interpreted according to the scheme
characteristic of its semantic structure.
Let us right away ask the question about how it is possible that such
coherence-disrupting expressions (sometimes very difficult, outright
impossible for a sensible interpretation) respond nonetheless to the
(procedure of) sense restoration, and acc< wwm
he xt c< 'ice An answer to this question

should be looked for as (this is) indicated by unsuccessful search
or formal exponents of the metaphor - beyond the formal sphere,
|j&|HU|yAtyA^
while it follows from trie immanent nature of the text, from its
a text with a locally broken semantic link does
not cease to be a certain global semantic structure that enters into
the sphere of operation of definite textual conventions and that
. - :. : :;, . f nie It
Therefore, the metaphor,

is at the same time meant for a coherent inter
Figure 3
In other words, the results of the test suggest that the attribution of
digressive meanings to texts is strongly influenced by metatextual cuing.
Such signals make the background status of a discourse segment more
obtrusive, and thus also more easily recognizable as not belonging to text
proper.
The second major observation concerns the integrity of the concept of
digression in academic argumentation. The analysis of the data validated
the assumption that thematic digressiveness is a fuzzy concept and that
it actually accommodates extensions into various perceptions of back-
ground in discourse. It is significant, for instance, that the highest redun-
dancy ranking, [80], was obtained for a sentence that opened with the
author explicitly signaling a reformulation of some previous contents,
rather than a departure from the argument in focus.
COLOUR SCALE POINTS CROSS-OUTS
[0] 0*4
[10] 5*9
[20] 10* 14
[30] 15* 19
[40] 20*24
[50] 25*29
[60] 30*34
[70] 35*39
[80] 40*45
Figure 4
334 Anna Duszak
(3) In other words, a surprising, cohesion-damaging metaphorical

expression must be understood as meaningful, and must be
interpreted according to the scheme characteristic of its se-
mantic structure.
High redundancy levels were also ascribed to other appositive mean-

ings in the text. This concerns, for instance, the segments following the
final comma and before the end of the sentence in (1) and (2), which
both scored [40]. These are, respectively: "and, accordingly - also to the
reconstruction of the text's coherence", and "from its objective exis-
tence". Thematic digressions of this kind are described here as elabora-
tions. Elaborations function as a form of thematic drilling whose main
purpose is to restate, specify, or further clarify meanings that are already
activated. Both digressions and elaborations expand the text and slow
down the flow of discourse. Neither, however, results in an essential ad-
vancement of communication. From the point of view of linearity, they
may be described as redundant.
Digressions proper and elaborations may in fact coincide, producing
configurations of background meanings in texts. Such an overlay of
background meanings can be seen in (1). The bracketed expression con-
stitutes a digression proper: if the main text approaches metaphorical
expressions through their coherence-obstructing quality, the part in
brackets redirects the reader's attention to the difficulty with the inter-
pretation of such expressions. In addition, the digression contains an
embedded elaboration ("outright impossible for a sensible interpreta-
tion") that comments on the possible degree of that difficulty. On the
other hand, the expression "the reconstruction of the text's coherence",
which comes at the end of this sentence, is an elaboration, as it only
reformulates the preceding proposition ("sense restoration"). The redun-
dancy of this segment is even more apparent given the whole of the pre-
ceding paragraph, in which coherence is discussed in terms of compatible
sense relations.
A similar overlay of digressive meanings takes place in (2), where the
part in hyphens is clearly a digressive insert, whereas the sentence-final
segment ("from its objective existence") is a mere reformulation of the
preceding description, "from the immanent nature of the text", and thus
functions as an elaboration proper.
Finally, the metatextual environment of digressive meanings has vary-
ing consequences for the perceived integrity of the whole text. Formally
delimited digressions and elaborations are obtrusive and thus readily rec-
ognized. Digressive meanings that are incorporated into the "running"

text are less obvious exponents of digressive strategies in argumentation.
This follows from the analysis of the strength of the "stripping mecha-
nism" under task 2. A question arose as to whether there were any parts
in the text not marked for removal, or marked only to an insignificant
extent, even though they conveyed information that was in principle sec-
ondary to the argument in focus. An analysis of the passage reveals a
number of elaborations that were under-marked (or left intact) in reader-
elicitation papers. For instance, the metaphor is described in the second
sentence as "a factor that damages the cohesion of the text". In the fourth
sentence it is reinstated as "a surprising, cohesion-damaging expression",
and in the sixth sentence it is defined as "a coherence-disrupting expres-
sion". The last two referring expressions are repetitions of an "adverse"
property of the metaphor already established in the second sentence. Yet
in reader elicitation tests, the first repetition received 45 cross-outs [80],
whereas the second one was marked for omission only 8 times [10].
A similar disproportion in scores could be seen in the handling of
claim recyclings. The claim made in the third sentence ("text cohesion
must be restored by a specific interpretation of the metaphor") is re-
worded in the fourth sentence ("metaphor must be made meaningful"),
and again in the sixth sentence ("metaphor must have its sense restored").
Here again the first reformulation was crossed out 45 times, while the
second was disposed of only 10 times.
In both cases, the disparity in the dismissal counts results from varying
textual placement of respective formulations. A high elimination rate was
found for segments easy to leave out; a low elimination rate was observed
in cases where the repeated formulation was practically impossible to
remove without damaging the syntactic integrity of the text. At this point
it is to be admitted that the stripping task elicited some reservations. A
few students despaired of the job and claimed that sometimes it was
difficult to isolate redundancies as the line of argumentation looped up.
In order to straighten it, global editing would be necessary. It would be
easier, as one student put it, to rewrite the text than to "trim" it by
removing redundant or digressive parts.
5. Conclusion
I have explored here digressiveness as a style marker in Polish academic
writing using data evaluation from reader-elicitation tests. The mecha-
336 Anna Duszak
nism of digressing consists in the importation of peripheral, supplemen-

tary, or additional material that functions as background in discourse,
and that may assume its own metatextual identity. The strategy leads to
the emergence of formal and thematic hierarchies within the text space.
The point of departure was the concept of digression proper, where a
thematic swerve from the course of argumentation is made obtrusive by
metatextual cues such as segment delimitation signals, italics, or bracket-
ing. It was argued that digressions proper constitute only one aspect of
what has the impressionistic name of "Teutonic style". At least in Polish
academic texts, digressions are on a par with elaborations, viz., reformu-
lations, restatements, amplifications, explications, or clarifications of
what has already been said or implied. Unlike digressions, elaborations
interrupt the course of argumentation only to show a different path to
the same end. Most forceful are the elaborations coming in sentence-final
position, for they exploit the propensity of the left-most part of the Polish
sentence to communicate most informative contents. In this way, they
act to "wind up" the discussion and thus also reinforce the author's main
point.
Digressiveness leads to the proliferation of repetition, reinstatement,
and substitution. Departures from course have to be repaired by recover-
ing the path to the original address, by adjusting focus, and by redirecting
the attention of the reader. Elaborations proper have a similar effect, for
they suspend the flow of discourse by revisiting themes. This is normally
done by thematic drilling, viz., when a given proposition is approached
from various angles and to various degrees of specificity. In effect, the
digressive style of writing increases textual redundancy in discourse. Since
there is more form to cope with, more processing effort must be exerted
by the reader in order to maintain orientation as to what is in the fore-
ground. Ultimately, therefore, configurations of elaborations and digres-
sions constitute an essential source of complexity of the so-called digres-
sive style, and contribute heavily to the potential effect of an overloaded,
redundant, or heavy text.
Finally, the difficulty with background recognition and integration
grows as its metatextual marking in texts decreases. Metadiscursive cuing,
whether graphic or verbal, functions as (re)orientation signals in estimat-
ing the thematic status of the incoming text. In this way it also supports
salience-controlling mechanisms in discourse processing. In contrast to
digressions, elaborations are normally more integrated in the main line
of argumentation, and thus less accessible to clear salience ranking. An-
ticipated elaborations put the system on alert much more than antici-
pated digressions proper; with the latter, the reader may risk simply skim-
ming the insert or leaving it out altogether. With the former, more careful
scanning is necessary: anticipated elaborations warn the processor that a
subtle rectification of the author's position can be expected, though there
may ultimately be none. In this case, the elaborated content is a mere
repetition of the previous proposition.
Finally, digressiveness is not to be seen only, or predominantly, as a
matter of ideation. It also enters interpersonal relations in discourse, and
calls for discussion in terms of the interactive processes in academic com-
munication.
Appendix
Naszkicowane tu wlasciwosci znaczenia metafory uwidaczniaj^, jak istotne jest to zjawisko

dla sprawy koherencji wypowiedzi. Metafora, odbierana w pierwszej fazie rozumienia jako
predykacja niemozliwa do przyj^cia, bo niezgodna ζ wiedz§ stownikow^ i pozajezykow^,
stanowi czynnik rozbijaj^cy spojnosc tekstu. Dlatego pierwszym nasuwaj^cym si? pro-
blemem b?dzie tu sprawa przywrocenia owej spojnosci poprzez swoist^ interpretacji meta-
fory, uwzglgdniaj^c^ identyfikacje obu jej tematow, ustalenie ich relacji oraz prob? rozumie-
nia podstaw ich zwi^zku. Innymi slowy, zaskakuj^ce, rozbijaj^ce spojnosc tekstu wyrazenie
przenosne musi bye uznane w odbiorze za sensowne i musi zostac odezytane wedle sche-
matu wtasciwego jego strukturze tresciowej. Jest to warunek przywrocenia w danym miejscu
zwi^zköw wewn^trztekstowych i uczynienia tekstu koherentnym.
Zadajmy sobie od razu pytanie, co sprawia, ze takie zaklocaj^ce koherencje wyrazenia
(czasem bardzo trudne, wr?cz karkolomnie trudne do sensownej interpretacji) podlegaj^
jednak procedurze przywrocenia ich sensownosci, a co za tym idzie - odtworzenia koher-
encji tekstu. Odpowiedzi na to pytanie szukac trzeba — jak na to wskazuj^ chybione pos-
zukiwania formalnych wyznacznikow metafory — poza sfer^ formaln^, wynika zas ona ζ
samej istoty tekstu, ζ jego przedmiotowego istnienia. Tekst ο zerwanej lokalnie semantycz-
nej wifzi spojnosciowej nie przestaje mianowicie bye pewn^ calosciowg. struktur^ materi-
a l ^ , wchodz^c^ w zakres dzialania okreslonych konwencji tekstowych i przeznaczon^ do
wypelnienia jednego celu komunikacyjnego. Ze wzgl^du na to jest niejako "zadany" do
spojnego odczytania: wi^ze si? to ζ przypisywaniem nadawcy tego tekstu calosciowej in-
tencji komunikacyjnej. Ze wzglfdu na to metafora, naruszaj^ca koherencj? tekstu, jest zara-
zem przeznaczona do spojnej interpretacji, przy czym (w zaleznosci od zawartych w tekscie
danych) ta interpretacja jest latwiejsza b^dz trudniejsza, daje mniej lub bardziej rozbudo-
wany sens. (Dobrzyriska 1983: 285-286)
[0]/l (1). Naszkicowane tu wlasciwosci znaczenia metafory uwidaczniaj^, jak istotne
jest to zjawisko dla sprawy koherencji wypowiedzi.
[The semantic properties of the metaphor that are outlined here reveal the impor-
tance of this phenomenon for utterance coherence.]
[20]/10 (2). Metafora, odbierana w pierwszej fazie rozumienia jako predykacja niemoz-
liwa do przyjfcia,
338 Anna Duszak
[The metaphor, received in the first phase of comprehension as a predication that

is unacceptable,]
[30]/l 6 bo niezgodna ζ wiedz^ slownikow^ i pozajezykow^,
[because it is at odds with our lexical and extralinguistic knowledge,]
[20]/10 stanowi czynnik rozbijaj^cy spojnosc tekstu.
[is a factor that damages the cohesion of the text.]
[10]/6 (3). Dlatego pierwszym nasuwaj^cym si? problemem b?dzie tu sprawa przywro-
cenia owej spojnosci poprzez swoist^ interpretacj? metafory,
[Therefore the first problem that arises here is that of restoration of that cohesion
through such an interpretation of the metaphor]
[20]/11 uwzglgdniajîqi identyfikacje obu jej tematöw, ustalenie ich relacji oraz prob?
rozumienia podstaw ich zwi^zku.
[that would include the identification of both its themes, the establishment of
their relations, and an attempt at understanding the foundations of their relation-
ship.]
[80]/45 (4). Innymi slowy, zaskakuj^ce, rozbijaj^ce spojnosc tekstu wyrazenie przenosne
musi bye uznane w odbiorze za sensowne i musi zostac odezytane wedle sche-
matu wlasciwego jego strukturze tresciowej.
[In other words, a surprising, cohesion-damaging metaphorical expression must
be understood as meaningful, and must be interpreted according to the scheme
characteristic of its semantic structure.]
[50]/27 (5). Jest to warunek przywrocenia w danym miejscu zwi^zkow wewn^trzteksto-
wych i uczynienia tekstu koherentnym.
[It is under this condition that intratextual relations can be restored in a given
text place and the text can be made coherent.]
[paragraph indentation]
[10]/8 (6). Zadajmy sobie od razu pytanie, co sprawia, ze takie zaklocaj^ce koherencje
wyrazenia
[Let us right away ask the question about how it is possible that such coherence-
disrupting expressions]
[70]/38 (czasem bardzo trudne, wr§cz karkotomnie trudne do sensownej interpretacji)
[(sometimes very difficult, outright impossible for a sensible interpretation)]
[20]/10 podlegaj^ jednak procedurze przywrocenia ich sensownosci,
[respond nonetheless to the procedure of sense restoration,]
[40]/23 a co za tym idzie - odtworzenia koherencji tekstu.
[and, accordingly - also to the reconstruction of the text's coherence.]
[10]/8 (7). Odpowiedzi na to pytanie szukac trzeba
[An answer to this question should be looked for]
[60]/32 — jak na to wskazuj§ chybione poszukiwania formalnych wyznacznikow meta-
fory —
[ - as this is indicated by unsuccessful search for formal exponents of the meta-
phor - ]
[10]/8 poza sfer£ formaln^,

[beyond the formal sphere,]
[30J/15 wynika zas ona ζ samej istoty tekstu,
[as it follows from the immanent nature of the text,]
[40J/24 ζ jego przedmiotowego istnienia.
[from its objective existence.]
[20J/14 (8). Tekst ο zerwanej lokalnie semantycznej wifzi spojnosciowej nie przestaje mi-
anowicie bye pewn<i calosciow^ struktur^ material^,
[Namely, a text with a locally broken semantic link does not cease to be a global
material structure,]
[30]/19 wchodz^c^ w zakres dzialania okreslonych konwencji tekstowych i przeznaczon?
do wypelnienia jednego celu komunikacyjnego.
[that enters into the sphere of operation of definite textual conventions and that
serves the performance of a single communicative goal.]
[40]/21 (9). Ze wzglfdu na to jest niejako "zadany" do spojnego odczytania;
[Therefore, it is in a way "destined" for a coherent reading;]
[50]/26 wi^ze si? to ζ przypisywaniem nadawcy tego tekstu calosciowej intencji komuni-
kacyjnej.
[this follows from the attribution to the maker of the text of a global communica-
tive intention.]
[30]/16 (10). Ze wzglgdu na to metafora,
[Therefore, the metaphor,]
[40]/22 naruszaj^ca koherencj? tekstu,
[disrupting the coherence of the text]
[30]/17 jest zarazem przeznaczona do spojnej interpretacji, przy czym
[is at the same time meant for a coherent interpretation, even though,]
[50]/25 (w zaleznosci od zawartych w tekscie danych)
[(depending on the content of the text)]
[40]/22 ta interpretacja jest latwiejsza b^dz trudniejsza, daje mniej lub bardziej rozbudo-
wany sens.
[this interpretation is easier, or more difficult, and gives a more or a less expanded
sense.]
Symbols:
[ ] - points on scale of 80
/ - precedes number of actually attested cross-outs
( ) - succesive sentence numbers in the original text
Note
* This work was supported by the Research Support Scheme of the Higher Education
Support Program, grant no. 355/1995.
340 Anna Duszak
References
Clyne, Michael
1981 "Culture and discourse structure", Journal of Pragmatics 5: 61-66.
1987 a "Discourse structures and discourse expectations: some implications for An-
glo-German academic communication", in: Larry Smith (ed.), 73-84.
1987 b "Cultural differences in the organization of academic texts", Journal of Prag-
matics 11: 211-247.
Clyne, Michael-Jimmy Hoeks-Heinz-Josef Kreutz
1988 "Cross-cultural responses to academic discourse patterns", Folia Linguistica
22: 457-475.
Cmejrkovä, Svetlä
1994 "Non-native (academic) writing", in: Svetlä Cmejrkovä-Frantisek D a n e s -
Cmejrkovä, Svetlä-Frantisek Danes-Eva Havlovä (eds.)
1994 Writing vs speaking. Language, text, discourse, communication. Tübingen:
Gunter Narr Verlag.
Connor, Ulla-Robert Kaplan (eds.)
1987 Writing across languages: analysis of L2 text. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Croft, Kenneth (ed.)
1972 Readings on English as a second language. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop Pub-
lishers.
Dobrzyriska, Teresa
1983 "Metafora a spojnosc tekstu" [Metaphor and text coherence], in: Teresa
Dobrzynska-Elzbieta Janus (eds.), 281-303.
Dobrzyriska, Teresa-Elzbieta Janus (eds.)
1983 Tekst i zdanie [Text and sentence]. Wroclaw: Ossolineum.
Dressier, Wolfgang
1990 "The cognitive perspective of 'naturalist' linguistic models", Cognitive Lin-
guistics 1: 75-98.
Duszak, Anna
1996 Gramatyka a dyskurs: problemy przkiadu [Grammar, discourse and transla-
tion], in: Jurij Lukszyn (ed.), 101-120.
Gajda, Stanislaw
1982 Podstawy badan stylistycznych nad jezykiem naukowym [Foundations of sty-
listic studies of scientific language]. Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawnictwa Nau-
kowe.
1990 Wspolczesna polszczyzna naukowa. Jgzyk czy zargon? [Contemporary Polish
scientific style. Language or jargon?]. Opole: Instytut Sl^ski.
Galtung, Johan
193.
Halliday, Michael Α. K.
Hinds, John
1982 "Contrastive rhetoric: Japanese and English", Text 3: 183-196.
Kaplan, Robert
1972 "Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education", in: Kenneth Croft
(ed.), 399-418.
1987 "Cultural thought patterns revisited", in: Ulla Connor-Robert Kaplan
(eds.), 9 - 2 1 .
Lukszyn, Jurij (ed.)
1996 Gramatyki translawyjne [Translational grammars]. Warsaw: TOPOS.
Lux, Friedemann
1981 Text, Situation, Textsorte. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Nichols, Johanna
Pery-Woodley, Marie-Paule
1990 "Contrasting discourses: contrastive analysis and a discourse approach to
writing", Language Teaching (July): 143 — 151.
Sachtleber, Susanne
1990 "Linearität vs. Digressivität. Wissenschaftliche Texte im zweisprachigen Ver-
gleich", Folia Linguistica 24: 105-122.
Schlüter, Hermann
1974 Grundkurs der Rhetorik. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag.
Smith, Larry (ed.)
1987 Discourse across cultures. Strategies in world Englishes. New York: Prentice-
Hall.
van Eemeren F r a n s - R o b Grootendorst
1992 Argumentation, communication and fallacies. A pragma-dialectical perspective.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
1985 Das Fremde und das Eigene. Munich: Iudicum Verlag.
Inference in science and popular science
Merja Koskela
1. Background
Scientific and popular scientific texts form an interesting basis for com-
parison because they effectively reflect the problems we encounter every
day due to the increasing specialization in our society. It seems, for exam-
ple, that news concerning finance, industry, and technology in different
media tend to become more and more difficult for a layman to under-
stand.
Different studies at various levels of language have shown that differ-
ences exist between professional and popular texts that are connected
with the expected readers' knowledge of the subject. For instance, studies
of textual coherence and discourse processes have yielded interesting re-
sults (Varantola 1987; Lundquist 1989; Myers 1991; Nwogu-Bloor 1991;
Bloor-Bloor 1992).
Studies of cohesion and coherence 1 in scientific and popular scientific
texts generally take one of two opposing views. According to the first
one, scientific texts are decontextualized and their coherence depends
solely on the use of explicit cohesive devices. In modern research, how-
ever, this view has been more or less rejected (for discussion see Nystrand
1986: 81 ff.; Sinclair 1993: 530 ff.). According to the second view, the read-
ers of scientific texts are better able to see implicit textual relations be-
cause they have more background knowledge, whereas the readers of
popular science need explicitly marked textual relations in order to
understand the text as a coherent whole (see for example Myers 1991: 1).
It seems then that popular texts achieve coherence through the use of
pronouns, synonyms, and other explicit cohesive devices, whereas scien-
tific texts rely on lexical repetition and implicit lexical relations, inference
(cf. Myers 1991: 17 f.; Lundquist 1989: 136 ff.).
From this one might conclude that more inferential activity is required
of the reader of scientific texts than of the reader of popular scientific
texts. This conclusion can be further supported by research results con-
cerning text-connectors. It has been shown that text-connectors are
marked explicitly in popular science, but not as often in science, because
the latter readers are able to infer the connection thanks to their knowl-
edge of the subject (Myers 1991: 22; Ventola-Mauranen 1992: 463).
344 Merja Koskela
In the present paper I intend to elaborate further the idea of inference

as a textual relation in scientific and popular scientific texts. First I will
discuss how the concept of inference can be defined. Second, I will present
some results of my previous research, and based on them I will suggest
a preliminary categorization of types of inference that can be found in
Swedish scientific and popular scientific texts. Third, I will discuss
whether there is a difference between science and popular science with
respect to the different types.
2. Inference as a means of creating coherence in a text

The concept of inference was originally introduced in formal logic, but it
is often used in psychology as well. In cognitive psychology and artificial
intelligence inference is defined as a process of filling in the missing con-
nections between the surface structure fragments of the text by recourse
to context and knowledge about the world. This has been called the text-
based view (Collins-Brown-Larkin 1980: 386; cf. Clark 1992: 4 f.).
According to another, model-based view, inference can be seen as a
process of synthesizing the surface structure fragments in the text with
an underlying model, a frame, that organizes the text as a coherent whole
in the mind of the reader. In this view, inference is controlled by the
reader's expectations regarding the contents of the text (Collins-
Brown-Larkin 1980: 386; cf. Rothkegel 1991: 193).
According to the model-based view readers always have a primary
hypothesis as to what the text may be about generally when they begin
reading. This hypothesis is based on all the information readers can de-
rive from the situation in which the text is presented to them - where
the text was published, who wrote it and why, etc. In addition, the hy-
pothesis is supported by the encyclopedic knowledge every member of
the language community has: no people who understand a language will
totally lack this knowledge, also referred to as world knowledge or shared
knowledge (for discussion of the concepts of shared knowledge and com-
mon ground see for example Clark 1992: 4 f.).
However, the quality and the quantity of this knowledge is highly
individual, and different readers tend to construct somewhat different
meanings of the text depending on their attitudes toward the text, their
motivation for reading it, and other contextual factors. Even though
there is no doubt that understanding depends on the knowledge the
reader possesses and on the context in question, the possibilities of dif-
Inference in science and popular science 345
ferent interpretations are not infinite because they are always constrained
by the text itself. Otherwise it would make no sense for the writer to
write the text in the first place. After all, the writer presumes s/he is
sending a coherent message to the readers.
Understanding a certain type of coherence is very much a matter of
degree, and has to be described in terms of tendencies rather than rules.
However, people always try to make sense of a text presented to them:
they automatically presume that there is some kind of coherence, whether
the present reader is able to understand it or not (Clark 1992; Duszak
1994: 365). Thus, if for some reason confronted with a scientific text, a
layman will automatically presume that the text is coherent.
The ideas presented above indicate that inference is a powerful tool for
describing textual coherence. On the one hand it can be used to analyze
connections between elements in a text, which is the case in this paper; but
on the other hand it also helps to describe the ways readers construct mod-
els that enable them to understand texts (cf. Collins-Brown-Larkin 1980:
386).
Theoretical models of this kind are typical of the discussion of coher-
ence and inference because of the relative character of the phenomena.
Textual coherence that makes understanding possible is the result of a
subjective, knowledge-based interpretation and is therefore relative, as
are the cognitive processes operating on contextual and cotextual infor-
mation (van de Velde 1992: 18). The subjectivity and relativity of the
concepts also imply that there can be no objective, intersubjectively verifi-
able methods of studying coherence or inference.
However, at some point attempts must be made to bridge the gap
between theoretical ideas and practical text analysis if we want to obtain
results from analyses of real texts produced in different social contexts.
Therefore, although I am well aware of the hazards of the task, I will
make an attempt to use the concept of inference in the form of a textual
relation when I categorize different ways of creating coherence in authen-
tic scientific popular scientific texts.
3. Previous research
In an earlier study (Koskela 1996), I analyzed some types of textual rela-
tions that are constitutive of the thematic structure of Swedish scientific
and popular scientific texts. The corpus of the study comprises 40 texts
representing two fields of science, namely physics and archeology, from
which 675 thematic elements have been sampled.
346 Merja Koskela
The results indicate that identity and inference are the most common
types of connection on the thematic level in my material, both in science
and in popular science. The proportions of these two types are presented
in Table 1. The textual relations categorized under Other comprise a vari-
ety of different types of connections, of which pronominalization, synon-
ymy, and exophoric relation are the most common. Their individual pro-
portions do not, however, exceed those of identity and inference (see
Koskela 1996).
Table 1. Proportions of some intersentential textual relations in Swedish scientific and

popular scientific texts (according to Koskela 1996)
Sei (%) Pop (%)
Identity 33,2 34,1

Inference 31,9 20,7
Other 34,9 45,2
Total 100,0 100,0
The results presented in Table 1 indicate that the proportion of identity

in science and popular science remains relatively stable in spite of genre,
whereas the proportion of inference is higher in science than in popular
science. One reason for this might be the more extensive use of expert
information in creating coherence in scientific texts.
However, compared with other types of textual relations, the overall
proportion of inference in popular science still seems to be fairly high,
which leads to the conclusion that different kinds of background knowl-
edge can be used in creating coherence through inference on the thematic
level. Naturally, inference on the thematic level is also supported by other
textual relations present in the text.
The types of textual relations considered in the above study are il-
lustrated by Example 1. In the study I have defined theme basically ac-
cording to Halliday's (1985: 53—56) definition, where theme is, to put it
very roughly, the first nominal phrase in a sentence. (The themes in the
example are marked in italics.)
(1) a. Almost no attention has been paid to the existence of polished

surfaces occurring in the neighbourhood of rock-carvings,
b. In the province of Uppland, the author has observed several
cases of such surfaces ...
c. In the province of Bohuslän, there exists a similar polished

sloping rock.
d. Popular tradition says that women used to slide down this
rock in order to become fertile.
e. These slopes have parallels in the Alps of Southern Tyrol and
Switzerland.
The text is from an English abstract of a scientific article written by a

Swedish archeologist. The text discusses Polished rock-surfaces close by
rock-carvings. The themes of the sentences have different relations to the
theme of the text and to each other. For example, the themes of the first
and the second sentence can be inferred from the reader's background
knowledge (i. e., that to study something means paying attention to it,
and that countries are divided into provinces). Not so much extratextual
knowledge is needed when interpreting the theme of the third sentence
(c), because it is partly a repetition of the second theme. The theme of
the fourth sentence (d) again requires an inference from the reader,
whereas the theme of the fifth sentence (e) stands in what can be called an
identity relation to the theme in sentence 3 {sloping rock - these slopes).
From this short example we can conclude what several studies have
shown before: knowledge-based inference is crucial for understanding a
text (cf. for instance Oakhill-Garnham 1988: 21 f.). Additionally, for the
reader to make an adequate interpretation of the different cases of infer-
ence encyclopedic information of different kinds is required.
4. Inference according to addressee

It is a common assumption that there is more inference in science than
in popular science because writers of popular science tend to compensate
for their readers' lack of background knowledge with lexical explicitness.
According to Lundquist (1989: 139, 143), this is the case in French scien-
tific and popular scientific texts. In her study she comes to the conclusion
that coherence in popular science tends to be conceptual-thematic,
whereas coherence in science is of a deeply semantic nature and therefore
beyond the comprehension of a layman.
Basically, Lundquist (1989: 134) distinguishes between two kinds of
coherence: coherence-for-an-expert and coherence-for-a-nonexpert. Natu-
rally, the categories do not aim at creating clear-cut distinctions in real
texts. The types of connection that form coherence-for-a-nonexpert are
348 Merja Koskela
explicit textual relations, and they are available to all readers that know
the language in which the text is written, whereas the types of connection
forming coherence-for-an-expert are often implicit relations available
only to those who have the required knowledge of the subject discussed.
However, it is evident that the implicit relations, and above all infer-
ence, are based on a wide variety of different kinds of background knowl-
edge. In order to test this empirically, I have chosen to distinguish three
different types of background information that can be used as a basis for
inference on the thematic level: (1) inference based on general informa-
tion; (2) inference based on knowledge of scientific practice; and (3) infer-
ence based on expert knowledge.
In the categorization, general information includes contextual facts
most members of a language community share, whereas the two other
types require knowledge of the textual theme - i. e., general knowledge
of science or special knowledge of the theme itself.
In the next three sections I will apply the categorization to the material
used in my earlier study (Koskela 1996), and discuss what kinds of differ-
ences there are in the types of inference used in science and popular
science. Because of the subjective nature of the phenomena studied, the
discussion will be purely qualitative, even though some rough quantita-
tive estimates will be necessary for the sake of comparison.
The texts studied here are Swedish, but it is obvious that inference is
not a language-bound feature, and therefore the ideas presented here can
have relevance for other languages as well. There probably are, however,
some cultural differences concerning inference in different languages.
4.1. Inference based on general information

For any communication to be successful, participants need to have some
shared knowledge. When all information that emerges in a text can be
connected with something the reader already knows, the text is experi-
enced as coherent and understanding is guaranteed. In this way the
shared knowledge functions as a frame of reference to which new facts
are related.
One way of creating coherence and thus assuring that readers are able
to understand the text is to use overt cohesive devices - for example,
lexical repetition, synonymy, or pronominalization. Another, somewhat
more complex way is to use inference based on general information.
According to the results of my study, inference based on general infor-
mation is more common in popular science than in science. One impor-
tant reason for this is that the writing of popular science is constrained by
two conflicting aims: to be understandable and to be interesting. Lexical
repetition, for example, is clear and understandable, but it can hardly
make a text interesting. In scientific texts, however, it can serve another
purpose - namely, the need of being explicit for the sake of replicability.
The concept of general information is highly subjective. In order to
find the right level of explicitness, writers must have some kind of esti-
mate of what their readers know. Example 2 demonstrates the type of
knowledge that can be considered to be shared by readers of popular
science:
(2) a. Men kanske lag 700-talets politiska tyngdpunkt i själva verket

betydligt längre österut?
b. Isländska sagor talar om mäktiga kungar i Skäne strax före
vikingatiden, som lägger under sig stora delar av södra öster-
sjöomrädet.
[a. But maybe the political focus of the 700s actually lay consider-
ably further east?
b. The Icelandic sagas depict powerful kings in Skäne just before
the Viking Age, who subdue large areas south of the Baltic
Sea.]
The text extract stems from a popular scientific article describing an im-
portant commercial center in northern Europe in A. D. 800. When read-
ing the second sentence the reader is supposed to understand the connec-
tion between historical facts and Icelandic sagas. For people living in the
Nordic countries who read popular scientific texts on archeology, this
knowledge can obviously be considered to be shared. For other people,
such an inference may not be as easy to make.
In popular science the most typical way of creating coherence is
through references to time or to geographical names. These are shared
by all and are therefore useful for relating new information to the readers'
previous knowledge.
(3) a. CERN är Europas gemensamma laboratorium för partikel-

fysik, beläget utanför Geneve pä gränsen mellan Schweiz och
Frankrike.
b. Hosten 1989 invigdes med pompa och stät LEP, 1990-talets
stora accelerator pä CERN.
350 Merja Koskela
[a. CERN is the common European laboratory for particle phys-

ics, situated outside Geneva on the border between Switzer-
land and France,
b. In the autumn of 1989 the LEP, the large accelerator of the
1990s in CERN was inaugurated with pomp and circum-
stance.]
In Example 3, the writer of a popular scientific article about the structure

of materia has for some reason chosen to relate the new information to
time, not to the previous theme, CERN. Both choices were available, but
the inference based on general information leads the text forward more
efficiently than repetition would.
In scientific texts, the need to create common ground through infer-
ence based on general information is not as acute as in popular science,
because the scientific context in itself as well as the kind of language used
(terms, nominalizations, etc.) signals what values and ideas are shared
by the writer and the reader. However, in creating coherence, general
information can be useful in all kinds of texts.
Examples 4 and 5 illustrate what kind of general information can be
used as the basis of inference in scientific texts.
(4) a. Vissa kvaliteter av LD-polyeten kan vara i det närmaste

omöjligt att fä bort ifrän metallplattorna.
b. Tidigare erfarenheter visar att rester av mylarfolie, som är
polärt, pä polyetenplattorna päverkar förlustfaktorn.
[a. Certain qualities of LD-polyethylene can be practically impos-
sible to remove from the metal plates,
b. Earlier experiences have shown that traces of mylar foil, which
is polar, on the polyethylene plates affect the dielectric loss
factor.]
In Example 4 (b) it is implied that the same type of research has been
carried out before. This can be considered general information, even
though deeper understanding (i. e., what the results were) requires expert
knowledge.
In scientific archeological texts, inference based on general informa-
tion is common. This is probably due to the fact that the archeological
texts in my material often deal with phenomena that are part of everyday
life even today.
(5) a. Föreställningen om att själen frigörs vid kroppens förstöring är

ofta intimt förbunden med en tro pä reinkarnation.
b. Denna förstöring av kroppen anses mycket viktig och kan
tillgä pä olika sätt.
c. Kremering är ett av de vanligare tillvägagängssätten.
[a. The idea that the soul is released when the body is destroyed is
often intimately connected with belief in reincarnation.
b. This destruction of the body is considered very important and
can take place in different ways.
c. Cremation is one of the more usual ways.]
In Example 5, the inference required for the understanding of how the

theme in the third sentence, cremation, is related to the textual theme is
based on general information. The reader is expected to know more than
the text reveals — that is, what cremation is.
The results show that inference based on general information is a use-
ful tool for creating coherence and establishing common ground in all
types of texts. However, in popular science it seems to play an important
role because of the special contextual requirements. Naturally, the deci-
sion concerning what is general information is relative. The writer has to
estimate what is shared by his or her readers and adjust the inferences
according to this estimation.
4.2. Inference based on knowledge of scientific practice

Inference based on knowledge of scientific practice does not seem to be
as common as the two other types in my material. Neither are there any
considerable differences in the proportions of this inference type between
scientific and popular scientific texts.
In this type of inference the research procedure is made explicit, and
it can therefore be considered metatextual in character. Scientific practice
is the basis of all scientific work, and it is represented in all science in
one way or another. In scientific texts, it is a natural source of inference,
even though inference based on the subject matter is often more efficient.
One aim of popular science is to make science in itself explicit. Therefore,
scientific practice can form a suitable starting point: it is easier to explain
than the subject matter of the text, and can be used when creating com-
mon ground between expert and layman.
Examples of the type of knowledge required for understanding infer-
ences based on scientific practice are, among others, the idea that research
352 Merja Koskela
has aims and methods, that measurements give results, that there is a the-
ory on which method is based. This kind of information can require dif-
ferent levels of expertise.
An example will illustrate how basic the assumptions can be in prac-
tice:
(6) a. Härigenom künde de tre fysikerna studera vad som händer

när de snabba elektronerna träffar neutronen och protonen.
b. Resultatet var mycket överraskande.
[a. In this way the three physicists were able to study what hap-
pens when the fast electrons hit the neutron and the proton,
b. The result was highly surprising.]
The example has been taken from a popular scientific article on physics.
The inference in the second sentence requires understanding of scientific
procedures on a very general level: when something is studied, it usually
leads to results. The inference here has as its aim to guide the reader. On
the basis of their everyday knowledge, laymen would hardly be surprised
by the results of electrons hitting neutrons and protons, unless it was
explicitly stated that this, in fact, was a surprising result.
One additional observation based on my material is that while scien-
tific texts base their inferences on the structure of scientific inquiry (the-
ory, method, aim, principle, model, interpretation, discussion, etc.), pop-
ular science more often focuses on the people involved in the scientific
practice, by mentioning the profession (the physicist, the researcher, the
archeologist) or by mentioning the persons by name and thus creating
inferential relations on the thematic level.
4.3. Inference based on expert knowledge

Because the writer and the reader of a scientific text share a large amount
of expert knowledge of the subject discussed, it is reasonable to believe
that this information will also be used in creating inference. This assump-
tion can be justified by the maxim of relevance presented by Grice (1975;
see also Sperber—Wilson 1986: 46 if.): there is no need to be more explicit
than is necessary for the intended readers to understand the message.
This assumption is confirmed in my study. There are clearly more
inferences based on expert knowledge in scientific texts than in popular
scientific texts. This is the case especially in physics. The following exam-
ple illustrates how expert knowledge of the subject discussed has been
used in creating coherence on the thematic level in scientific texts.
(7) a. Under rubriken ljusßödets temporala variationer pä

bildskärmar studeras hur ljusflödet frän bildskärmar varierar
med tiden.
b. För att optimalt kunna göra en medelvärdesbildning men ocksä
för att kunna synkronisera ett fotokänsligt matrissystem mot
bildskärmsbilden krävs en ingäende kunskap om ljusflödets
tidsberoende variation,
[a. Under the heading "the temporal variations of the light flow on
computer screens" the variations of the light flow in relation
to time are studied,
b. In order to be able to create optimal mean values but also in
order to synchronize a photosensitive matrix system with the
picture on the computer screen profound knowledge of the
variations of the light flow according to time is required.]
In Example 7, an extract from a scientific report, the thematic starting

point of the first sentence, the temporal variations of the light flow, is not
taken as the starting point of the second sentence, even though it would
have been possible. Instead, expert knowledge is required of the reader
to realize how mean value creation is related to variations in the light
flow.
This kind of choice of textual relation on the part of the writer serves
at least two purposes. First, it can be a sign of highly effective informa-
tion transfer, especially when facts obvious to an expert, though not nec-
essarily to a layman, do not need to be expressed explicitly every time.
Second, it can function to signalize social grouping: understanding sepa-
rates the expert from the layman.
Interestingly, the second function can be used even in popular science.
A writer can signal common ground with a nonexpert reader by careful
use of selected inferences. Understanding such inferences can be a re-
warding experience for the reader, because s/he finds that his/her intelli-
gence is valued.
(8) a. Sädana bilder gär ocksä att erhälla med ett elektronmik-
roskop, som arbetar pä samma sätt som ljusmikroskopet.
b. Men ljusvägorna har ersatts av elektronsträlar,
c. och glaslinserna har bytts ut mot magnetfält.
[a. Such pictures can also be obtained with an electronic micro-
scope, which functions in the same way as the light micro-
scope.
354 Merja Koskela
b. But the light waves have been replaced by electron beams

c. and the glass lenses have been exchanged for magnetic fields.]
Example 8 stems from a popular scientific text describing different types

of microscopes. When creating coherence in the text, the writer has cho-
sen to make use of the reader's knowledge of microscopes. In the third
sentence, the reader is required to be familiar with the fact that there is
a glass lens in a light microscope, something that has not been mentioned
previously in the text.
The question is, of course, how expert a reader needs to be in order
to know that there are glass lenses in microscopes. Many of the readers
have come across microscopes at some stage of their lives. Therefore, the
writer can safely assume that the inference will be understood. An addi-
tional factor - and this is what makes the use of this kind of inference
rewarding for the reader of popular science — is that the reader will soon
realize that there must be a glass lens in the microscope because it is
taken for granted in the text, even if the reader might not have known it
before. When presented in this way, facts are automatically taken for
granted, and that is why inference of this kind can be a powerful tool in
influencing the reader's opinions.
According to my results the use of expert knowledge as a basis for
inference on the thematic level is more common in scientific texts, but it
can be found even in popular scientific material. The occurrences are
fewer, however, and the degree of difficulty somewhat lower. An addi-
tional factor is that inference based on expert knowledge can be used in
different ways to manipulate the reader: to give a rewarding experience
to the lay reader or to make facts look as if they were taken for granted
by experts.
5. Conclusion
A division of the type of inference according to the addressee is of interest

for many reasons. It has relevance to studying writing (how to take the
audience into consideration), to genre studies (how genres differ), to
studying reading comprehension (what makes understanding easy or dif-
ficult), and so on.
Assuming that we adopt the epistemic model in which the information
presented is connected with an existing cognitive frame, common ground
is needed in all texts. However, inference seems to be somewhat more

common in scientific texts than in popular scientific texts.
This study has presented a qualitative description of three types of
inference. The study shows that inference based on general information
is needed above all in popular science, because common ground has to
be explicitly stated for the benefit of a heterogeneous public. Inference
based on information of scientific practice represents a metatextual strat-
egy for creating coherence and appears equally in science and in popular
science. Inference based on expert knowledge is, for obvious reasons,
more common in science than in popular science. However, the study
indicates that this type of inference can have different textual functions
in different genres.
To conclude, inference is a human interpretation process that makes
it possible for us to make sense of texts. As such it is a powerful tool for
understanding, and the fact that it can be used on different levels adds
to its power. However, it is part of our reading skill that we are able to
derive a textual relation where the writer has intended us to derive one,
whether we understand it or not. Thus, when we encounter two consecu-
tive sentences we assume that they must be connected somehow, because
they usually are. In this way, some level of understanding is always pos-
sible, no matter how difficult or specialized the text. And further, it must
be borne in mind that the motivation for reading is a crucial factor for
understanding.
Notes
1. Cohesion and coherence have been defined in different ways, and it is sometimes difficult
to distinguish them from one another. In the present paper, cohesion is understood as
consisting of the explicit textual relations on the text surface, whereas coherence includes,
besides cohesion, the more implicit textual relations related to the background knowl-
edge, beliefs, and assumptions of the reader (cf. de Beaugrande- Dressier 1983).
Appendix: sources of examples
Bergwall, Staffan. 1989. Sveptunnelmikroskopet - ett nytt sätt att se in i atomernas värld.
Teknisk rapport. Tekniska Högskolan i Luleä. 1989: 039 T. 22 p.
Callmer, Johan. 1991. "Handelsplatsen vid Ahus, viktigt centrum i norra Europa kring är
800", Populär Arkeologi 1/1991.
Hermodsson, Örjan. 1992. "Slipade ytor invid hällristningar", Tor. (Tidskrift for arkeologi.
Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis.) Vol. 24/1992. 15 p.
356 Merja Koskela
Jansson, Anders. 1991. Bildkvalitetsmätning pä bildskärmar. Ljusflödets temporala varia-

tioner fr an CRT-bildskärmar. Linjäritetsbestämning av fotokänsliga matriskameror. The
Royal Institute of Technology. Department of Physics. TRITA-FYS 2109. 1991. 32 p.
Johansson, Erik. 1991. "Nu vet vi att universum är uppbyggt av tre familjer", Forskning
och Framsteg 2/1991.
Kaliff, Anders. 1992. "En religionarkeologisk syn pä gravar", Tor. (Tidskrift för arkeologi.
Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis.) Vol. 24/1992. 19 p.
References
Beaugrande, Robert de-Wolfgang Dressler

1983 Introduction to text linguistics. (2nd printing.) London: Longman.
Bloor, Meriel-Thomas Bloor
1992 "Given and new information in the thematic organisation of text: an applica-
tion to the teaching of academic writing", Occasional Papers in Systemic Lin-
guistics 6: 33—43.
Clark, Herbert H.
1992 Arenas of language use. Chicago: University of Chicago Press and Center for
the Study of Language and Information.
Cole, Peter-Jerry L. Morgan (eds.)
1975 Speech acts. Syntax and semantics. Vol. 3. New York: Academic Press.
Collins, A l a n - J o h n Seely Brown-Kathy M. Larkin
1980 "Inference in text understanding", in: Rand J. Spiro-Bertram C. Bruce-
William F. Brewer (eds.), 385-407.
Duszak, Anna
1994 "Thematic progressions and global coherence", Folia Linguistica 28: 363 —
384.
Grice, H. Paul
1975 "Logic and conversation", in: Peter Cole-Jerry L. Morgan (eds.), 4 1 - 5 8 .
1985 Introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Heydrich, Wolfgang-Fritz Neubauer-Jänos S. Petöfi-Emel Sözer (eds.)
1989 Connexity and coherence. Analysis of text and discourse. Berlin and New York:
de Gruyter.
Koskela, Merja
1996 Tema och rema i vetenskaplig och populärvetenskaplig text. Vasa: Vasa uni-
versitet.
Lundquist, Lita
1989 "Coherence in scientific texts", in: Wolfgang Heydrich-Fritz Neubauer-
Janos S. Petöfi-Emel Sözer (eds.), 122-149.
Myers, Greg
1991 "Lexical cohesion and specialized knowledge in science and popular science
texts", Discourse Processes 14(1): 1—26.
Nwogu, Kevin—Thomas Bloor
1991 "Thematic progression in professional and popular medical texts", in: Eija
Ventola (ed.), 369-384.
Nystrand, Martin
1986 The structure of written communication. Studies in reciprocity between writers
and readers. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Oakhill, Jane-Alan Garnham
1988 Becoming a skilled reader. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Rothkegel, Annely
1991 "Wissen und Informationsstruktur", Folia Linguistica 25 (1-2): 189-217.
Sinclair, Melinda
1993 "Are academic texts really decontextualized and fully explicit? A pragmatic
perspective on the role of context in written communication", Text 13 (4):
529-558.
Sperber, D a n - D e i r d r e Wilson
1986 Relevance. Communication and cognition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Spiro, Rand J.-Bertram C. Bruce-William F. Brewer (eds.)
1980 Psychology of reading. Perspectives from cognitive psychology, linguistics, arti-
ficial intelligence, and education. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
van de Velde, Roger G.
1992 Text and thinking. On some roles of thinking in text interpretation. Berlin and
New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Varantola, Krista
1987 "Popularization strategies and text functional shifts in scientific/technical
writing", UNESCO Alsed-LSP Newsletter 10(2): 33-52.
Ventola, Eija
1991 Functional and systemic linguistic. Approaches and uses. Berlin and New York:
Mouton de Gruyter.
Ventola, Eija-Anna Mauranen
(ed.), 457-492.
Index
(Page numbers printed in boldface refer to sections)
abstracts 22, 104-105, 251-268, 283, coherence 93, 98-99, 227-228, 276, 308,
327 330, 334, 343, 344-345, 347-351,
academic ideologies 354-355
conservativeness 27-28, 34-41 commitment and detachment see speech acts
cooperation vj competition 52, 55, 57 communities
empiricist vs contingent repertory 162 academic (research) communities 11,
intellectual styles 13, 28, 30, 34, 13, 15-19, 28-29, 149, 182, 204-207,
41-42, 52, 141, 181, 207, 268, 323- 217-218, 259, 273-297, 295-296, 323,
324, 327, 336 327
intellectualization 28 discourse communities 15—19, 20, 23,
high vä low context (academic) 25, 41-42, 54, 57, 68, 73, 150, 206,
cultures 16-17 216-218, 253, 258, 268, 270, 279
language culture (speech culture, cul- international communities
(academic) 20-23, 27-28, 32, 57,
ture of the word) 30, 89-90, 91,
103-104, 110, 203, 290
92-93, 96-100
regional (local) communities 20, 23,
linguistic theory of writing 54-55
27, 31-34, 56-57, 279, 290
literateness 68, 76-79 expertise (field and discourse) 15-16,
metaphor (taboo) 131-136,165 19-23, 25-26, 29, 34, 113, 175, 343,
res et/vs verba 133—134 348, 350, 352-354, 355
school literacy 68, 75 membership 1 6 - 1 7 , 1 9 - 2 3 , 2 5 - 3 2 ,
subjectivity vs objectivity 12, 73, 68, 73, 258, 268
134-136, 141-143, 149-150, 158,
experts and novices 16, 25-36,
161-162, 168-170, 176, 238, 345, 349 148, 150-151, 157, 162-163, 166,
norms 41,43,57,89-90,91-92, 170-171, 184, 205-206, 252, 258,
93-94, 97, 100, 104, 150-151, 218, 327 268, 347-348
territorial and cooperative principles peripheral members 23, 27, 33,
33, 52, 55, 56-58 262
theoretical vi empirical emphases 17, authorities 26, 28, 77, 96-97, 149,
31 181, 184, 190-193, 198, 291
tool negotiation ("definition process") socialization 15-16, 19, 166
29, 43, 55, 76, 279 cultural values (variation) 14-17, 20, 29,
attitudes 14, 28, 33 - 34, 52, 89, 91 -95, 35, 63-66, 68-69, 75-81, 106-107,
104, 143, 149, 157, 183, 223-243, 182, 204, 216-217, 238-240, 323
308-309, 317-318, 320, 344
attitudes to form 28, 323—324 expertise (academic) see communities
awareness
language/text awareness 44, 57, 89— genre
90, 92-93, 95-97, 99-100, 113-127 concept 15, 23-25, 105-110, 164-
cross-cultural awareness 104— 105, 166, 192, 262, 270, 273, 275, 297, 346,
107, 110, 167, 175 354-355
360 Index
comparisons (cross-genre/culture) 54, digressive, digressions 53, 72, 74, 132,

98, 108, 184, 195, 257, 264, 270, 279, 182, 187-189, 196, 323-337
307-308, 310, 312-313, 319-320 formal and thematic digressions
genre-centered pedagogy 105-110 324, 326-329, 333-334
oral academic communication 16-18, elaborations 323-324, 328, 331,
24-25, 53, 110, 145, 162, 176, 187, 192, 334-337
210 (dis)continuity 53, 71, 73
popular (academic) genres 25, 343— vertical articulation 53, 327
355
research genres (written) 17, 24, 106— membership (academic) see communities
107, 108-109, 110, 116, 161-166, 205, metatext (metadiscourse) 11, 18, 44, 53,
213, 262, 276-296 109, 167, 255, 264-265, 307, 313,
323-324, 327, 328-329, 331, 333-334,
hedging 48-52, 162-163, 168, 174, 336, 351, 355
181-196, 198, 203-218, 223- 243, 280 modality 47-53, 108, 159-161, 181,
183-186, 205, 209-213, 228, 239,
241-242
inferences 56, 64, 146, 223, 305-307,
deontic modality 47—48, 50
315, 343-355
epistemic modality 48—53, 167,
inferrables 305-307, 310-311, 313-
183-184, 198
315, 319-320
degrees of modalization:
internationalization (of scholarship) 16,
probability 47-48, 157-177, 184
19, 20-35, 104, 204, 217, 258, 262,
273, 297
interpersonal meanings politeness see interpersonal meanings
dialogic vs monologic 13, 54, 181
expository vs contemplative 13, 46, reference 141-151, 260, 262, 264-266,
51, 257 280, 317, 320, 335, 348
face 13, 16, 20, 44, 69, 163, 206, 240, register 28, 42, 164-166, 187, 192, 275,
242, 279 325
relevance 11, 23, 43, 68, 75, 79, 227, 309,
power and solidarity 12, 16, 19,
324-328, 331-332, 352
31, 52, 141, 149, 183-186, 280
rhetoric (devices/patterns) 11, 13, 20, 23,
interactiveness (levels of) 12-13,
32, 42-44, 47, 53, 55, 72, 80, 105-108,
18-19, 30-31, 54, 147-148, 151, 182,
127, 134, 164-165, 185, 190, 203-204,
184-186, 190-191, 196, 228-229, 279,
217, 242, 252-253, 257-258, 263, 265,
314, 337 266-268, 273-297, 323-324, 3 2 6 -
impersonal (depersonalized) 12, 18, 327, 329
32, 43, 51, 142, 143-144, 145-146, antirhetoric 133
149-151, 162, 212, 238, 260, 262, 264 (inter)rhetoric of science 23,
politeness 13, 44, 69, 75, 79, 149- 32-35, 141-143, 144-145, 148-
150, 163, 183, 198, 205, 218, 278-280 151
reader-writer orientation (responsibil-
ity) 13, 44, 46, 54-56, 145, 181-182,
salience 323, 329, 336
186, 190-191, 196, 198, 205
school discourse
academic (under)achievement 28,
linearity and digressiveness 43, 53, 71, 74, 63-87, 118, 120-121, 124
182, 187, 196, 323-324 curricula 6 4 , 6 6 , 7 3 , 8 9 , 9 7 - 1 0 0 ,
linear 68, 72, 74-76, 80, 324-326 103-110
Index 361
examination scripts 67, 79 text types 23-24, 98, 182, 327, 351
criteria 66-67, 69, 81, 100 thematic structure 46, 163, 167, 323,
assessment strategies 66-67, 75, 328-329, 336, 345-354
78-79, 119-122 fronting (sentence initial consti-
essay (writing) 43, 65-70, 75, 77, tuents) 309-312, 314-318, 320
80-81, 113 functional sentence perspective 308
teacher's role (supervisor's) 69, 108- given-new scale 305-307, 309-310,
109, 113, 115-117 311-319
teaching implications/guidelines truth 12-13, 31, 43, 133, 135, 141-144,
28-29, 54, 65-69, 90-92, 98-100, 182, 218, 225-226, 228, 237, 239-240,
103, 106, 108-110, 113, 165-166, 242, 305
176-177, 207, 216-217, 242-243
Australian Higher School Certificate variation across disciplines
64-65, 70, 81 field 20-23
Diagnostic Assessment Profile 124— humanities 11, 46, 56, 169 -170,
125, 126-127 187-196
substantiation 118, 124 linguistics/languages 14-15,
Science Content Attitude Test 47-52, 205-218, 253, 263-267,
231-233 278-279, 309-320, 330-337
socialization (academic) see communities social sciences 11, 56, 168, 170
speech acts 91,204-205 sciences (various) 22, 144, 170, 278,
commitment and detachment 12-13, 281-297
48, 160, 162, 183-184, 188-189, 196, biology 252-253, 255-258, 268,
204-210, 212-214, 216-218, 260 280-297
style 11,17,20-21,23,26,33,43, medicine 252-253, 258-262, 267,
45-46, 55, 121-124, 131-135, 142, 278
145, 150, 162, 170, 185, 203, 210, 239, educational writings (incl. ESP, EFL/
252, 258, 267, 323, 325-326, 329, 335- ESL, EAP) 63-85, 106-110,
336 113-127, 223-243
stereotypes 18, 141-151, 167 variation across languages
native
teaching implications see school discourse Anglo-American 17-18, 29,
text structure 43-44, 47-56, 205-218, 253-267,
advance organizers 18,43 278, 314-320, 324, 327
(a)symmetry 2 9 , 6 8 , 7 1 - 7 2 , 7 4 - 7 6 , Bulgarian 205-218
80, 182, 196 Chinese 278
compositional structure (organizational Czech 13, 42, 45 -46, 324, 326
schemata) 11, 165, 167 -170, 206 - Finnish 44, 54, 56-57, 171-176
208, 212-214, 252, 260-261, 264-267, French 327
276, 281, 290, 308-309, 314-317, German 13, 17, 30, 42-43,
319-320, 327 52-53, 55-56, 181-196, 278, 324,
introductions 14-15, 29, 44, 48, 53, 325-328
76, 165, 168, 206-207, 210-211, 214, Italian 150
253, 256-257, 264, 266, 273-297, 308, Malay 274-276
314-317, 319-320 Polish 13,17,22,26,28-31,
sub(headings) 51-53, 314 44-45, 52, 56, 279, 324-326,
CARS model 276 - 281, 283, 290, 296 330-337
362 Index
Russian 12, 42-43, 52, 56, Chinese 118-123

309-320, 324-325 Finnish 166-176
Swedish 253-267, 279, 344-355 Swedish 253-267
non-native English Ukrainian 105
Bulgarian 205-218 Vietnamese 63-85

(Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs, Vol. 104) Anna Duszak - Culture and Styles of Academic Discourse-De Gruyter Mouton (1997)

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

(Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs, Vol. 104) Anna Duszak - Culture and Styles of Academic Discourse-De Gruyter Mouton (1997)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Culture and Styles

© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication-Data

Culture and styles of academic discourse / edited by Anna

Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication-Data

Culture and styles of academic discourse. - Berlin ; New York :

© Copyright 1997 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-10785 Berlin.

Cross-cultural academic communication:

Academic writing and cultural identity:

Doing well ... doing badly:

Language culture, language awareness,

The signs of a new time:

Developing awareness of the rhetorical and linguistic conventions

Mind your metaphors! Historical and theoretical notes toward a

Systems of reference in intellectual discourse:

Some observations on the distribution and function of hedging in

Hedging in English and Bulgarian academic writing

The effects of hedges and gender on the attitudes of readers in the

Journal abstracts from three academic fields in the United States

Research article introductions in Malay:

If not given, then what?

Analyzing digressiveness in Polish academic texts

Inference in science and popular science

The intersection of cultural studies and analysis of academic discourses

and discourse processing. Focus on language was superseded by focus on

lead to biased views, misattributions of intention, or communication fail-

sponses. Candidates are rewarded for texts that organize information in

Vassileva exercises an interpersonal approach to hedging, taking the

move analysis, Ahmad examines discourse strategies used by Malay writ-

1. Variation in academic discourse

Recent insights into academic writing have shown considerable variation

2. Interpersonal meanings in academic discourse

It is assumed here that variation in academic texts, as in any other type of

devices simply belong or do not belong to a given discourse repertoire.

Recently voices have been raised in favor of a "more human" attitude

and reference is made to attitudes such as assertive, defensive, imposing,

attribute to UG does not contribute to ... despite his claim to

Pronouncements of this kind are interesting insofar as they are expo-

3. Academic community as a discourse community

Discussing English in academic and research settings, Swales (1990) es-

about expert and novice members. It would seem to me that approxima-

cultures in the ethnomethodological tradition (Gudykunst-Ting-Toomey

More attention should be paid to medium-bound variation in style

to read or speak German. Incompatible values in the interpersonal rheto-

4. Internationalization of academic communities

4.1. Field and rhetoric

their attributions of intentions to other writers. Today, studies in cross-

lish-dominated international academic community, an aspiring nonnative

are centrifugal in that they join people, whereas discourse communities

grande 1990). First, it is not easy to establish text types as discernible

import interferences from the writer's perceptions of style and format

matized patterning. The concept of a "skilled", "competent", or "better"

presentation and assessment, where revelations of the states of one's mind

English-style understanding of an interactive and reader-friendly text. It

(3) Istotnym momentem porzqdkujqcych refleksji, ktore tu przed-

Attention to language is a way of showing respect for field and respon-

primary interest in its structural properties and practically none in its

range. This has symptomatic consequences in the rhetorical patterns that

Internationalization of academic communities is a natural phenomenon

Due to differences in general and discoursal values, people develop biased

guists with education in English (anglicists) can be taken as an illustration

readings of European structuralists" (Grucza 1983: 218), and whether

In a world of growing international contacts, academic communities

Carrell, Patricia-Joanne Devine-David Eskey (eds).