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The value of may as an evidential and epistemic marker in English medical abstracts

Bibliographic Data

ID5827874
AuthorsFrancisco J Alonso-Almeida (0000-0003-4676-3831, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Francisco Alonso-Almeida (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Laura Cruz García (0000-0001-7826-0142, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Laura Cruz-García (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
Year2011
Volume46
Issue3
Pages59-73
Publication date2011-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSTAP (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0081-6272 • E-ISSN: 2082-5102
PublisherDe Gruyter Open (PUBLISHER • PL)
DOI10.2478/v10121-010-0004-7
OpenAlexW1973275709
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited13

The value of may as an evidential and epistemic marker in English medical abstracts Our article addresses the issue of the relationship between epistemic modality and evidentiality. Earlier works such as Lazard (2001) claim that English does not hold grammatical markers for the source of knowledge in contrast to other languages, e.g. Quechua, that seem to do so. Dendale and Tasmowski (2001), however, think that grammatical evidentials are possible in English, and Aikhenvald (2004) admits that modal verbs in English are a borderline case. In our article, we seek to explore the use of may and might in a corpus of medical abstracts to demonstrate (i) their value as grammatical evidential markers, and (ii) their value as epistemic markers that show the author's attitude to the proposition manifested. In doing so, we follow Cornillie (2009), who defines these two concepts as independent categories. The results of our analyses indicate that these modals may be used as grammatical markers of evidentiality, regardless of other semantic and pragmatic meanings

Epistemic modality · Evidentiality · Modality (human–computer interaction · Proposition · Value (mathematics · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition

  • Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis of Evidentiality in PHD Dissertations

    Open Access•Mustafa Yıldız, Mustafa Yildiz et al.•Discourse and Interaction•2021

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  • Introduction

    Open Access•Patrick Dendale, Liliane Tasmowski•Journal of Pragmatics•2001

  • On the grammaticalization of evidentiality

    Open Access•Gilbert Lazard•Journal of Pragmatics•2001

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Unique citing works5
Citations per year0,42
Citation span2014 - 2025 (12)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 5
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