| The medical RA (research article) is receiving more and more scholars' attentions because of its logical rigor and language accuracy. The conclusion section which reveals main findings, answers the research questions and proposes future studies is the highlight of the RAs. However, at present, two functions of SFG (Systemic Functional Grammar) are often used to do the analysis of IMRD format (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion), i.e. ideational and textual functions. As for the third interpersonal function, few studies are conducted on the interpersonal analysis and interpretation of the conclusion section. This paper examines mood, modality and hedges of 100 medical RA's conclusions from the interpersonal functional point of view. The data are downloaded from the worldwide academic journal publisher ELSEVIER ScienceDirect and the retrieval instrument is Wordsmith 4.0.It is discovered that native speakers prefer to use simple present tense to state results, implications and suggestions and active voice to emphasize writer's actions and contributions. Yet the passive voice shows politeness, objectivity and conciseness of the medical RAs. In modality, the median and low value modal operators are used to express probability while explicit objective orientation attempts to give more information. In hedges, the native speakers prefer to full verbs and then modal auxiliaries, adverbs, adjectives and nouns. The results are greatly influenced by genre and culture.This study aims to explore how writers establish a relationship with readers and influence them in the conclusion section. It is hoped that the present study will be helpful to the teaching of the interpersonal function, the writing and publication of the RAs. |
