The Voicing Values In Discussion Section Of Medical Research Paper

Interpersonal function is a fundamental meta-function of language; even the mostobjective language is abundant in interpersonal meanings, which reflect the interactionand negotiation of various values or positions in the discourse.English medical research paper is an important source of information of medicalscientific research workers and a channel of communication among them all over theworld. Discussion section is an important component in which medical scientificresearch workers set forth their own latest research achievements and hope tocommunicate with other medical scientific research workers at home and abroad.This thesis, based on Bakhtin‘s (1986) dialogism and intertextuality, Martin&White‘s (2005) Engagement System in Appraisal Theory, used Hood‘s (2004) threekinds of voice existed in academic discourse for reference, and adopting a combinationof quantitative and qualitative research method, analyses the voicing values in thediscussion section and how they convey interpersonal meaning. On the basis of theabove theoretical foundation, the proposed analytical framework for the present study isconducted in this way: interpersonal meaning in the discussion section is conveyed byvoicing values which is realized through the lexico-grammatical resources in theEngagement System.In the quantitative analysis on the discussion section of fifty English medicalresearch papers randomly chosen from medical journals which are indexed by theScience Citation Index (SCI), we conclude five types of Engagement resourcesfrequently applied by writers, namely deny, counter, endorse, entertain and attribute,among which entertain holds the largest proportion and endorse the second. In thequalitative analysis on one discussion section of English medical research paper, weanalyze three kinds of voice(observer voice, investigator voice and critic voice) existed in the discussion section and their distribution. Critic voice which represents writer‘sinternal voice is most widely distributed among three kinds of voice. On the study ofhow voicing values convey interpersonal meaning, we put forward strategies used bywriter to align with readers. Through strategies of declare, authorise and support, thewriter aims to align with readers to accept results of the research, while problematiseand negation are used to eliminate the possible incorrect views aroused during theresearch and thus dis-align readers to them.This thesis brings to light the voicing values in the discussion section of Englishmedical research paper, the findings of which can be helpful for the medical scientificresearch workers, especially for writer of English medical research paper to understandfurther the voicing values in the discussion section, their ways in conveyinginterpersonal meaning and to write more convincing English medical research paper.