Applied Research On Cognitive Modality Markers In The Terminology

Language used in academic discourse across various disciplines is a vitally popular topic in linguistics.Epistemic modality concerns the reliability of the information conveyed,and the speakers cognition of statements,thus it is widely used in academic discourse.The purpose of this project is to study the similarities and differences of using of markers academic discourses across disciplines,and to see whether the differences are significant.In this paper,with corpus-based approach and comparative approach,one can observe the application of epistemic modality markers in philosophical,educational and medical academic discourses.This study,by utilizing the Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA),chooses sixty papers,which is twenty papers in the three aforementioned disciplines,and focuses on epistemic modality markers' frequency,types and distribution in the discourses,as well as its function in three disciplinary academic discourses.The results show that the frequency of markers in educational,philosophical and medical academic discourses is a decreasing trend,and their differences are significant.The using of subjective sensory lexical verbs in philosophical writings is much more than the medical writings.Interestingly,the speculative lexical verbs in educational and medical are more than philosophical writings.The frequency of the markers in the part of conclusion of philosophical,educational and medical writings is decreasing.As for its function,it has obvious differences in interpersonal function within three disciplines.It is possible to conclude that the use of epistemic modality markers will be different across disciplines and this will make for good analysis in regards to academic English teaching and academic writing.