IX CILC 2017: International Conference on Corpus Linguistics

Herrando-Rodrigo, Isabel: “Academic and knowledge dissemination genres analysed from the standpoint of interpersonality: research articles and their electronic dissemination adaptations”

Abstract

This paper studies the applicability of interpersonal metadiscourse (IM) as a framework and the subsequent limitations it poses. My contribution will focus on the implementation of a cline of writers’ visibility in a corpus of medical research articles and their popularizations published in international web sites in English.

Interpersonal metadiscourse (IM) needs to be refined to the specific corpus it is applied to. Thus, if concepts such as writers’ voice, resulting visibility and the function of authorial presence in the text are to be observed in specialized corpora, further textual variables have to be considered and interpreted.

Basedon empirical analyses of corpora of Med-RAs and their electronic popularizations (Med-E-Pops), I aim to explore lexico-grammatical indicators of authorial voice in both Med-RAs and Med-E-Pops.

Results of my corpus analyses showed that lexico-grammatical features associated with authorial voice realizations cannot be framed in IM. Med-E-Pops writers attempt to create a devoicing effect achieved by the use of animate agents followed by active verbs, passive constructions, active verbs with inanimate subjects and reporting sequences. Once the intergeneric translation from Med-RAs into Med-E-Pops has been carried out, it is noticeable that the lexico-grammatical features found contribute to transfer the research story told in the Med-E-Pops as an objective narration which brings the medical researchers’ visibility to the fore, thus raising credibility on the research conducted and on the popularized text. Therefore, it can be concluded that for these intergeneric translations, IM present some limitations for analyzing the representation of the writers’ voice