Title: Between detachment and commitment : hedging and boosting from scientific articles to university press releases
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2024, vol. 50, iss. 1, pp. 87-113
Extent
87-113
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2024-1-6
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/digilib.81077
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Rights access
open access
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
In the press releases (PRs) issued by universities to showcase the research of their affiliated authors, the purpose of knowledge dissemination seems to coexist with that of self-promotion (e.g. Di Ferrante et al., 2021; Petrocelli et al., 2022). This reflects the hybrid nature of corporate PRs (e.g., Jacobs, 1999; Catenaccio, 2008). Considering that academic discourse often enhances reliability through hedging strategies (e.g., Hyland, 1998a), whereas science news tends to emphasise the impact of findings (e.g., Stocking, 1999), this study examines how hedges and boosters of academic discourse manifest in press releases. A mixed-method approach was used to analyse 30 academic articles and their associated press releases. Results highlight the prevalence of boosters in PRs. However, these also contain hedges to convey credibility by acknowledging scientific uncertainties. Further studies with a larger corpus and additional metadiscursive elements are proposed to validate these results.
Note
The publication has been produced during research carried out at the University for Foreigners of Siena with co-financing from the European Union – Next Generation EU for the project Ecosistema dell'Innovazione – THE – Tuscany Health Ecosystem. CUP: E63C22001050001.
References
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[23] Garzone, Giuliana (2006) Perspectives on ESP and Popularization. Milan: CUEM.
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[25] Ghia, Elisa, Petrocelli, Emilia and Pizziconi, Sergio (2022) Data possibly suggest... Hedging in second language writing: a study on advanced Italian EFL learners. Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies 14 (1), 47–72. https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2022.14.2
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[28] Hyland, Ken (1998b) Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics 30 (4), 437–455. doi:10.1016/S0378-2166(98)00009-5
[29] Hyland, Ken (1998c) Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge. Text & Talk 18 (3), 349–382. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1998.18.3.349
[30] Hyland, Ken, and Tse, Polly (2004) Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics 25 (2), 156–177. doi:10.1093/applin/25.2.156
[31] Hyland, Ken (2005) Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192. doi:10.1177/1461445605050365
[32] Jacobs, Geert (1999) Preformulating the News: An Analysis of the Metapragmatics of Press Releases (vol. 60). John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.60
[33] Jensen, Jakob D. (2008) Scientific uncertainty in news coverage of cancer research: Effects of hedging on scientists' and journalists' credibility. Human communication research 34 (3), 347–369. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2008.00324.x
[34] Kilgarriff, Adam Baisa, Vit, Bušta, Jan, Jakubíček, Miloš, Kovář, Vojtěch, Michelfeit, Jan, Rychlý, Pavel, and Suchomel, Vit (2014) The sketch engine: Ten years on. Lexicography 1, 7–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40607-014-0009-9
[35] Liu, Shuai, and Zhang, Jingyuan (2021) Using Metadiscourse to Enhance Persuasiveness in Corporate Press Releases: A Corpus-Based Study. SAGE Open 11 (3). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211032165
[36] Mauranen, Anna (1997) Hedging in language revisers' hands. In: Markkanen, Raija & Schröder, Hartmut, (eds.) Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the analysis of a pragmatic phenomenon in academic texts. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 115–133 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807332.115
[37] Meyer, Paul G. (1997) Hedging strategies in written academic discourse: Strengthening the argument by weakening the claim. In: Markkanen, Raija and Schröder, Hartmut (eds.) Hedging and discourse: Approaches to the analysis of a pragmatic phenomenon in academic texts. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 21–41 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807332.21
[38] Myers, Greg (1989) The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics 10 (l), 1–35. doi:10.1093/applin/10.1.1
[39] Lancaster, Zak (2014) Exploring valued patterns of stance in upper-level student writing in the disciplines. Written Communication 31 (1), 27–57. doi:10.1177/0741088313515170
[40] Lancaster, Zak (2016) Do academics really write this way? A corpus investigation of moves and templates in "They Say/I Say." College Composition and Communication 67 (3), 437–464.
[41] Lassen, Inger (2006) Is the press release a genre? A study of form and content. Discourse studies 8 (4), 503–530. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445606061875
[42] McLaren-Hankin, Yvonne (2008) 'We expect to report on significant progress in our product pipeline in the coming year': hedging forward-looking statements in corporate press releases. Discourse studies 10 (5), 635–654. doi: 10.1177/1461445608094216
[43] Pindi, Makaya and Bloor, Thomas (1987). Playing Safe with Predictions: Hedging, Attribution and Conditions in Economic Forecasting. In: Bloor, Thomas and Norrish, John (eds.) Written Language. London: CILT/BAAL, 55–69. 10.1177/1461445608094216
[44] Pellechia, Marianne G. (1997) Trends in science coverage: A content analysis of three U.S. newspapers. Public Understanding of Science 6, 49–68. doi:10.1088/0963-6625/6/1/004
[45] Perkins, Michael (1983) Modal expressions in English. London: Frances Pinter. doi: 10.2307/414408
[46] Petrocelli, Emilia, Di Ferrante, Laura, & Ghia, Elisa (2022) Multi-Word Combinations in Science Communication: A Corpus-Driven Study of University Press Releases. Online journal of communication and media technologies 12 (4), e202224, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/12247
[47] Prince, Elen F., Frader, Joel, and Bosk, Charles (1982) On hedging in physician-physician discourse. Linguistics and the Professions 8 (1), 83-97.
[48] Popper, Karl (1961) The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Science Editions.
[49] Quirk, Randolf, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey, and Svartvik, Jan (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.
[50] Salager-Meyer, Françoise (1994) Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written discourse. English for specific purposes 13 (2), 149–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(94)90013-2
[51] Stocking, Holly S. (1999) How journalists deal with scientific uncertainty. In: Friedman, Sharon, Dunwoody, Sharon & Rogers, Carol (eds.) Communicating uncertainty: Media coverage of new and controversial science. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 23–42.
[52] Stubbs, Michael (1986) 'A matter of prolonged fieldwork': Notes towards a modal grammar of English. Applied Linguistics 7 (1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/7.1.1
[53] Sumner, Petroc, Vivian-Griffiths, Solveiga, Boivin, Jacky, Williams, Andrew, Bott, Lewis, Adams, Rachel, Venetis, Christos A., Whelan, Leanne, Hughes, Bethan, and Chambers, Christopher D. (2016) Exaggerations and caveats in press releases and health-related science news. PloS one 11 (12), e0168217. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168217
[54] Tankard, James W., & Ryan, M. (1974) News sources' perceptions of accuracy in science coverage. Journalism Quarterly 51, 219–223.
[55] Vande Kopple, William J. (1985) Some exploratory discourse on metadiscourse. College Composition and Communication 36, 82–93.
[56] Vande Kopple, William J. (2002) Metadiscourse, discourse, and issues in composition and rhetoric. In: Barton, Ellen L. and Stygall, Gail (eds.), Discourse studies in composition. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 91–113. https://doi.org/10.2307/357609
[57] Widdowson, Henry (1984) Explorations in applied linguistics 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[58] Woloshin, Steven, and Schwartz, Lisa M. (2002) Press releases: translating research into news. Jama 287 (21), 2856–2858. doi:10.1001/jama.287.21.2856
[2] Angell, Marcia, and Kassirer, Jerome (1994) Clinical research: What should the public believe? New England Journal of Medicine 331, 189–190. doi:10.1056/NEJM199407213310309
[3] Arora, Raj, and Arora, Alisha (2006). Effectiveness of message sidedness and credibility on health eating to prevent cancer. Services Marketing Quarterly 27, 35–52.
[4] Aull, Laura (2015) First-year university writing: A corpus-based study with implications for pedagogy. New York, NY: Springer.
[5] Aull, Laura, Bandarage, Dineth, and Miller, Meredith Richardson (2017) Generality in student and expert epistemic stance: A corpus analysis of first-year, upper-level, and published academic writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 26, 29–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2017.01.005
[6] Aull, Laura (2019) Linguistic Markers of Stance and Genre in Upper-Level Student Writing, Written Communication 36 (2), 267–295. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088318819472
[7] Aull, Laura, and Lancaster, Zak (2014) Linguistic markers of stance in early and advanced academic writing: A corpus-based comparison. Written communication 31 (2), 151-183. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088314527055
[8] Bazerman, Charles (1985) Physicists reading physics: Schema-laden purposes and purpose-laden schema. Written Communication 2 (l), 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088385002001001
[9] Bhatia, Vijay Kumar (2004) Worlds of Written Discourse: A genre-based view. London: A&C Black.
[10] Biber, Douglas (2006) Stance in spoken and written university registers. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 5, 97-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2006.05.001
[11] Biber, Douglas, Johansson, Stig, Leech, Geoffrey, Conrad, Susan, and Finegan, Edward (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman.
[12] Bondi, Marina (2005) Metadiscursive Practices in Academic Discourse: Variation across Genres and Disciplines. In: Bamford, Julia and Bondi, Marina (eds.) Dialogue within Discourse Communities: Metadiscursive Perspectives on Academic Genres. Berlin, Boston: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 3–30. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110933222.3
[13] Catenaccio, Paola (2008) Press releases as a hybrid genre: Addressing the informative/promotional conundrum. Pragmatics 18 (1), 9–31. doi: 10.1075/prag.18.1.02cat
[14] Clemen, Gudrun (1997) The Concept of Hedging: Origins, Approaches and Definitions. In: Markkanen, Raija and Schröder, Hartmut (eds.) Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the Analysis of a Pragmatic Phenomenon in Academic Texts. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 235–248. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807332.235
[15] Cloître, Michel, and Shinn, Terry (1985) Expository Practice. In: Shinn, Terry and Whitley, Richard D. (eds.) Expository Science: Forms and Functions of Popularisation. Sociology of the Sciences a Yearbook, vol 9, Dordrecht: Springer, 31–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5239-3_2
[16] Crismore, Avon, and Farnsworth, Rodney (1990) Metadiscourse in popular and professional science discourse. In: Nash, Walter (ed.) The writing scholar: Studies in academic discourse. Newbury Park: Sage, 118–136.
[17] Crismore, Avon, Markkanen, Raija, and Steffensen, Margaret S. (1993) Metadiscourse in persuasive writing: A study of texts written by American and Finnish university students. Written Communication 10 (1), 39–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0741088393010001002
[18] Crismore, Avon, and Vande Kopple, William J. (1997) Hedges and readers: Effects on attitudes and learning. In: Markkanen, Raija and Schröder, Hartmut (eds.) Hedging and discourse: Approaches to the analysis of a pragmatic phenomenon in academic texts. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 83–114 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807332.83
[19] Coates, Jennifer (1983) The Semantics of the Modal Auxiliaries. Beckenham: Croom Helm.
[20] Dafouz-Milne, Emma (2008) The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: A cross-linguistic study of newspaper discourse. Journal of pragmatics, 40 (1), 95–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2007.10.003
[21] Del Olmo, Sonia Oliver (2006) The role of passive voice in hedging medical discourse: A corpus-based study on English and Spanish research articles. Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos 12, 205–218.
[22] Di Ferrante, Laura, Lattanzi, Giulia, and Petrocelli, Emilia (2021) Those who get lost in communication science. Promotion and downplay in university press releases. In: Garzone, Giuliana E., Giordano, Walter and Pizziconi, Sergio (eds.) Discursive perspectives on knowledge dissemination in corporate and professional communication: focus on ethical and ideological aspects. Timişoara - Rou, Editura Politehnica, 31–57.
[23] Garzone, Giuliana (2006) Perspectives on ESP and Popularization. Milan: CUEM.
[24] Garzone, Giuliana (2020) Specialized Communication and Popularization in English. Roma: Carocci Editore.
[25] Ghia, Elisa, Petrocelli, Emilia and Pizziconi, Sergio (2022) Data possibly suggest... Hedging in second language writing: a study on advanced Italian EFL learners. Belgrade English Language and Literature Studies 14 (1), 47–72. https://doi.org/10.18485/bells.2022.14.2
[26] Hyland, Ken (1994) Hedging in academic writing and EAF textbooks. English for specific purposes 13 (3), 239–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(94)90004-3
[27] Hyland, Ken (1998a) Hedging in Scientific Research Articles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.54
[28] Hyland, Ken (1998b) Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics 30 (4), 437–455. doi:10.1016/S0378-2166(98)00009-5
[29] Hyland, Ken (1998c) Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge. Text & Talk 18 (3), 349–382. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1998.18.3.349
[30] Hyland, Ken, and Tse, Polly (2004) Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics 25 (2), 156–177. doi:10.1093/applin/25.2.156
[31] Hyland, Ken (2005) Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192. doi:10.1177/1461445605050365
[32] Jacobs, Geert (1999) Preformulating the News: An Analysis of the Metapragmatics of Press Releases (vol. 60). John Benjamins Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.60
[33] Jensen, Jakob D. (2008) Scientific uncertainty in news coverage of cancer research: Effects of hedging on scientists' and journalists' credibility. Human communication research 34 (3), 347–369. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2008.00324.x
[34] Kilgarriff, Adam Baisa, Vit, Bušta, Jan, Jakubíček, Miloš, Kovář, Vojtěch, Michelfeit, Jan, Rychlý, Pavel, and Suchomel, Vit (2014) The sketch engine: Ten years on. Lexicography 1, 7–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40607-014-0009-9
[35] Liu, Shuai, and Zhang, Jingyuan (2021) Using Metadiscourse to Enhance Persuasiveness in Corporate Press Releases: A Corpus-Based Study. SAGE Open 11 (3). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211032165
[36] Mauranen, Anna (1997) Hedging in language revisers' hands. In: Markkanen, Raija & Schröder, Hartmut, (eds.) Hedging and Discourse: Approaches to the analysis of a pragmatic phenomenon in academic texts. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 115–133 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807332.115
[37] Meyer, Paul G. (1997) Hedging strategies in written academic discourse: Strengthening the argument by weakening the claim. In: Markkanen, Raija and Schröder, Hartmut (eds.) Hedging and discourse: Approaches to the analysis of a pragmatic phenomenon in academic texts. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 21–41 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110807332.21
[38] Myers, Greg (1989) The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics 10 (l), 1–35. doi:10.1093/applin/10.1.1
[39] Lancaster, Zak (2014) Exploring valued patterns of stance in upper-level student writing in the disciplines. Written Communication 31 (1), 27–57. doi:10.1177/0741088313515170
[40] Lancaster, Zak (2016) Do academics really write this way? A corpus investigation of moves and templates in "They Say/I Say." College Composition and Communication 67 (3), 437–464.
[41] Lassen, Inger (2006) Is the press release a genre? A study of form and content. Discourse studies 8 (4), 503–530. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445606061875
[42] McLaren-Hankin, Yvonne (2008) 'We expect to report on significant progress in our product pipeline in the coming year': hedging forward-looking statements in corporate press releases. Discourse studies 10 (5), 635–654. doi: 10.1177/1461445608094216
[43] Pindi, Makaya and Bloor, Thomas (1987). Playing Safe with Predictions: Hedging, Attribution and Conditions in Economic Forecasting. In: Bloor, Thomas and Norrish, John (eds.) Written Language. London: CILT/BAAL, 55–69. 10.1177/1461445608094216
[44] Pellechia, Marianne G. (1997) Trends in science coverage: A content analysis of three U.S. newspapers. Public Understanding of Science 6, 49–68. doi:10.1088/0963-6625/6/1/004
[45] Perkins, Michael (1983) Modal expressions in English. London: Frances Pinter. doi: 10.2307/414408
[46] Petrocelli, Emilia, Di Ferrante, Laura, & Ghia, Elisa (2022) Multi-Word Combinations in Science Communication: A Corpus-Driven Study of University Press Releases. Online journal of communication and media technologies 12 (4), e202224, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/12247
[47] Prince, Elen F., Frader, Joel, and Bosk, Charles (1982) On hedging in physician-physician discourse. Linguistics and the Professions 8 (1), 83-97.
[48] Popper, Karl (1961) The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Science Editions.
[49] Quirk, Randolf, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey, and Svartvik, Jan (1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.
[50] Salager-Meyer, Françoise (1994) Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written discourse. English for specific purposes 13 (2), 149–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(94)90013-2
[51] Stocking, Holly S. (1999) How journalists deal with scientific uncertainty. In: Friedman, Sharon, Dunwoody, Sharon & Rogers, Carol (eds.) Communicating uncertainty: Media coverage of new and controversial science. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 23–42.
[52] Stubbs, Michael (1986) 'A matter of prolonged fieldwork': Notes towards a modal grammar of English. Applied Linguistics 7 (1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/7.1.1
[53] Sumner, Petroc, Vivian-Griffiths, Solveiga, Boivin, Jacky, Williams, Andrew, Bott, Lewis, Adams, Rachel, Venetis, Christos A., Whelan, Leanne, Hughes, Bethan, and Chambers, Christopher D. (2016) Exaggerations and caveats in press releases and health-related science news. PloS one 11 (12), e0168217. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0168217
[54] Tankard, James W., & Ryan, M. (1974) News sources' perceptions of accuracy in science coverage. Journalism Quarterly 51, 219–223.
[55] Vande Kopple, William J. (1985) Some exploratory discourse on metadiscourse. College Composition and Communication 36, 82–93.
[56] Vande Kopple, William J. (2002) Metadiscourse, discourse, and issues in composition and rhetoric. In: Barton, Ellen L. and Stygall, Gail (eds.), Discourse studies in composition. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 91–113. https://doi.org/10.2307/357609
[57] Widdowson, Henry (1984) Explorations in applied linguistics 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[58] Woloshin, Steven, and Schwartz, Lisa M. (2002) Press releases: translating research into news. Jama 287 (21), 2856–2858. doi:10.1001/jama.287.21.2856