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8
Introduction
communityasafactandgrantedthestatusofknowledge;oritmayemphasise
therigourandcogencyofargumentationbyshowingthattheauthor(withthe
readers)hasreachedanundeniableconclusionwhichdeservespromotionto
thestatusoffact.Andconversely,anexpressionwhichlimitsorqualifiesthe
author)scommitmenttothepropositionmayreflecttheauthor)slackofcer-
tainty,possiblyrelatedtothetypeofevidenceinsufficienttosustaintheclaim;
itmaysignalthatthepropositionisanewclaimofferedforevaluationbythe
discoursecommunityandawaitingthecommunity)sapprovalratherthan
partofthealreadyestablishedconsensusoverwhatisknown;oritmaycon-
veytheauthor)sawarenessofthenormsandvaluesprofessedbythecommu-
nity,suchasacceptedwaysofshowingrespectforanddisagreeingwithother
authorsandthepreferabledegreeofautonomylefttothereaders.Inthisper-
spective,astudyofepistemicmarkersinacademictextsoriginatinginapar-
ticularcommunitymayprovidesomeinsightintoitsacademicpractices:the
specificmechanismsofknowledgegenerationandsharingwhichfunction
withinthiscommunity.
Possibledifferencesinacademicpracticesmayberelatedtovariouscom-
munity-definingelements,ofwhichlanguageisperhapsthemostsalient.
Languageshavedevelopedtheirownrhetoricalpatterns,whichreflecttheir
internalorganisation,theresponsibilitiesofandthepreferreddegreeofsoli-
daritybetweeninteractants,andtheintellectualtraditioninwhichtheygrow
andtowhichtheycontribute(Kaplan,1987;ConnorandKaplan,1987;Con-
nor,1996).Theseculture-specificfeatureswillcontributetothewaysinwhich
membersofcommunitiestalkabout,generateanddisseminateknowledge.
Anotherimportantelementwhichdefinesaparticularscientificcommunity
isthediscipline.Disciplineshavegivenrisetotexttypesandevolvedstylis-
ticfeatureswhichbestcorrespondtotheirspecificneeds,includingrecognis-
ableargumentationpatternsandexpecteddegreeofinterpersonalinvolve-
ment(Melanderetal.,1997;Hyland,1999a,2000,2008a;Dahl,2004;Hyland
andBondi,2006;Fløttumetal.,2006a;Vold,2006a;Yakhontova,2006).These
discipline-relatedcharacteristicswillberesponsibleformuchofthevariation
observedintheareaofacademiccommunication.Aspowerfulfactorsinflu-
encingcommunicationpatternsonvariouslevels—fromthechoiceofgenre,
throughthedegreeofdialogicality,tophraseologicaldecisions—bothcultural
anddisciplinarybackgroundmayalsoinfluencethewaysinwhichsignalsof
epistemicevaluationareusedinthetext:theirfrequency,thedegreesofcom-
mitmentwhichtendtobemarkedmoreoftenthanothers,andthepartoftext
inwhichtheytendtoappear.Thisbookisconcernedwithpotentialdifferenc-
esrelatedtothefirstofthesetwofactors.
