The Influence of Genre Constraints on Author Representation in Medical Research Articles. The French Indefinite Pronoun On in IMRAD Research Articles

Abstract

Scientific discourse is characterized by highly normative and strict genre constraints on language use, both on the macro (text) and micro (word) level. The purpose of this article is to study the distribution of the French indefinite pronoun on and its interpretative values across the sections of French-language medical articles (KIAP corpus) in the IMRAD format (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion). The main hypothesis is that the IMRAD structure entails a specific distribution of macro level textual structures (author roles, argumentation, rhetorical functions), and that this is reflected in the distribution of micro level linguistic markers, such as the pronoun on. Previous studies based on a more limited material (Gjesdal, 2008) indicate that the variation in the interpretative values of on seems to be influenced by the IMRAD format, and, furthermore, that the different values seem to correspond to different author roles. Particular emphasis will be put on the influence of the linear sequencing of text imposed by the IMRAD format and the distribution of author roles and speech acts across the text.