Grammar as a Feature of Text Construction

Written Communication Oct 2004

Grammar as a Feature of Text Construction

Anthony J. Liddicoat Griffith University

Abstract

This article investigates one aspect of scientific style in French: the use of tenses. It investigates the claims made in the literature that the verb system of scientific French is a temporal. The frequency of tensed finite forms in 10 French language journal articles on biological sciences is examined. The rhetorical function of past and future tenses is examined and six functions of tense choice are isolated. This analysis suggests that tense marking is actually more complex than previous claims have maintained and that tense choice serves to encode (a) temporal, (b) rhetorical, and (c) structural processes in the scientific text. Tense choice is therefore part of the communicative repertoire of the scientific writer, which writers use to create and communicate information, and which is responsive to the rhetorical demands of communicating about science.

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 2004-10-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088304268806
Open Access: Closed
Topics: voice and style

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

Yu et al. (2019)

A Genre-Based Analysis of Forward-Looking Statements in Corporate Social Respon…

Written Communication

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 14 works outside this index ↓

10.1016/S0889-4906(01)00049-7

↗
10.1075/aral.18.2.03cur

↗
10.1075/z.17

↗
Gross, A. G. (2002)

Communicating science: The scientific article from the 17th century to the present

↗
10.1017/CBO9780511620591

↗
10.2307/3585556

↗
10.1515/ling.1997.35.4.767

↗
Locke, D. (1992)

Science as writing

↗
10.1016/0889-4906(87)90073-1

↗
10.1093/applin/4.1.55

↗
10.3406/lfr.1969.5423

↗
10.1017/CBO9781139173438

↗
10.1016/0272-2380(81)90004-4

↗
10.1075/slcs.18

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 6 View in citation network →