Hedges in Japanese English and American English Medical Research Articles Eri Iida The

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Hedges in
Japanese English and American English
Medical Research Articles
Eri Iida
The Department of Integrated Studies in Education
A Thesis Submitted to McGill University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of
the Degree of Master of Arts
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
J anuary 2007
© Eri Iida, 2007
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ABSTRACT
The present study analysed the use of hedges in English medical research articles
written by Japanese and American researchers. The study also examined the relationship
between Japanese medical professionals' employment ofhedges and their writing process.
Sixteen English medical articles: eight written by Japanese and eight by Americans were
examined. Four of the Japanese authors discussed their writing process through
questionnaires and telephone interviews.
The overall ratio of hedges in articles written by the two groups differed only
slightly; however, analyses revealed a number of specifie differences in the use of hedges
between the groups. For example, Japanese researchers used epistemic adverbs and
adjectives less frequently than the American researchers. The results were discussed in
relation to the problems of nonnative speakers' grammatical competence, cultural
differences in rhetorical features, and the amount of experience in the use of medical
English.
RÉSUMÉ
La présente étude examine l'emploi de marques d'atténuation (ou « hedges ») de
l'anglais écrit par des chercheurs japonais et américains. Cette étude analyse également le
rapport entre l'emploi de ces marques par les scientifiques japonais et leur processus
d'écriture. Le corpus comporte seize articles traitant de recherche médicale: huit textes
sont produits par des Américains et huit, par des Japonais dont quatre ont décrit leur
processus d'écriture par l'entremise de questionnaires et d'entrevues téléphoniques.
Les divers textes diffèrent peu quant au nombre d'occurrences de «hedges »; en
revanche, l'analyse révèle que l'emploi de modalisateurs spécifiques varie selon le groupe
de scripteurs. Ainsi, les Japonais utilisent moins d'adverbes et d'adjectifs comme
modalités épistémiques que les Américains. Les résultats sont mis en relation avec la
compétence grammaticale des locuteurs non natifs, les différences culturelles sur le plan
des traits rhétoriques, et leur expérience de l'utilisation de l'anglais en médecine.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, 1 would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Janet Donill. Her kindassistance
and cooperation was most encouraging for me. The advice she gave me throughout the
research work was very precious and important.
1 would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Doreen Starke-Meyerring. She
gave me excellent comments and encouraged me throughout my thesis work, which was a
great help for me. 1 would also like to say special thanks to the graduate school
coordinators, Ms. Catherine Hughes, Nada Abu-Merhy, and Dina Bakopanos, who helped
me with my graduat e school life in Canada. They gave me a lot of help and support that
made my university life in Canada a much more comfortable one.
1 would also like to thank my family who supported me everyday at home in
Montreal. My father Takamichi, and my mother Sugaho Iida were very keen on giving me
their opinions and support. 1 am also grateful to my sister, Mari Iida, who shared a room
together everyday. Thanks to her cooperation, she kept our room environment quiet and
comfortable enough to study.
III
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... i
' ..
RÉS UME ............................................................................................................................ 11
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... .iv
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION and LITERAT URE REVIEW ......................................... 1
1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Literature Review ........................................................................................................... 2
1.2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 2
1.2.2 The definitions ofhedges ..................................................................................... 2
1.2.3 Hedges in medical research pap ers ...................................................................... 6
1.2.4 Hedges in academic English papers by nonnative researchers ............................ 8
1.2.5 Hedges in English written by Japanese .............................................................. l0
1.2.6 Nonnative researchers' writing process of English research articles ................. 14
1.2.7 Summary ............................................................................................................ 17
1.3 Rationale ...................................................................................................................... 19
1.3.1 Significance of the study .................................................................................... 19
1.3.2 Research questions ............................................................................................. 19
1.3.3 Purpose of study ................................................................... :. ............................ 19
1.3.4 Overview ofmethodology ................................................................................. 20
1.3.5 Delimitations of the study .................................................................................. 20
CHAPTER 2 METHODS .................................................................................................. 21
2.1 General Perspective ...................................................................................................... 21
iv
2.2 Selection of Research Articles for Analysis ................................................................. 21
2.3 Articles by Japanese Researchers ................................................................................. 22
2.4 Articles by American Researchers ............................................................................... 23
2.5 Data Corpus .................................................................................................................. 24
2.6 Participants ................................................................................................................... 28
2.7 Instruments Used in Data Collection ........................................................................... 29
2.8'Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 31
2.8.1 Hedges examined in this study and their classification ..................................... 31
2.8.1.1 Modal (Auxiliary) verbs .............................................................................. 32
2.8.1.2 Epistemic lexical verbs ................................................................................ 33
2.8.1.3 Epistemic adverbs ........................................................................................ 35
2.8.1.4 Epistemic adjectives and nouns ................................................................... 38
2.8.2 Procedure for the analysis ofhedges. ................................................................. 39
2.8.2.1 The analysis of the ratio ofhedges ............................................................. .40
CHAPTER 3 RESULTS .................................................................................................... 42
3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 42
3.2 Research Question 1. .................................................................................................... 42
3.2.1 Overall use ofhedges ......................................................................................... 43
3.2.1.1 The ratio ofhedges in each rhetorical section ............................................ .43
3.2.2 Most frequently used hedging items in the data articles by Japanese and
American medical professionals ................................................................................. 44
3.2.3 The ratios ofhedges in each classification category ......................................... .46
3.2.3.1 Modal verbs ................................................................................................. 47
3.2.3.2 Epistemic lexical verbs ................................................................................ 48
v
3.2.3.3 Epsitemic adverbs ........................................................................................ 50
3.2.3.4 Epistemic adjectives and nouns ................................................................... 55
3.2.4 The distribution ofhedging categories in each rhetorical section ...................... 58
3.2.4.1 Modal verbs ................................................................................................. 58
3.2.4.2 Epistemic lexical verbs ................................................................................ 59
3.2.4.3 Epistemic adverbs ........................................................................................ 59
3.2.4.4 Epistemic adjectives .................................................................................... 60
3.2.4.5 Epistemic nouns ........................................................................................... 60
3.3 Research Question 2 ..................................................................................................... 61
3.3.1 The ratio ofhedges in original articles ofthe participants ................................. 61
3.3.2 The results of the individual factors ................................................................... 62
3.3.2.1 Questionnaire results ................................................................................... 63
3.3.2.2 Interview results .......................................................................................... 66
3.3.3 Distribution of hedges in the Japanese participants' original articles and
published articles ......................................................................................................... 74
3.3.3.1 The ratios ofhedges in each classification category ................................... 74
3.3.3.2 The ratios ofhedges in each rhetorical section. ........................................... 78
CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION .............................................................................................. 80
4.1 Summary of the Results ............................................................................................... 80
4.2 Ratios of Hedges in Each Rhetorical Section in the Present Study and Previous
Studies ................................................................................................................................ 80
4.3 Features of Japanese Medical Researchers' Employment of Hedges in English
Medical Articles ................................................................................................................. 83
~
! 4.4 Factors Related to Japanese Medical Researchers' Skills to Employ Hedges in English
vi
Medical Research Articles ................................................................................................. 88
4.5 Limitations of the Study ............................................................................................... 98
4.6 Pedagogical Implication ............................................................................................... 98
4.7 Future Research .......................................................................................................... 100
4.8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 100
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 10 2
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 107
vii
Hedges by Japanese and Americans 1
CHAPTERI
INTRODUCTION and LITERAT URE REVIEW
1.1 Introduction
Writing scientific papers in English has become necessary aIl over the world.
Although English is usually used as a foreign language in Japan, there is a growing need
of instruction of English academic writing for Japanese scientists. Recently, in the field of
English for Academic Purposes (EAP), hedges have been recognized as one of the
indispensable communication devices in English research articles (e.g., Adams-Smith,
1984; Hyland, 1998). Hedges (e.g., may, perhaps, generally) are communication devices
used to mitigate author's statements to avoid his or her commitment to the statements.
Swales (1990) claims that hedges
are widely used rhetorical devices in research papers "both for projecting honesty,
modesty and proper caution in self-reports, and for diplomatically creating research space
in areas heavily populated by other researchers" (p. 175). Particularly, hedges are
important in scientific papers not only because they serve as face-saving strategies, but
also because they express the certainty of scientists' knowledge, enabling them to get
nearer to the truth, which is the aim of science (Meyer, 1997). Studies of hedges are
achieving growing international attention because it has been claimed that the use of
hedges differs from culture to culture, and this awareness has led researchers to
investigate the use of hedges in academic papers in various languages (e.g., Crismore,
Markkanen, & Steffensen, 1993; Kreutz & Harres, 1997) and disciplines (e.g., Hanania &
Akhtar, 1985; Hyland, 1998a, 1998b, 2005). Among the studies of hedges in academic