Epistemic modal verbs in research articles written by Ghanaian and international scholars: a corpus-based study of three disciplines

Abstract

This paper discusses epistemic modal verbs as rhetorical markers of argumentation in Ghanaian scholars’ research articles (RAs) in the disciplines of Sociology, Economics and Law, and compares the results with similar features in RAs produced by international scholars who are native speakers. In this study, corpus linguistics methods are used to investigate the extent to which Ghanaian scholars’ use of epistemic modal verbs differs from international scholars’ use of these devices in terms of depth of use, diversity of use, phraseological patterns and degrees of epistemic strength. Statistically examined results show consider able differences in the use of epistemic modal verbs between the two groups of scholars across the disciplines studied, suggesting that the writing practices of the Ghanaian scholars do not fully adhere to international disciplinary conventions. In the conclusion, the theoretical and pedagogical implications of the study are discussed