The Interpersonal Function of Metatextual Elements in Scientific Writing

The paper is based on the widely accepted idea that the scientific discourse is not merely an exposition of scientific statements by means of a specific genre, but a social activity by which the author builds his/her relationship with the intended audience. Thus, every scientific text contains the elements which go beyond the propositional content comprising the metatextual level. Adopting Vande Kopple's (1985) functional classification of metatextual elements around two functions - textual and interpersonal, we have examined the metatextual elements of the latter function analysing ten research articles from two different sciences - medicine and geology. The examined elements are sub-classified (modality markers, attitudinal markers and commentaries), and systematized according to their formal realization, such as modal auxiliaries, related nouns, adjectives, adverbs, noun phrases etc