Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 16:6 (2017) ► pp.849–869

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Politics in science

High modulation of engagement in intelligent design discourse

 | University of Turku
 | University of Turku
Published online: 12 June 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.16013.wil
Abstract
Intelligent design is a pseudoscientific concept conceived in an attempt to bring religion-based teaching into the classroom. As such, it is involved in a constant struggle for dialogic space with the dominant scientific discourse of the theory of evolution. Here, we use a corpus linguistic approach to study how intelligent design discourse uses engagement to forward its creationistic propositions and at the same time limit the propositions of the theory of evolution. The results suggest that intelligent design discourse employs engagement far more frequently than evolutionary biology discourse, mainly to counter opposing propositions and to entertain its own proposition in their stead. The underdog position of ID obligates it to highly modulated engagement in order forward its position, which is ultimately aimed at changing the political decision-making related to the teaching of science.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methods
  • 3.Results and Analysis
  • 4.Discussion
  • References
References (32)
References
Anthony, Laurence. 2014. AntConc (Version 3.4.3) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. Available: [URL]
Back, Juhyn. 2015. “A Corpus-based Study of Interactional Metadiscourse in L1 and L2 Academic Research Articles: Writer Identity and Reader Engagement.” Corpus Linguistics 2015: abstract book. UCREL, Lancaster.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Paul. 2006. Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. London, New York: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Behe, Michael. 2007. The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benen, Steven. 2000. “Science Test.” Accessed 14 January 2015. [URL].
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carroll, Sean B. 2007. “Evolution: God as genetic engineer.” Science 3161: 1427–1428. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Charles, Maggie. 2009. “Stance, interaction and the rhetorical patterns of restrictive adverbs: Discourse roles of only, just, simply and merely.” In Academic Writing: At the Interface of Corpus and Discourse, ed. by Maggie Charles, Susan Hunston and Diane Pecorari, 152–169. London: Continuum International Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Charles, Maggie, Hunston, Susan, and Pecorari, Diane (eds). 2009. Academic Writing: At the Interface of Corpus and Discourse. London: Continuum International Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chatterjee-Padmanabhan, Meeta. 2014. “Bakhtin’s theory of heteroglossia/intertextuality in teaching academic writing in higher education.” Journal of Academic Language and Learning: 101–A112.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chilton, Paul A., and Schäffner Christina (eds). 2002. Politics as Text and Talk: Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coulthard, Malcolm (ed.). 1994. Advances in Written Text Analysis. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dawkins, Richard. 2009. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Derewianka, Beverly. 2007. “Using appraisal theory to track interpersonal development in adolescent student writing.” In Advances in language & education, ed. by Anne McCabe, Mick O’Donnell and Rachel Whittaker, 142–165. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gee, James P. 1999. An Introduction to discourse analysis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forrest, Barbara. 2001. “The wedge at work: How intelligent design creationism is wedging its way into the cultural and academic mainstream.” In Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives. ed. Robert T. Pennock, 5–53. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael Alexander Kirkwood, and Matthiessen, Christian Matthias Ingemar Martin. 2014. Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar (4th ed.) London and New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyland, Ken. 2009. “Corpus informed discourse analysis: The case of academic engagement.” In Academic Writing: At the Interface of Corpus and Discourse, ed. by Maggie Charles, Susan Hunston and Diane Pecorari, 110–128. London: Continuum International Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
“Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Memorandum Opinion 2004.” Accessed 12 January 2015. [URL].
Martin, James Robert, and White, Peter R. R. 2005. The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCabe, Anne, O’Donnell, Mick, and Whittaker Rachel (eds). 2007. Advances in language and education. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, Kenneth R. 1996. “Darwin’s Black Box, reviewed by Kenneth R. Miller.” Creation/Evolution 161: 36–40.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muntigl, Peter. 2002. “Politicization and depoliticization: employment policy on the European Union.” In Politics as Text and Talk: Analytic Approaches to Political Discourse, ed. by Paul A. Chilton and Christina Schäffner, 45–79. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Myers, Greg. 1989. “The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles.” Applied Linguistics 101: 1–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pagano, Adriana. 1994. “Negatives in written text.” In Advances in Written Text Analysis, ed. by Malcolm Coulthard, 250–65. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palonen, Kari. 2003. “Four times of politics: Policy, polity, politicking, and politization.” Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 28 (2): 171–186. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pennock, Robert T. (ed.) 2001. Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives. Cambridge, USA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rayson, Paul, and Garside, Roger. 2000. Comparing corpora using frequency profiling. In proceedings of the workshop on Comparing Corpora, held in conjunction with the 38th annual meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics. 1–8 October 2000, Hong Kong, pp. 1–6.
Tang, Ramona. 2009. “A dialogic account of authority in academic writing.” In Academic Writing: At the Interface of Corpus and Discourse, ed. by Maggie Charles, Susan Hunston and Diane Pecorari, 170–88. London: Continuum International Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomson, Irene Taviss. 2010. Culture Wars and Enduring American Dilemmas. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swain, Elizabeth. 2007. “Constructing an effective voice in academic discussion writing: An appraisal theory perspective.” In Advances in language & education, ed. by Anne McCabe, Mick O’Donnell and Rachel Whittaker, 166–184. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Young, Matt, and Edis, Taner (eds). 2004. Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism, 1–9. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Catalano, Theresa & Linda R. Waugh
2020. The Main Approaches to CDA/CDS. In Critical Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Studies and Beyond [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 26], ► pp. 155 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue