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In:Evaluation in Context
Edited by Geoff Thompson † and Laura Alba-Juez
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 242] 2014
► pp. 259–280

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The role of negative-modal synergies in Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species

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Published online: 4 February 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.242.13hid
This chapter explores the role of negative-modal synergies in the expression of authorial stance and intersubjective positioning in Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. As markers of stance, both negation and modality contribute to the expression of evaluation in discourse, though little attention has been paid to the co-occurrence of both types of markers. Drawing on corpus-based methods, I first identify the recurrent discourse pattern which gives rise to a semantic prosody of negative-modal meaning throughout The Origin of Species as compared to Voyage of the Beagle. Second, I discuss how this discourse pattern reflects Darwin’s positioning in the presentation of his Theory of Natural Selection. An analysis of the resources which express intersubjective positioning reveals the tension between conflicting goals in Darwin’s presentation of his new theory, namely, the expression of certainty regarding his insights and discoveries and the need to be cautious in communicating them. Thus, the various patterns of (co)-occurrence of negation, modality and personal pronouns construe specific authorial positions against the backdrop of competing scientific theories and in anticipation of readers’ potential disagreement.
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Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Jiménez-Pazos, Bárbara
2021. Darwin’s perception of nature and the question of disenchantment: a semantic analysis across the six editions of On the Origin of Species. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 43:2 DOI logo
Pazos, Bárbara Jiménez
2018. The Deteleologization of Nature: Darwin’s Language inOn the Origin of Species. Metaphysica 19:2 ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
Hidalgo-Downing, Laura & Yasra Hanawi
2017. Bush and Obama’s Addresses to the Arab World: Recontextualizing Stance in Political Discourse. In Contrastive Analysis of Discourse-pragmatic Aspects of Linguistic Genres [Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics, 5], ► pp. 187 ff. DOI logo

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