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In:Possibility and Necessity: Concepts and expressions of modality
Edited by Jean Albrespit, Christelle Lacassain and Tracey Simpson
[Studies in Language Companion Series 237] 2025
► pp. 117–137

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How true is scientific discourse?

A comparative study of epistemicity in on-page and on-screen media

ORCiD logo with link | University of Bergamo
Published online: 4 November 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.237.05con
Abstract
This chapter examines the visual-cum-verbal encoding of epistemic modality in scientific discourse by comparing IMRD-format research articles with infographic synopses. Words and visuals use different strategies that co-operate in the validation and dissemination of evidence-based knowledge: while the former symbolise empirical data through written, abstract, discontinuous and temporal resources, the latter shape it into sensorial, contiguous and spatial patterns that facilitate cognitive functions such as quantification, recognition and comparison. Within the framework of Systemic Functional Grammar, and incorporating multimodal social semiotics and medical linguistics, I compare cross-semiotic epistemicity in on-page vs. on-screen media, looking at how differently words and graphics can codify possibility, probability, necessity and certainty, and at the pragmatic and epistemological impact of multi-literacy in scientific discourse.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Materials
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Verbal epistemicity
    • 3.2Visual epistemicity
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Verbal epistemicity
    • 4.2Visual epistemicity
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (42)
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