Abstract
This study investigates the use of the passive in scientific conference presentations and compares the findings with its use in the corresponding proceedings articles, in order to provide some hard data on this grammatical feature in the oral genre. The oral data comprise 90 presentations given in English at international conferences in 3 scientific fields (geology, medicine, and physics) by native and non-native speakers; the written data comprise 18 articles from the conference proceedings in physics. Results show that the frequency of occurrence of the passive is to a large extent a mode-governed (oral or written) feature, but that speaker origin (native or non-native speaker) also impacts on frequency of occurrence.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
