Epistemic lexical verbs in English-language economics articles by Polish and Anglophone authors

Abstract

The study investigates cross-cultural variation in the use of epistemic lexical verbs (ELVs) in English research articles on economics written by Polish and Anglophone scholars. Two corpora of articles published in Polish and international journals are explored to analyze the frequency, prominence, distribution and phraseological behaviour of selected ELVs across the introductory, concluding and main body parts of the collected texts. The results demonstrate that Anglophone writers use more ELVs than their Polish counterparts, though both groups prefer judgement over evidential verbs and most frequently use ELVs in the combined Results and Discussion section. Cross-cultural differences are observed in the choice of the specific ELVs, their frequency rates and the recurrent phraseology in the distinct rhetorical sections. These results may have implications for novice writers aspiring to understand the motivations behind the specific rhetorical choices contributing to the effective announcement of new knowledge claims in English-language economics articles.