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Article
Using Aspect to Express Viewpoint in EST Texts
English for Specific Purposes (1996)
  • Andreas Schramm
Abstract
The rhetorical function of tense and aspect forms in English-for-Science-and-Technology (EST) texts is not well understood because of the enormous variation in their use. In this paper, a new system of analysis of EST data is proposed. To illustrate this system, some data from previous grammatical-rhetorical interpretations will be re-analyzed in an exemplary fashion. In this analysis it is proposed that each grammatical tense/aspect form in English, including the passive, can be reduced to a unique semantic core that may be combined with one of several event types into which predicate phrases can be classified based on their lexical-aspect properties. In creating texts, events are cognitively assembled into coherent causal networks. One factor determining the degree of coherence between events is the grammatical-aspect form used. Presumably, writers make use of the cognitive potential available through these lexical/grammatical-aspect combinations for different rhetorical purposes. Consequently, previous disparate rhetorical interpretations of predicate phrases used in EST texts will be subsumed and systematized according to their degree of coherence.
Publication Date
1996
DOI
10.1016/0889-4906(95)00017-8
Citation Information
Andreas Schramm. "Using Aspect to Express Viewpoint in EST Texts" English for Specific Purposes Vol. 15 Iss. 2 (1996) p. 141 - 164
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/andreas-schramm/36/