Passive voice, first person pronouns and mental process verbs in the biological sciences research article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905X.1.12.2.3160Keywords:
biological sciences, first person pronoun, passive voice, process type, research articleAbstract
This paper sets out to study the use of passive forms, first person pronouns, and process types in the biological research article. Recent studies carried out on a small sample of articles in the physical sciences have suggested that in physical sciences research articles, there are two available models: one using many passive forms and avoiding first person pronoun subjects; and the other using few passives but first person pronoun subjects readily. The object of this study is to consider a similar sample from the biological sciences, and to compare them with the previously studied physical sciences articles. The six biological research articles that have been studied here, show restrained use of passives and a significant use of first person pronoun subjects. Overall, the relational process is the most common type, but the material process is the most frequent in some articles. Relational process is the most common type overall, but material process is the most frequent in some articles. Within mental process, cognitive process is the most common type, followed by processes of a mathematical nature. Most first person pronoun subjects occur with mental process verbs.
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