Milostivaya A.I., Zaitsev A.A., Babushkina L.E. Epistemic modality in narrative on genetics as way of explicating assessment of Gregor Mendel's scientific legacy

The article deals with the linguistic means used to express epistemic modality within a multi-text German-language narrative concerning genetics, as well as their role in assessing the reliability and scientific significance of Gregor Mendel’s research findings. The study is inspired by the need to investigate linguistic markers that signal the reliable representation of scientific results in academic narratives. The following methods have been applied in the research: hermeneutic interpretation, quantitative analysis, and a comparison of the proportions of evaluative versus factual-content propositions. The empirical analysis revealed the lexical, morphological, and syntactic epistemic-modal constructions authors use to evaluate the reliability and relevance of G. Mendel’s scientific legacy. It has been found out that the choice of a positive or negative evaluative tone is determined by the genre of the scientific article and the sociocultural status of the protagonist being described. The analysis of the narrative construction in publications on genetics revealed a correlation between the quantitative ratio of evaluative propositions to factual content and the macro-intention of the scientific journal’s multi-text narrative.