Citation

Skelton JOHN. Appl. Linguist. 1997; 18(2): 121-140.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/applin/18.2.121

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study considers the way in which medical writers talk about things which they deem to be true, possible, and untrue The study considers research papers drawn from three leading medical journals, published since 1991 Three main types of truth are identified contextualized truth, evidential truth, and interpreted truth These deal, respectively, with truth as the research tradition states it to be, truth as the statistical evidence states it to be, and truth as a matter of deriving possible non-statistical meaning from findings Writers also make frequent explicit reference to the extent to which they are committed to the propositions expressed in statements about truth the manner in which they do so is discussed, with a distinction being drawn between propositions and comments