Evaluation in experimental research articles

This thesis examines evaluation in experimental research articles in terms of the meanings made and their contribution to the organisation of the articles. After an introduction to the phenomenon of evaluation in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 surveys recent work concerning the process of scientific discovery and the writing of research articles. Chapter 3 returns to evaluation and its place in various theories of discourse, mainly those of Sinclair and of Halliday. The model of evaluation proposed in this thesis is set out in the next three chapters, dealing in turn with the Status, Value and Relevance functions of evaluation. Status is the function of evaluation which bestows entity, assessing along a certain-uncertain parameter. Value bestows quality and assesses along a good-bad parameter. Evaluation of Relevance is meta-discoursal and marks significance. Relevance Markers are identified, which progressively chunk and organise the text. Comparisons between texts analysed for Status, Value and Relevance demonstrate a movement towards the theoretical and an increase in complexity of argument as the sub-discipline under discussion progresses. Chapter 7 investigates the contribution of evaluation towards text structure and notes a number of ways in which discourse units in experimental research articles may be organised. The concluding chapter, Chapter 8, discusses some of the practical and theoretical implications of the work described in the thesis. The Appendix contains the research articles which comprise the corpus

Exploring the Local Grammar of Evaluation: The Case of Adjectival Patterns in American and Italian Judicial Discourse

Based on a 2-million word bilingual comparable corpus of American and Italian judgments, this paper tests the applicability of a local grammar to study evaluative phraseology in judicial discourse in English and Italian. In particular, the study compares the use of two patterns: v-link + ADJ + that pattern / copula + ADJ + che and v-link + ADJ + to-infinitive pattern / copula + ADJ + verbo all’infinito in the disciplinary genre of criminal judgments delivered by the US Supreme Court and the Italian Corte Suprema di Cassazione. It is argued that these two patterns represent a viable and efficient diagnostic tool for retrieving instances of evaluative language and they represent an ideal starting point and a relevant unit of analysis for a cross-language analysis of evaluation in domainrestricted specialised discourse. Further, the findings provided shed light on important interactions occurring among major interactants involved in the judicial discourse

Flow behavior in liquid molding

The liquid molding (LM) process for manufacturing polymer composites with structural properties has the potential to significantly lower fabrication costs and increase production rates. LM includes both resin transfer molding and structural reaction injection molding. To achieve this potential, however, the underlying science base must be improved to facilitate effective process optimization and implementation of on-line process control. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a major program in LM that includes materials characterization, process simulation models, on-line process monitoring and control, and the fabrication of test specimens. The results of this program are applied to real parts through cooperative projects with industry. The key feature in the effort is a comprehensive and integrated approach to the processing science aspects of LM. This paper briefly outlines the NIST program and uses several examples to illustrate the work

Improvement of the impact properties of composite laminates by means of nano-modification of the matrix-A review

© 2017 by the authors. This paper reviews recent works on the application of nanofibers and nanoparticle reinforcements to enhance the interlaminar fracture toughness, to reduce the impact induced damage and to improve the compression after impact performance of fiber reinforced composites with brittle thermosetting resins. The nanofibers have been mainly used as mats embedded between plies of laminated composites, whereas the nanoparticles have been used in 0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D dimensional patterns to reinforce the matrix and consequently the composite. The reinforcement mechanisms are presented, and a comparison is done between the different papers in the literature. This review shows that in order to have an efficient reinforcement effect, careful consideration is required in the manufacturing, materials selection and reinforcement content and percentage. The selection of the right parameters can provide a tough and impact resistant composite with cost effective reinforcements

A linguistic ethnography of theatre production

Voices and Practices in Applied Linguistics comprises a selection of original applied linguistics-based research on the theme of the diversity of Applied Linguistics and in Applied Linguistics. It is a unique collection of reflections and cutting-edge research relating to academic, policy and professional fields of Applied Linguistics, featuring chapters written by founders of the field, established researchers, and rising stars. This accessible, eclectic and forward-looking volume is significant both for research and practice. It highlights current globalised perspectives on diversity in language use and communication, across a variety of contexts, and with a rich mix of frameworks, methodologies and participants. Compiled and edited by a team of academic experts in the field, this edited collection will be of interest to established and emerging researchers in Applied Linguistics globally. It will also be relevant to language professionals, practitioners, and policy makers. The volume draws together papers from the 2017 British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) conference, marking the 50th anniversary of its inaugural meeting. Founded in the mid-1960s, this UK-based professional association provides a forum for Applied Linguistics and its annual meeting brings together researchers and language professionals from across this field

Evaluational adjectives

This paper demarcates a theoretically interesting class of "evaluational adjectives." This class includes predicates expressing various kinds of normative and epistemic evaluation, such as predicates of personal taste, aesthetic adjectives, moral adjectives, and epistemic adjectives, among others. Evaluational adjectives are distinguished, empirically, in exhibiting phenomena such as discourse-oriented use, felicitous embedding under the attitude verb `find', and sorites-susceptibility in the comparative form. A unified degree-based semantics is developed: What distinguishes evaluational adjectives, semantically, is that they denote context-dependent measure functions ("evaluational perspectives")—context-dependent mappings to degrees of taste, beauty, probability, etc., depending on the adjective. This perspective-sensitivity characterizing the class of evaluational adjectives cannot be assimilated to vagueness, sensitivity to an experiencer argument, or multidimensionality; and it cannot be demarcated in terms of pretheoretic notions of subjectivity, common in the literature. I propose that certain diagnostics for "subjective" expressions be analyzed instead in terms of a precisely specified kind of discourse-oriented use of context-sensitive language. I close by applying the account to `find x PRED' ascriptions