Epistemic space and key concepts in early and late modern medical discourse: an exploration of two genres

Whitt, Richard

Abstract

This article provides a corpus-driven overview of the ‘epistemic space’ surrounding the use of two lockwords of Early and Late Modern writings on midwifery and childbirth, child and uterus. Rather than searching for epistemic stance markers themselves, this study employs the ‘bottom-up’ approach by examining the propositions containing these lockwords, and then seeing what particular epistemic meanings are signalled by the surrounding discourse context. Both treatises and periodicals representative of medical writing from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries are examined, thus allowing any diachronic trends characteristic of a period that witnessed much change in midwifery practices, and medicine more broadly, to be uncovered. Data are drawn from the Early Modern English Medical Texts (EMEMT) and Late Modern English Medical Texts (LMEMT) corpora.

Citation

Whitt, R. (2023). Epistemic space and key concepts in early and late modern medical discourse: an exploration of two genres. English Language and Linguistics, 27(2), 241-269. https://doi.org/10.1017/s136067432200034x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 5, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jan 17, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-06
• Deposit Date: Oct 5, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 14, 2022
• Journal: English Language and Linguistics
• Print ISSN: 1360-6743
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-4379
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 241-269
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s136067432200034x
• Keywords: Linguistics and Language; Language and Linguistics
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/12029704
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-language-and-linguistics/article/epistemic-space-and-key-concepts-in-early-and-late-modern-medical-discourse-an-exploration-of-two-genres/A31D4E839C3DE2064C97F06A0E9E2763
• Additional Information: Copyright: Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press; License: This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that no alterations are made and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use and/or adaptation of the article.; Free to read: This content has been made available to all.