Abstract

The epistemic modality is a discursive-semantic category that expresses degrees of certainty in texts. In this way, degrees may vary in a certain discursive genre, depending upon discipline communities. This paper describes the lexical linguistic structures that show the epistemic modality in a corpus of Undergraduate Graduation Projects (TFG, by its Spanish acronym) written in Spanish in different disciplinary fields. The methodology used in this research follows a non-experimental, cross-sectional design, and presents an exploratory-descriptive scope. The design of the research follows a qualitative methodological strategy based on a corpus. This research focuses on the lexical level. It has an empirical nature, a pure objective and applied implication. Data show significant predominance of non-assertive epistemic modality markers (80%) compared to assertive epistemic modality markers (20%). Both marker types statistically predominate in accomplishing the communicative purposes of MM2: Showing previous research and important conceptual background and MM4: Accounting for the results and their interpretation in the context of the investigation. However, they have important disciplinary distinctions of specific rhetoric patterns displayed in each macro-move of TFG. Findings make possible to understand the way each discipline differently constructs its positioning in the academic discourse of students. Additionally, these findings demonstrate the configuration of various rhetoric strategies of mitigation and reinforcement, and the way they vary in different disciplines.