"In fact" and "actually" in English history texts (1700- 1900)

Abstract

In this paper, I analyse evidential devices as stancetaking markers in history scientific texts from the Modern English period (1700-1900). For this, I will use the Corpus of History English Texts (CHET), one of the subcorpora within the Coruña Corpus, focussing the attention on how these adverbial devices are used to express interpersonal meanings (Hoye 1997; Biber and Finegan 1988). The adverbials selected for this study, actually and in fact, are said to show authorial stance, therefore they are categorised as epistemic adverbs. From the excerpts available, their use by eighteenth and nineteenth century writers of history texts will be described showing that depending on the context, they may fulfil several pragmatic functions, e.g. indicating different degrees of authorial commitment and detachment towards the information presented, persuasion or politeness and it will be analise as well how authors use those devices to negotiate interactional meanings with their potential readers, mostly colleagues.