Emphasis on engagement or information: an analysis of pronouns in an Agrarian Science corpus

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2026.e109123

Keywords:

CorAgrarian, Agrarian Sciences, Pronouns, Passive voice, Academic writing

Abstract

This study analyses the use of personal pronouns as markers of involved discourse, with the use of passive voice as a marker of informational discourse. The goal is to understand these linguistic choices in English made by authors in the field of Agrarian Sciences regarding these markers, since there are few studies on the academic features of this area (Shi; Wannaruk, 2014; Teixeira et al., 2022). This work, from a quantitative basis, was developed with the support of computational tools and the "Corpus of Agrarian Sciences Scientific Articles" (CorAgrarian) (Teixeira et al. 2022; Marques 2024), with approximately 2,500,000 words. The results indicate that research articles in this field display both involved discourse and informational discourse markers, reflecting a balance between authorial presence and impersonality.

Author Biographies

Shirlene Bemfica de Oliveira, Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Minas Gerais

Professora Titular do Instituto Federal de Minas Gerais, campus Ouro Preto onde leciona língua inglesa para o Ensino Médio técnico. Doutora em Estudos Linguísticos e pós-doutorado em Linguística de Corpus.

Deise Prina Dutra, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Professora Titular da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais no Brasil onde ministra aulas de Inglês na graduação e de Linguística / Linguística Aplicada na pós-graduação. Seus interesses de pesquisa são linguística de corpus, corpora de aprendizes e especializados, escrita acadêmica em inglês e aprendizagem movida a dados.

Carolina Godoi de Faria Marques, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Mestre em Estudos Linguísticos pela UFMG, doutoranda em Estudos Linguísticos pela mesma instituição.

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Published

2026-07-01

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Language Studies

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