ABSTRACT
Based on the analysis of 4137 authentic instances in hard science articles this paper investigates the first-person pronoun we with regard to its semantic references co-selection patterns and discourse functions. Findings suggest that overall we occurs quite frequently in hard science articles but within the hard sciences the occurrence of we varies greatly from one discipline to another. Semantic references of we are divided into four groups: self-reference we author-reader we discipline we and general we. The self-reference we accounts for the vast majority of all the occurrences of we which implies that in most cases the use of we in hard science articles may appear to be “reader-oriented” but may actually express the writers’ own point of view. This paper also generalizes the primary discourse functions under each type of semantic reference the frequent co-selection patterns of we to perform each function and the collocating verbs in each pattern. It is found that we with a specific reference tends to collocate with certain verbs and to occur in certain patterns in order to realize particular functions whilst a specific function also promotes and restricts the use of we in certain patterns and with certain references. In this sense the use of we is the co-selection result of patterns semantic references and discourse functions.
