Mejia et al (2019 XPhil) Final.pdf (1.3 MB)
Using corpus linguistics to investigate mathematical explanation
chapter
posted on 2019-04-15, 09:55 authored by Juan P. Mejia-Ramos, Lara AlcockLara Alcock, Kristen Lew, Paolo Rago, Christopher J. Sangwin, Matthew InglisMatthew InglisIn this chapter we use methods of corpus linguistics to investigate the ways
in which mathematicians describe their work as explanatory in their research papers.
We analyse use of the words explain/explanation (and various related words and
expressions) in a large corpus of texts containing research papers in mathematics and
in physical sciences, comparing this with their use in corpora of general, day-to-day
English. We find that although mathematicians do use this family of words, such use
is considerably less prevalent in mathematics papers than in physics papers or in
general English. Furthermore, we find that the proportion with which mathematicians
use expressions related to ‘explaining why’ and ‘explaining how’ is significantly
different to the equivalent proportion in physics and in general English. We discuss
possible accounts for these differences.
Funding
This project was funded by the British Academy and The Leverhulme Trust.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Mathematics Education Centre
Published in
Methodological Advances in Experimental PhilosophyPages
239 - 264Citation
MEJIA-RAMOS, J.P. ... et al, 2019. Using corpus linguistics to investigate mathematical explanation. IN: Fischer, E. and Curtis, M. (eds). Methodological Advances in Experimental Philosophy. London: Bloomsbury, pp.239-264.Publisher
BloomsburyVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This book chapter was published in the book Methodological Advances in Experimental Philosophy. The definitive published version is available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/methodological-advances-in-experimental-philosophy-9781350068995/.Publication date
2019ISBN
9781350068995Publisher version
Language
- en
Administrator link
Usage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedLicence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC