情态动词在医药英语学术论文中的用法浅析*

刘九茹

(河南中医药大学 外语学院， 郑州 450046)



情态动词在医药英语学术论文中的用法浅析*

刘九茹

(河南中医药大学 外语学院， 郑州 450046)

情态动词是英语中表达推断或结论的主要方法之一。本文归纳并总结了2个最常用的情态动词can 和may及它们的过去式could和might在医药英语学术论文中的用法，旨在为中医药专业人员撰写英语学术论文提供帮助。

情态动词; 英语；学术论文

情态动词又叫情态助动词，在英语中用于表示情态，即说话人的观点或态度。根据说话人表态的依据不同，情态意义分为根情态和认知情态。认知情态指说话人基于其掌握的已知信息做出表态，根情态则是说话人因具有某种特殊身份而做出的表态。这两种用法即情态动词的推测性用法和非推测性用法[1]。推测性用法用于表示可能、推测和必然等意义，一般用于表示推断或结论(deduction or conclusion)[2]。科学研究是一个不断提出假设和验证假设的过程，因而学术论文中所用的情态动词多为情态动词的推测性用法。为了解情态动词在医药英语学术论文中的使用情况，总结其用法规律，帮助中医药专业人员正确使用英语情态动词，笔者搜集了30篇中医药专业英语学术论文，对其中的情态动词用法进行了研究。

英语情态动词共有14个，包括一些过去时形式，其中9个可以用于推测。这些情态动词所表达的可能性由小到大分别是might ﹤ may ﹤ could ﹤ can﹤ should ﹤ought to ﹤would ﹤ will ﹤ must[1]。根据笔者对30篇中医药专业英语学术论文的调查，除ought to外，其他8个情态动词在中医药学术论文中均有使用。其中，最常用的情态动词为can和may，90%的论文中用了这两个词，平均每篇包含9.8和8.6个句子。其次是can的过去式could，85%的论文使用，平均每篇5.1个句子。其他依次为would，might，should和will。没有论文使用ought to，这是因为ought to多用于口语中。调查结果与Biber等将can和may归为英语核心情态动词的理论相一致。下面笔者举例说明使用频率最高的两个情态动词can和may及它们的过去式在医药英语学术论文中的用法。

1 can/could的用法解析

can和could表示可能性可以交替使用，并无时间概念上的差异，只是与can相比，could语气更加委婉，可能性更弱。此外can与may的区别在于can用于肯定陈述句中，往往表示逻辑上的可能性，may则表示事实上的可能性。在中医药论文中，can首先常见于引言部分对研究背景的介绍。如：

例1：Ammonia is a product of the metabolism of amino acids and other nitrogenous compounds and can accumulate in several disorders, such as acute or chronic liver failure and in urea cycle defects (Felipo and Butterworth 2002)[3].

例2：The whole process can easily be controlled and adulteration or substitution of a sample can be prevented[4].

例1用于论文的引言中对研究背景的描述，例2则用于方法和材料中对材料的选择加以说明。这两种情况下作者普遍用了can，一是与可能性大小有关，另外，can作为现在时的标记也符合罗伯特·戴和芭芭拉·盖斯特尔的观点[5]。引言应尽量用现在时态来写，因为这部分是要在已有知识的基础上提出自己的研究问题。同时，一篇科技论文一旦发表就会成为(已有)知识，(因此)引用已发表的研究成果应该用现在时，既是对前人研究的尊重，也是符合学术道德规范的行为。

can还用于实验结果及讨论部分对实验结果图表的解读，其用法多见于as can be seen, as we can see, it can be seen/concluded/viewed/followed that等句型，用来描述实验结果并对其进行解读(例3)，研究结论的阐述也多用can(例4)。

例3：In addition, it can be seen from the Fig. 2i that the mean plasma concentration-time profiles of DLE and DS in mice were similar to those in rats (see Pharmacokinetic Study in Rats), both indicating that DLE produced higher plasma concentration than DS at initial time points[6].

例4：The Tmax and the t1/2 of isocorydine, which is 0.333 ± 0.144 h and 1.965 ± 0.387 h respectively, show that isocorydine can be rapidly absorbed and quickly eliminated in plasma[6].

could是can的过去式。根据George Yule的观点，过去式是一种委婉的说法[6]。could在引言部分多用于陈述研究问题，表示未经证实的假设(例5)，或者用于结论部分，陈述进一步研究的可能(例6)。

例5： The aim of the present study was to investigate if a cocktail approach could be used to screen CYP BM3 libraries for metabolic activity and diversity. Furthermore, it was of interest to know if such an approach could be used in combination with different chemometric tools in order to identify metabolites without prior knowledge of their structure and identity[6].

例6：The mutants described in this study could be useful as a starting point for further site-directed or random mutagenesis, to further enhance metabolic efficiency and change substrate diversity and regioselectivity[7].

2 may/might的用法解析

与can一样，may也可用于论文的引言部分，引述前人研究成果。

例7：Metabolites produced by CYPs are well known to display important pharmacological activities or may be responsible for the toxicity or other unwanted side effects of xenobiotics[7].

may更多的是用在对实验结果和讨论部分，用于解读当前实验的结果及陈述结论。may与can用法的区别在于：may多用于陈述实验结果或结论等实质性内容，而can则多用于与内容无直接关系的叙述中，如上例的as can be seen 等句型中。

例8：In addition, elevated neutrophils stimulate up-regulation of cytokines and chemokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, or tumor necrosis factor, and the tumor microenvironment induced by the process may contribute to a progression of malignancy[8].

根据罗伯特·戴和芭芭拉·盖斯特尔的观点[5]，一篇论文至少应三次提到研究结果，分别是摘要、引言、讨论或结论中，当然叙述方式稍有区别。例9和例10分别选自同一篇论文的摘要和讨论部分，例11则选自该论文的引言部分，不过作者没有使用情态动词，而是使用了whether引导的宾语从句。

例9：In contrast to clinical findings, the results suggest that female rats may be resistant to MS-induced depression-like behaviour. The behavioural effects of MS and light treatment in female rats may involve the MAPK/ERK signal transduction pathway[7].

例10：The MAPK/ERK signal transduction pathway may be involved in resistance to depressive-like behaviour of MS females although resistance to depression-like behaviour may involve several other pathways including hormonal ones[8].

例11：We also investigated whether the MAPK signal transduction pathway which has been suggested to be associated with stress-induced depression, is altered by MS and subsequent constant light exposure in female rats[7].

might 的用法与could相似。因为都是过去时形式，它们用于表达比原形情态动词may和can更小的可能性，语气也更加委婉。另外，might 表达的可能性比could更小。因此，might多用于陈述讨论部分实验数据解读出的次要结果或是结论中对未来研究的建议等。

例12：The identified preanalytical biomarkers might be useful for the assessment of sample

quality not only in metabolomics projects but also in other clinical studies[8].

3 结语

本文通过分析总结两个核心情态动词及其过去式在英语医药学术论文中的用法，强调在英语论文写作中选词的重要性。当前，英语已经成为学术界的通用语，用英语写作学术论文，进行学术交流是中医药高层次人员必备的技能之一。用词准确是学术信息交流基础，因为“选择就是意义”。情态动词多用于表达研究问题和结论等核心内容的句子中，与实验成果密切相关，关乎学术交流的核心内容，希望能引起中医药专业人员的重视。

[1] 章振邦.新编大学英语 [M]. 5版. 上海：上海外语教育出版社, 2009.

[2] George Yule. Explaining English Grammar [M]. 上海：上海外语教育出版社,2002.

[3] Larissa Daniele Bobermin et al. Gap Junction Intercellular Communication Mediates Ammonia-Induced Neurotoxicity[J]. Neurotox Res, 2016 (29):314-324.

[4] Micha Wo zniakiewicz et al. Development of microextraction by packed sorbent for toxicological analysis of tricyclic antidepressant drugs in human oral fluid[J]. Journal of Chromatography, 2014， 1337(7): 9-16.

[5] Robert A. Day, Barbara Gastel, How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper[M] (影印版).北京：北京大学出版社, 2007.

[6] Mingming Zhao et al. Evaluation of Docetaxel-Loaded Intravenous Lipid Emulsion: Pharmacokinetics, Tissue Distribution, Antitumor Activity, Safety and Toxicity[J]. Pharm Res, 2010, 27(8):1687-1702.

[7] J. J. Dimatelis et al. Female rats are resistant to developing the depressive phenotype induced by maternal separation stress[J]. Metab Brain Dis,2016,( 31):109-119.

[8] Peiyuan Yin et al. Preanalytical Aspects and Sample Quality Assessment in Metabolomics Studies of Human Blood[J]. Clinical Chemistry,2013, 59(5):833-845.

[责任编校：柯 莉]

Use of Modal Verbs in Medical Academic Papers

LIU Jiu-ru

(HenanUniversityofChineseMedicine,Zhengzhou，Henan450046China)

English modal verbs are mainly used to indicate possibility and deduction and they are widely used in scientific papers. In this paper the author investigated the usage of two of the most commonly used modal verbs, “can” and “may”, and their past forms, “could” and “might”, in medical academic papers.

modal verbs; English; academic papers

2016-03-24

刘九茹(1971-)，女，河南省安阳市人，硕士，副教授，从事翻译理论与实践，中医英译研究，汉英语法对比等研究。

河南省教育厅人文社会科学研究项目(编号：2015-ZD-217)。

H 319.3

B

1008-9276(2016)06-0547-03