The Words of Facts: How British and Italian Students Use in Fact in Academic Writing

What is it about?

Pragmatic markers are little expressions that speakers/writers use to suggest to listeners/readers how to best interpret their text. One of these is “in fact”. University students, both native and nonnative speakers of English, use “in fact” in their written assignments, expressing one of these meanings: contrasting ideas, specifying concepts in more detail, reinforcing the facts or supporting statements. However, native speakers tend to use “in fact” mostly in its first three meanings. Instead, Italian learners of English mainly use it in its fourth meaning.

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