The language of scientific uncertainty in Congressional hearings

Abstract This study examines the use of lexical resources, specifically stance markers and discourse markers, to discuss scientific uncertainty in interactions between scientists and Committee members during Congressional hearing question-and-answer sessions in the USA. A corpus of 150 transcripts from hearings on climate change, emerging diseases, and genetic engineering is examined utilizing discourse analysis and interactional sociolinguistics. In focusing on how differences in lexical resources represent differences in the conceptualizations of scientific uncertainty, the analysis identifies important linguistic differences that may lead to the politicization of science. The findings show that the conceptualizations of scientists and Committee members do not always align and that the discourse marker, well , plays a role in identifying misalignments. The study emphasizes the importance of continued research on the role of stance markers in meaning-making associated with scientific uncertainty, thus contributing to the broader understanding of the influence of expert versus nonexpert identities on word choice.