Abstract
This paper explores what kinds of expressions are saliently used in medical articles. To examine this, 40 medical articles are chosen from four major medical journals that were published in the US and the UK in 1997.
The result of my study is roughly as follows. In each of the following pairs of words or items, the former is in more frequent use than the latter: although and though, because and since, compared with and as compared with, despite and in spite of, that (rel. pron.) and which, whether and if, and the passive and the active. In the protasis of the conditionals, if is used in almost all cases and subject-verb inversion seldom occurs in the protasis. Data is followed by a plural verb in almost all cases. Of the epistemic use of the modals, may is used most often. Of the personal pronouns, he or she seems to be used more frequently. The subjunctive is less frequently used than the indicative.
