Surprise as a knowledge emotion in research articles: Variation across disciplines, genders, geo-academic locations and time

Linguistic expressions of surprise (i.e., surprise markers) are epistemically motivated and inherently connected to knowledge construction. Taking a frame semantic approach, this study examined how surprise markers were used by academic writers to disseminate knowledge in research articles. Based on a self-built corpus of 640 journal articles totaling four million words, the study explored how the use of surprise markers was mediated by various factors, including disciplinary background (i.e., applied linguistics, history, biology, mechanical engineering), gender (male vs. female), geo-academic locations (Core vs. Periphery), and time of publication (1985–1989 vs. 2015–2019). Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 16 disciplinary informants. Corpus-based quantitative analyses of surprise markers and a thematic analysis of the interviews uncovered distinct patterns in the use of surprise markers across the variables examined. These findings deepen our understanding of how surprise markers in academic writing function within specific linguistic and situational contexts, highlighting the intricate nature of knowledge construction in scholarly discourse.