RUME 28
2026
Alexandria, Virginia
The Humanity in Mathematicians’ Writing
Page: 1065
Mathematical writing is often portrayed as objective and authorless, yet prior work shows that mathematicians’ writing contains nonobjective and authority-related features (Burton & Morgan, 2000). We build on this foundation by analyzing 51,325 single-authored mathematics papers from arXiv, focusing on proofs and surrounding narratives. Using curated dictionaries of hedges and evaluative adjectives and mathematics-specific rules, we document their frequency and explore whether gender and publishing output of the author relate to their use. Preliminary results indicate that both features appear to vary with author characteristics. These findings suggest that linguistic choices in mathematics are tied to identity and status, complicating the myth of purely objective discourse.