Conjunctive Adverbials in the Genre of Research Articles - Muni

194 Pages·2012·4.75 MB·English

by  Irena Hulkova

Masaryk University
MASAFRaYcuKlt
 yU oNf AIVrtEs RSITY

Faculty
 of
 Arts

Department of English and American Studies
Department
 of
 English
 and
 American
 Studies

PProroggrraammmmee: :P
 Phhiliolololgoyg y

Field
 of
 Study:
 English
 Language

Field of Study: English Language

Conjunctive
 Adverbials
 in
 the
 Genre
 of
 Research
 Articles

Dissertation

Analysis of Published Medical Ca
  se Reports: Genre-Based Study

PhD Dissertation

Irena
 Hůlková

Robert  Helán

Supervisor: PhDr. Jitka Vlčková,  Ph.D.

Brno
 2012

Supervisor:

doc.
 PhDr.
 Renata
 Povolná,
 Ph.D.

 Brno
 2012
I
 hereby
 declare
 that
 I
 have
 worked
 on
 this
 dissertation
 independently
 using
 only

the
 sources
 listed
 in
 the
 bibliography.

........................................

 ........................................
Acknowledgements

First
 and
 foremost,
 I
 would
 like
 to
 thank
 my
 supervisor,
 doc.
 PhDr.
 Renata
 Povolná,

Ph.D.
 In
 the
 long
 process
 of
 writing
 this
 dissertation,
 she
 has
 been
 a
 constant
 source

of
  great
  support,
  encouragement,
  patience
  and
  advice.
  This
  research
  has
  benefited

immensely
 from
 numerous
 discussion
 meetings
 we
 have
 had
 and
 the
 wealth
 of
 insightful

commentary
 that
 she
 has
 provided
 on
 my
 work.

Special
 thanks
 are
 due
 to
 Prof.
 Geoffrey
 K.
 Pullum,
 who
 was
 my
 supervisor
 during

my
 Fulbright
 stay
 in
 the
 US.
 I
 have
 greatly
 benefited
 from
 all
 the
 discussions
 with
 him

at
 the
 University
 of
 California,
 Santa
 Cruz.

I
 am
 particularly
 grateful
 to
 Prof.
 PhDr.
 Ludmila
 Urbanová,
 CSc.
 for
 her
 support,

encouragement
 and
 patience
 throughout
 the
 course
 of
 my
 Ph.D.
 study.

I
 am
 also
 thankful
 to
 a
 number
 of
 my
 colleagues
 for
 their
 comments
 on
 various

aspects
 of
 my
 research
 and
 general
 support.

Last
 but
 not
 least,
 I
 owe
 the
 most
 to
 my
 family,
 who
 have
 been
 very
 patient,

supportive
  and
  helpful,
  especially
  during
  the
  final
  stages
  of
  my
  writing
  the
  present

dissertation.
 I
 am
 deeply
 beholden
 to
 my
 husband
 David
 for
 his
 great
 encouragement
 and

endless
 patience
 (especially
 in
 times
 of
 uncertainty),
 and
 also
 for
 his
 enormous
 help

with
 all
 the
 technical
 adjustments
 that
 had
 to
 be
 made
 during
 the
 very
 final
 editing

of
 my
 dissertation.
Table
 of
 Contents

1
  Chapter
 I
 ................................................................................................................
 1

1.1
  Introduction
 ......................................................................................................................................
 1

1.1.1
 Outline
 of
 the
 dissertation
 .....................................................................................................
 3

1.1.2
 Glossary
 of
 main
 terms
 and
 abbreviations
 .....................................................................
 4

1.1.2.1
  Terms
 ................................................................................................................................................
 4

1.1.2.2
  Abbreviations
 .................................................................................................................................
 8

1.1.3
 Different
 terminology
 concerning
 conjunctive
 adverbials
 ......................................
 9

2
  Chapter
 II
 .............................................................................................................
 12

2.1
  Introduction
 to
 Chapter
 II
 ........................................................................................................
 12

2.2
  Demarcation
 of
 the
 term
 ‘adverbial’
 ...................................................................................
 12

2.3
  Four
 grammatical
 functions
 of
 adverbials
 ........................................................................
 13

2.4
  Conjunctive
 adverbials
 ..............................................................................................................
 19

2.4.1
 Semantic
 roles
 of
 conjunctive
 adverbials
 ......................................................................
 24

2.4.2
 Realization
 forms
 of
 conjunctive
 adverbials
 ................................................................
 31

2.4.3
 Positions
 of
 conjunctive
 adverbials
 within
 a
 clause
 .................................................
 32

2.4.4
 Frequency
 of
 occurrence
 of
 conjunctive
 adverbials
 in
 different
 registers
 ......
 33

2.5
  Summary
 and
 conclusion
 of
 Chapter
 II
 ..............................................................................
 34

3
  Chapter
 III
 ............................................................................................................
 36

3.1
  Introduction
 to
 Chapter
 III
 ......................................................................................................
 36

3.2
  Cohesion
 and
 coherence
 ...........................................................................................................
 36

3.3
  From
 cohesion
 through
 coherence
 to
 pragmatics
 ........................................................
 40

3.4
  Pragmatics
 and
 its
 importance
 in
 the
 present
 work
 ....................................................
 44

3.5
  Summary
 and
 conclusion
 of
 Chapter
 III
 ............................................................................
 48

4
  Chapter
 IV
 ...........................................................................................................
 50

4.1
  Introduction
 to
 Chapter
 IV
 ......................................................................................................
 50

4.2
  The
 concepts
 of
 register
 and
 genre
 .....................................................................................
 50

4.2.1
 The
 register
 of
 academic
 prose
 ..........................................................................................
 55

4.2.2
 The
 genre
 of
 research
 articles
 ............................................................................................
 60

4.2.2.1
  Major
 subtypes
 of
 research
 articles
 ...................................................................................
 65

4.3
  Summary
 and
 conclusion
 of
 Chapter
 IV
 .............................................................................
 70

5
  Chapter
 V
 ............................................................................................................
 72
5.1
  Introduction
 to
 Chapter
 V
 ........................................................................................................
 72

5.2
  Corpus-­‐based
 approach
 –
 Discourse
 analysis
 .................................................................
 72

5.2.1
 Corpus
 ...........................................................................................................................................
 74

5.3
  Research
 objectives
 ....................................................................................................................
 78

5.4
  Summary
 and
 conclusion
 of
 Chapter
 V
 ..............................................................................
 79

6
  Chapter
 VI
 ...........................................................................................................
 80

6.1
  Introduction
 to
 Chapter
 VI
 ......................................................................................................
 80

6.2
  The
 frequency
 of
 occurrence
 of
 individual
 CAs
 in
 the
 genre
 of
 RAs
 .....................
 80

6.3
  The
 frequency
 of
 occurrence
 of
 individual
 CAs
 in
 SKF
 ...............................................
 86

6.4
  The
 frequency
 of
 occurrence
 of
 individual
 CAs
 in
 HKF
 ..............................................
 90

6.5
  The
 frequency
 of
 occurrence
 of
 individual
 CAs
 in
 SKF
 versus
 HKF
 ......................
 93

6.6
  The
 frequency
 of
 occurrence
 of
 individual
 CAs
 in
 ten
 different
 academic

disciplines
 .......................................................................................................................................
 96

7
  Chapter
 VII
 ........................................................................................................
 104

7.1
  Introduction
 to
 Chapter
 VII
 ..................................................................................................
 104

7.2
  Semantic
 categorization
 of
 CAs
 ..........................................................................................
 104

7.2.1
 Semantic
 categories
 and
 their
 representatives
 .......................................................
 106

7.2.1.1
  Multiple
 class
 membership
 of
 some
 CAs
 .......................................................................
 109

7.3
  The
 frequency
 of
 occurrence
 of
 individual
 semantic
 categories
 of
 CAs
 in
 the

genre
 of
 RAs
 .................................................................................................................................
 113

7.3.1
 The
 category
 of
 listing
 CAs
 ...............................................................................................
 122

7.3.1.1
  Individual
 treatment
 of
 selected
 listing
 CAs
 ...............................................................
 123

7.3.2
 The
 category
 of
 contrastive/concessive
 CAs
 .............................................................
 125

7.3.2.1
  Individual
 treatment
 of
 selected
 contrastive/concessive
 CAs
 ............................
 126

7.3.3
 The
 category
 of
 appositional
 CAs
 ..................................................................................
 132

7.3.3.1
  Individual
 treatment
 of
 selected
 appositional
 CAs
 ..................................................
 132

7.3.4
 The
 category
 of
 resultive/inferential
 CAs
 ..................................................................
 136

7.3.4.1
  Individual
 treatment
 of
 selected
 resultive/inferential
 CAs
 ..................................
 136

7.3.5
 The
 categories
 of
 transitional
 and
 summative
 CAs
 ...............................................
 139

7.4
  The
 frequency
 of
 occurrence
 of
 individual
 semantic
 categories
 of
 CAs
 in
 SKF

versus
 HKF
 ..................................................................................................................................
 143

7.5
  Realization
 forms
 of
 CAs
 with
 respect
 to
 individual
 semantic
 categories
 .......
 147

7.6
  Positions
 of
 CAs
 within
 a
 clause
 in
 the
 genre
 of
 RAs
 .................................................
 150

8
  Chapter
 VIII
 .......................................................................................................
 153
8.1
  Introduction
 to
 Chapter
 VIII
 ................................................................................................
 153

8.2
  Abstracts,
 Introductions
 and
 Conclusions
 .....................................................................
 153

8.2.1
 Abstracts
 ...................................................................................................................................
 153

8.2.2
 Introductions
 ..........................................................................................................................
 154

8.2.3
 Conclusions
 ..............................................................................................................................
 154

8.3
  The
 density
 of
 CAs
 in
 Abstracts,
 Introductions
 and
 Conclusions
 ........................
 156

8.4
  The
 frequency
 of
 occurrence
 of
 individual
 semantic
 categories
 of
 CAs
 in

Abstracts,
 Introductions
 and
 Conclusions
 .....................................................................
 158

9
  Chapter
 IX
 ..........................................................................................................
 162

9.1
  Conclusions
 .................................................................................................................................
 162

9.1.1
 Distribution
 of
 individual
 CAs
 in
 the
 genre
 of
 RAs
 (Chapter
 VI)
 ......................
 163

9.1.2
 Distribution
 of
 semantic
 categories
 of
 CAs
 in
 the
 genre
 of
 RAs
 (Chapter
 VII)

 ........................................................................................................................................................
 165

9.1.3
 Distribution
 of
 semantic
 categories
 of
 CAs
 in
 Abstracts,
 Introductions
 and

Conclusions
 (Chapter
 VIII)
 .................................................................................................
 168

9.2
  Final
 notes
 and
 concerns
 for
 the
 future
 ..........................................................................
 169

10
  Bibliography
 ......................................................................................................
 171

10.1
  References
 .................................................................................................................................
 171

10.2
  Sources
 .......................................................................................................................................
 176

10.2.1
 Adult
 Education
 (SKF)
 .....................................................................................................
 176

10.2.2
 Building
 Physics
 (HKF)
 ....................................................................................................
 177

10.2.3
 Building
 Services
 Engineering
 (HKF)
 ........................................................................
 178

10.2.4
 Fire
 Sciences
 (HKF)
 ...........................................................................................................
 178

10.2.5
 Management
 (SKF)
 ............................................................................................................
 179

10.2.6
 Mathematics
 (HKF)
 ...........................................................................................................
 180

10.2.7
 Politics
 (SKF)
 ........................................................................................................................
 181

10.2.8
 Psychology
 (SKF)
 ................................................................................................................
 182

10.2.9
 Robotics
 Research
 (HKF)
 ................................................................................................
 182

10.2.10
 Sociology
 (SKF)
 .................................................................................................................
 183

11
  List
 of
 Tables
 ......................................................................................................
 185

12
  List
 of
 Figures
 ....................................................................................................
 186

13
  Resumé
 .............................................................................................................
 187
1 Chapter
 I

1.1 Introduction

“The
 two
 important
 things
 I
 did
 learn
 were
 that
 you
 are
 as
 powerful
 and
 strong
 as
 you
 allow

yourself
 to
 be,
 and
 that
 the
 most
 difficult
 part
 of
 any
 endeavour
 is
 taking
 the
 first
 step,
 making
 the
 first

decision.”
 (Davidson
 n.d.)

The
 prominent
 role
 of
 English
 as
 lingua
 franca
 in
 an
 academic
 environment,

or
 as
 Swales
 (2004)
 puts
 it,
 of
 English
 as
 “today’s
 premier
 research
 language”
 (ibid.:
 33),

cannot
  be
  doubted.
  It
  is
  used
  by
  an
  international
  readership
  and
  is
  of
  paramount

importance
  to
  all
  those
  involved
  in
  tertiary
  education,
  such
  as
  students,
  teachers

and
 researchers.
 Swales
 (2004)
 goes
 on
 to
 emphasize
 this:
 “There
 is
 no
 doubt
 that
 English

has
 become
 the
 language
 of
 research
 communication
 par
 excellence
 in
 a
 preponderance

of
 disciplines
 and
 fields
 over
 the
 last
 two
 decades.”
 (ibid.:
 58).

Compared
 to
 other
 registers,
 English
 academic
 prose
 –
 with
 its
 highly
 specialist

nature
 –
 is
 rather
 remote
 from
 the
 general-­‐use
 means
 of
 communication
 of
 all
 native

speakers,
 because
 most
 of
 them
 do
 not
 deal
 with
 this
 register
 on
 a
 regular
 (or
 even
 daily)

basis.
 Yet
 it
 can
 also
 be
 viewed
 as
 ‘global’
 (Biber
 et
 al.
 1999:
 16),
 in
 that
 it
 is
 aimed
 at

“an
 international
 audience
 with
 relatively
 little
 influence
 from
 the
 national
 dialect
 of

the
 author”
 (ibid.).

The
  present
  dissertation
  only
  looks
  into
  one
  of
  many
  attributes
  of
  academic

English
  and
  that
  is
  the
  use
  of
  conjunctive
  adverbials
  (CAs)
  which
  contribute
  to

the
 overall
 lucid
 stratification
 of
 the
 text
 and
 thus
 to
 its
 coherence.
 Generally
 speaking,

it
 can
 be
 said
 that
 their
 occurrence
 is
 examined
 in
 the
 register
 of
 academic
 prose;

however,
  at
  a
  more
  specific
  level,
  it
  is
  only
  the
  genre
  of
  research
  articles
  (RAs)

that
 undergoes
 a
 thorough
 analysis
 here.

The
  purpose
  of
  the
  theoretical
  part
  is
  therefore
  threefold:
  it
  first
  introduces

conjunctive
  adverbials
  (CAs),
  which
  represent
  the
  central
  line
  of
  the
  present

investigation,
  along
  with
  their
  main
  properties
  such
  as
  semantic
  roles,
  realization

forms,
 positions
 within
 a
 clause
 and
 frequency
 of
 occurrence
 in
 different
 registers.

Subsequently,
 since
 the
 conjunctive
 adverbials
 in
 question
 represent
 an
 important
 means

of
  cohesion
  and
  hence
  contribute
  to
  the
  overall
  coherence
  of
  a
  piece
  of
  discourse,

the
 study
 also
 attempts
 to
 investigate
 the
 concepts
 of
 cohesion
 and
 coherence
 in
 general

terms,
  that
  is,
  it
  outlines
  and
  compares
  various
  approaches
  to
  these
  two
  important

  1
phenomena
 and,
 further,
 tries
 to
 find
 out
 to
 what
 extent
 they
 may
 overlap
 or,
 in
 contrast,

contradict
 each
 other.
 Finally,
 the
 last
 chapter
 of
 the
 theoretical
 background
 concentrates

on
 the
 demarcation
 of
 the
 general
 terms
 register
 and
 genre
 and
 then
 singles
 out
 two

fields
 crucial
 to
 the
 present
 investigation,
 and
 these
 are
 the
 register
 of
 academic
 prose

and
 the
 genre
 of
 research
 articles.
 The
 occurrence
 of
 conjunctive
 adverbials
 in
 the
 genre

of
 research
 articles
 then
 becomes
 the
 subject
 matter
 of
 the
 analytical
 part.

The
 analytical
 part
 opens
 with
 a
 short
 introduction
 to
 the
 discourse
 analysis
 and

then
 widens
 to
 include
 a
 thorough
 depiction
 of
 the
 corpus
 put
 together
 for
 the
 purposes

of
 the
 present
 research.
 It
 further
 includes
 the
 outline
 of
 analysis
 objectives.
 The
 three

subsequent
 chapters
 deal
 with
 my
 research
 findings,
 the
 character
 of
 which
 is
 described

in
 Subsection
 1.1.1
 below.

The
 corpus
 analysis
 is
 based
 on
 a
 research
 article
 corpus
 of
 100
 published

papers
 (50
 representing
 soft
 and
 another
 50
 hard
 knowledge
 fields)
 in
 10
 academic

disciplines
 (5
 representing
 SKF
 and
 the
 other
 5
 HKF)
 totalling
 819,067
 words
 before

cleaning
  and
  612,276
  words
  after
  cleaning.
  All
  the
  texts
  (in
  their
  entirety)
  were

selected
  at
  random;
  however,
  the
  choice
  was
  vetted
  to
  ensure
  a
  reasonable
  spread

according
  to
  the
  following
  criteria:
  author’s
  nationality,
  author’s
  gender,
  academic

discipline,
 length
 of
 article,
 and
 year
 of
 publication
 (for
 further
 details
 on
 the
 corpus,

see
 Subsection
 5.2.1).

Within
 the
 corpus
 analysis,
 both
 qualitative
 and
 quantitative
 methods
 are
 applied

because
 they
 are
 complementary.
 The
 qualitative
 method
 is
 used
 in
 connection
 with

the
 investigation
 of
 semantic
 roles
 of
 the
 conjunctive
 adverbials
 and
 their
 pragmatic

implications,
  and
  the
  quantitative
  method
  helps
  to
  analyze
  the
  frequency
  of

occurrence
 of
 individual
 semantic
 categories
 as
 well
 as
 particular
 conjunctive
 adverbials.

This
 occurrence
 is
 analyzed
 not
 only
 in
 research
 articles
 as
 a
 whole,
 but
 also
 in
 their

individual
 sections
 such
 as
 Abstracts,
 Introductions
 and
 Conclusions.
 The
 distribution

of
  CAs
  in
  terms
  of
  their
  syntactic
  functions,
  that
  is,
  the
  position(s)
  they
  take
  up

in
 a
 clause,
 is
 also
 looked
 into.
 Realization
 forms
 of
 CAs
 are
 examined
 as
 well.

All
 the
 analyzed
 texts
 are
 borrowed
 from
 the
 delivery
 platform
 ‘SAGE
 Journals

Online’,
 which
 represents
 a
 collection
 of
 “more
 than
 520
 journals
 in
 Business,
 Humanities,

Social
 Sciences,
 and
 Science,
 Technology
 and
 Medicine”
 (“SAGE
 Journals
 Online”
 n.d.).
 Full

texts
 were
 first
 downloaded
 in
 Pdf
 format,
 then
 transferred
 into
 MS
 Word
 Document

(if
  possible)
  and
  finally
  searched
  for
  instances
  of
  conjunctive
  adverbials
  as
  listed

in
 relevant
 grammar
 books
 (e.g.,
 Biber
 et
 al.
 1999;
 Greenbaum
 1969;
 Halliday
 &
 Hasan

  2
1976;
 Huddleston
 &
 Pullum
 2002;
 Quirk
 et
 al.
 1985)
 (for
 more
 details,
 see
 Subsection

5.2.1).

1.1.1 Outline
 of
 the
 dissertation

The
 present
 dissertation
 comprises
 nine
 major
 chapters
 as
 follows:

Chapter
 I
 opens
 with
 a
 brief
 introduction
 on
 the
 subject
 matter
 and
 layout
 of

the
 dissertation.
 It
 also
 offers
 an
 overview
 of
 the
 crucial
 terms
 and
 abbreviations
 used

throughout
 the
 work
 and
 discusses
 the
 different
 terminology
 applied
 in
 connection
 with

conjunctive
 adverbials
 (CAs).

Chapter
 II
 first
 discusses
 the
 general
 term
 adverbial
 and
 its
 four
 grammatical

functions
  as
  distinguished
  by
  Quirk
  et
  al.
  (1985)
  and
  then
  deals
  with
  a
  thorough

description
 of
 conjunctive
 adverbials,
 which
 is
 based
 on
 the
 treatment
 of
 the
 following

features:
 semantic
 roles
 of
 CAs,
 forms
 in
 which
 they
 are
 used,
 positions
 within
 a
 clause

they
  usually
  take
  up,
  and
  the
  frequency
  of
  occurrence
  across
  different
  registers

in
 general
 and
 in
 academic
 prose
 style
 in
 particular
 (as
 presented
 by
 Biber
 et
 al.
 1999).

The
 occurrence
 of
 different
 semantic
 categories
 and
 the
 most
 frequent
 individual
 CAs
 is

discussed
 as
 well.

Chapter
  III
  is
  concerned
  with
  the
  interpretation
  of
  two
  linguistic
  phenomena:

cohesion
 and
 coherence.
 It
 first
 describes,
 compares
 and
 contrasts
 these
 terms
 and
 then

discusses
 some
 notions
 of
 pragmatics,
 as
 this
 branch
 of
 linguistics
 is
 closely
 related
 not

only
  to
  the
  issues
  of
  cohesion
  and
  coherence
  but
  also
  to
  the
  use
  of
  conjunctive

adverbials,
 which
 can
 be
 viewed
 as
 pragmatic
 markers
 (cf.
 Fraser
 1996).

Chapter
 IV
 is
 devoted
 to
 the
 discussion
 of
 the
 general
 terms
 register
 and
 genre
 and

consequently
 to
 their
 concrete
 representatives,
 which
 are
 fundamental
 to
 the
 present

study:
 these
 are
 the
 register
 of
 academic
 prose
 and
 the
 genre
 of
 research
 articles.

Finally,
 the
 main
 subtypes
 of
 research
 articles
 are
 discussed,
 with
 special
 attention
 given

to
 argumentative
 and
 experimental
 RAs.

Chapter
 V
 serves
 as
 a
 lead-­‐in
 to
 the
 analytical
 part
 of
 the
 present
 thesis.
 First,

it
  provides
  a
  few
  necessary
  notes
  on
  discourse
  analysis
  and
  then
  it
  moves
  on
  to

a
 thorough
 depiction
 of
 the
 present
 corpus.
 Finally,
 there
 is
 a
 section
 introducing
 chief

goals
 and
 objectives
 of
 the
 present
 study.

Chapter
  VI
  is
  the
  first
  chapter
  that
  deals
  with
  the
  present
  research
  findings;

it
  concerns
  primarily
  the
  frequency
  of
  occurrence
  of
  individual
  conjunctive

  3
adverbials.
  The
  distribution
  of
  CAs
  is
  examined
  with
  respect
  to
  the
  whole
  corpus,

SKF
 versus
 HKF,
 and
 in
 ten
 individual
 disciplines.

In
 Chapter
 VII,
 the
 investigation
 widens
 to
 include
 other
 aspects
 of
 CAs.
 It
 analyzes

the
  frequency
  of
  occurrence
  of
  individual
  semantic
  categories,
  and
  within
  these

it
 discusses
 some
 selected
 representatives
 in
 greater
 detail.
 The
 distribution
 of
 semantic

categories
 is
 analyzed
 in
 the
 corpus
 as
 a
 whole
 and
 with
 respect
 to
 soft
 and
 hard

knowledge
 fields.
 This
 chapter
 also
 offers
 research
 findings
 concerning
 the
 frequency
 of

occurrence
 of
 realization
 forms
 of
 CAs
 and
 their
 positions
 in
 a
 clause.

Chapter
  VIII
  addresses
  the
  distribution
  of
  CAs
  in
  three
  separate
  sections
  of

a
 research
 article:
 Abstracts,
 Introductions
 and
 Conclusions.
 It
 first
 describes
 these

sections
 at
 a
 more
 general
 level
 as
 well
 as
 with
 respect
 to
 their
 character
 in
 RAs
 in

the
  present
  corpus,
  and
  then
  discusses
  the
  present
  research
  findings
  concerning

the
 density
 and
 occurrence
 of
 individual
 semantic
 categories
 of
 CAs
 in
 Abstracts,

Introductions
 and
 Conclusions.

The
 last
 chapter,
 Chapter
 IX,
 serves
 to
 summarize
 the
 content
 of
 this
 dissertation

and
 postulates
 conclusions
 that
 can
 be
 drawn
 from
 the
 present
 research.
 In
 addition,

it
 addresses
 possible
 consequences
 of
 the
 present
 analysis
 and
 singles
 out
 particular

directions
 for
 further
 investigation.

1.1.2 Glossary
 of
 main
 terms
 and
 abbreviations

The
 present
 subsection
 lays
 out
 a
 brief
 overview
 of
 the
 crucial
 technical
 terms
 and

abbreviations
 used
 in
 the
 dissertation.
 It
 provides
 definitions
 I
 adhere
 to
 in
 this
 work.

However,
 some
 of
 the
 terms
 show
 a
 variety
 of
 different
 uses
 in
 the
 different
 textbooks

I
 have
 consulted;
 these
 are
 dealt
 with
 in
 relevant
 sections
 and
 subsections
 of
 Chapters
 II,

III
 and
 IV,
 where
 fuller
 explanations
 are
 available.

1.1.2.1 Terms

The
 entries
 are
 presented
 in
 alphabetical
 order.

academic
 prose

-­‐
 a
 very
 broad
 register
 comprising
 a
 number
 of
 diverse
 academic
 areas,
 all
 of
 which
 have

the
  same
  communicative
  purpose
  of
  providing
  information
  about
  a
  scientific
  topic;

the
 main
 function
 of
 this
 register
 is
 therefore
 referential,
 but
 can
 also
 be
 didactic
 (cf.
 Biber

&
 Conrad
 2009)

  4