Causal and Contrastive Discourse Markers in Novice Academic Writing

POVOLNÁ, Renata. Causal and Contrastive Discourse Markers in Novice Academic Writing. Brno Studies in English. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2012, vol. 38, No 2, p. 131-148. ISSN 0524-6881. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.5817/BSE2012-2-8.

Basic information

• Original name: Causal and Contrastive Discourse Markers in Novice Academic Writing
• Authors: POVOLNÁ, Renata (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: Brno Studies in English, Brno, Masarykova univerzita, 2012, 0524-6881.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 60200 6.2 Languages and Literature
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14410/12:00073470
• Organization unit: Faculty of Education
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/BSE2012-2-8
• Keywords (in Czech): akademický diskurz; akademické psaní začínajících autorů; koherentní vztahy; příčinné vztahy; kontrastivní vztahy; diskurzní ukazatele; diplomové práce
• Keywords in English: academic discourse; novice academic writing; coherence relations; causal relations; contrastive relations; discourse markers; Master's theses
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

The article studies causal and contrastive relations between adjacent or more distant segments of discourse since they play an important role in expressing coherence relations (Taboada 2006) in academic discourse including discourse written by university students of English. By overtly signalling how the writer intends the discourse segment that follows to relate to the previous segment(s), discourse markers (DMs), in particular those expressing causal and contrastive relations, contribute to cohesion and enhance the establishment and maintenance of coherence in academic written discourse. While analysing a corpus of Master’s theses written by non-native novice writers the author of the article attempts to find out which DMs Czech students of English use when expressing causal and contrastive relations, whether they are able to use selected DMs correctly and, in addition, whether there are any differences in the preferences of students that accord with the fields of study – linguistics, literature and culture, and methodology – in which the Master’s theses are written.

Links

• GA405/08/0866, research and development project: Name: Koherence a koheze v anglickém diskurzu

Investor: Czech Science Foundation, Coherence and Cohesion in English Discourse