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Lexical cohesion in popular and theoretical scientific texts; Distribution of sentence adverbials in native vs. non-native academic papers

VOGEL, Radek

Basic information

Original name

Lexical cohesion in popular and theoretical scientific texts; Distribution of sentence adverbials in native vs. non-native academic papers

Name in Czech

Lexikální koheze v populárních a teoretických vědeckých textech; Distribuce větných adverbií ve vědeckých článcích v angličtině od rodilých a nerodilých autorů

Authors

Edition

Přednáška na Ústavu anglické filologie (Instytut Filologii Angielskej) Univerzity Adama Mickiewicze v Poznani, Polsko. 2012

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Vyžádané přednášky

Field of Study

60200 6.2 Languages and Literature

Country of publisher

Czech Republic

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Organization unit

Faculty of Education

Keywords (in Czech)

lexikální koheze; opakování; vědecké články; začínající; rodilý; nerodilý; větná adverbia

Keywords in English

lexical cohesion; repetition; academic papers; novice; native; non-native; sentence adverbials

Tags

International impact
Změněno: 1/3/2013 17:22, Mgr. Radek Vogel, Ph.D.

Abstract

V originále

Lexical cohesion, i.e. selection of lexical items in some way related to other lexical items in a text, contributes importantly to creating the texture, and increases the overall coherence of the text. The lecture looks into different devices of lexical cohesion employed in scientific texts, namely reiterations (including exact repetitions and synonyms), use of superordinate expressions and general terms, and marginally also collocations. It is built upon an assumption that two basic types of scientific text, popular and theoretical ones, display some differences in the ratios between these lexical cohesive devices as well as in the frequency of their occurrence in each individual type. The analysis has been undertaken on two corpora of texts dealing with various topics in physics, comparing a text which is highly theoretical with one covering the same respective topic, adapted rather for didactic purposes or purposes of popular science. Lexical chains reveal the cohesive links between thematic elements of the texts and highlight the differences between individual texts matched in pairs. Particularly the use of general and superordinate lexemes in contrast to exact repetitions has proved to be the feature distinguishing between the two text varieties. Academic papers in English and the distribution of sentence adverbials by native vs. non-native writers The use of sentence adverbials, i.e. syntactically and/or prosodically detached conjunctive and disjunctive adverbials, is one of the most powerful tools for achieving cohesion in academic texts. Although the genre of academic papers reveals a tendency to some degree of formal uniformity without individual disciplines as the discourses are becoming increasingly international, there persist significant differences in frequency as well as distribution of lexical and grammatical devices between native and non-native users of English. The lecture examines preferences of these two groups in the use of sentence adverbials in academic papers dealing with humanities. The research draws on several corpora of expert and novice native and non-native academic texts. Among the findings of the analysis are observable tendencies to overusing or underusing certain adverbials and their distributional patterns displayed by individual groups of authors.

In Czech

Lexical cohesion, i.e. selection of lexical items in some way related to other lexical items in a text, contributes importantly to creating the texture, and increases the overall coherence of the text. The lecture looks into different devices of lexical cohesion employed in scientific texts, namely reiterations (including exact repetitions and synonyms), use of superordinate expressions and general terms, and marginally also collocations. It is built upon an assumption that two basic types of scientific text, popular and theoretical ones, display some differences in the ratios between these lexical cohesive devices as well as in the frequency of their occurrence in each individual type. The analysis has been undertaken on two corpora of texts dealing with various topics in physics, comparing a text which is highly theoretical with one covering the same respective topic, adapted rather for didactic purposes or purposes of popular science. Lexical chains reveal the cohesive links between thematic elements of the texts and highlight the differences between individual texts matched in pairs. Particularly the use of general and superordinate lexemes in contrast to exact repetitions has proved to be the feature distinguishing between the two text varieties. Academic papers in English and the distribution of sentence adverbials by native vs. non-native writers The use of sentence adverbials, i.e. syntactically and/or prosodically detached conjunctive and disjunctive adverbials, is one of the most powerful tools for achieving cohesion in academic texts. Although the genre of academic papers reveals a tendency to some degree of formal uniformity without individual disciplines as the discourses are becoming increasingly international, there persist significant differences in frequency as well as distribution of lexical and grammatical devices between native and non-native users of English. The lecture examines preferences of these two groups in the use of sentence adverbials in academic papers dealing with humanities. The research draws on several corpora of expert and novice native and non-native academic texts. Among the findings of the analysis are observable tendencies to overusing or underusing certain adverbials and their distributional patterns displayed by individual groups of authors.

Files attached

Acad_papers_in_Engl_and_the_distr_of_sent_adverb_by_nat_vs._non-nat_writ_PAPER_Zlin_2011.doc
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Lexical_cohesion_in_theor_vs._pop_scientific_texts_UAM_Poznan.ppt
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Lexical_cohesion_in_popular_vs._theoretical_scientific_texts_-_PAPER_shortened__Vogel_.doc
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