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Frame-based perspectivization in the research article genre : applying frame semantics to academic genre analysis
Author
Chen, Lang
Supervisor
Weninger, Csilla
Abstract
Academic genres serve the function of knowledge-making and knowledge dissemination. Much scholarly attention has been given to how various lexical resources are employed to achieve these social purposes. Lexical studies of academic genres approached this question mainly from two directions: generating academic vocabulary or phrase lists and analyzing distribution patterns of metadiscourse markers. Previous studies in these two directions have greatly enhanced our understanding of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and developed useful resources for EAP teaching. However, research along these lines has typically analyzed the distribution patterns of lexical resources independent of each other and in a decontextualized manner, without giving sufficient attention to the potential interaction between them and their relationship to the textual context in which they appear. The present study explores these latter aspects of lexical use in academic genres by investigating the feasibility and potential benefits of applying frame semantics, a cognitive semantic theory that connects lexical units to their contexts in a structured manner, to the analysis of research articles (RAs), the most prestigious academic genre. A three-phase analysis is conducted on the latest version of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), which is machine-annotated for semantic frames. The first phase generates a Research Article-specific Frame (RASF) List consisting of 84 semantic frames evoked significantly more frequently in the academic portion of COCA than in the other portions. The second phase compares the distributional patterns of the frame elements (FEs) of three attitude-related frames, namely Being_necessary, Importance, and Suitability, between the academic and fictional portions in COCA and finds significant differences. Results from the first two phases show that the RA genre may be characterized by unique distributional patterns of frames and frame elements. The third phase focuses on the FE and FE subcategory distributions within the RA genre. It consists of two case studies. The first analyzes FE distributions of the same three attitude-related frames within the RA genre across two historical periods (1990-1994 vs. 2015-2019) and two subgenres (Geog/SocSci vs. Sci/Tech and finds no significant across-time or between-discipline difference. The second zooms into Importance and investigates the FE subcategory distribution of this frame with the same two independent variables and observes a significant difference between the two disciplines. Results from the phrase-three analyses demonstrate the feasibility of developing analytical frameworks for academic genre analysis based on frame semantics. These findings are discussed in light of a recent trend to redefine genre as a cognitive construct and with comparison to previous lexical studies of academic writing. Based on the findings, this study calls for more frame-based, semantically oriented studies on academic discourse to offer a finer-grained and more contextualized understanding of lexical use in academic genres.
Date Issued
2022
Call Number
P120.A24 Che
Date Submitted
2022