Options
The rhetorical and linguistic realization of promotion in applied linguistics research article introductions
Author
Wang, Weihong
Supervisor
Tang, Ramona Siu Mei
Abstract
With the wide spreading of marketization in our contemporary society, advertising and promotion have been found to have penetrated many spheres of our lives. Recent research has begun to observe their manifestation in academic discourse and even in scientific research articles (RAs). It is true that academics need to promote their research for the sake of knowledge construction, name recognition and professional development. But unlike overtly promotional genres such as advertisements and sales promotion letters, RAs are publicly accepted as objective reports of research. So, the question of how academic writers manage their private promotional intention in scientific research reporting becomes the focus of current study.
To allow for a focused and in-depth elaboration of the rhetorical and linguistic realization of promotion in RAs, just one promotional strategy and its use in one section of RAs in one discipline have been chosen for investigation in this study. Specifically, this study focuses on how Applied Linguists indirectly promote their research in research article introductions (RAIs) by highlighting the significance of their research topics. With a corpus of 51 RAIs selected from three internationally published journals in Applied Linguistics, this study unveils to readers: (1) the types of appeals made by Applied Linguists to promote topic significance in their RAIs; (2) the repertoire of linguistic resources employed by Applied Linguists to realize each type of appeals in their RAIs; and (3) Applied Linguists’ preferred patterns in deploying the types of appeals in their RAIs.
To investigate the types of appeals with which Applied Linguists promote the significance of their topics, an analysis was carried out on the text segments of RAIs introducing topics. The qualitative description reveals that Applied Linguists mainly promote their topic significance by employing four types of appeals, that is, salience, magnitude, topicality and problematicity. The linguistic devices overtly or covertly realizing these appeals are also illustrated in this part with the tool of appraisal.
To explore Applied Linguists’ preferred ways in using these types of appeals for promotional purposes, a coding scheme was further set up according to the four types of appeals identified in the qualitative analysis. With the coding scheme, all instances of appeals in the 51 RAIs were further coded to find out the general patterns of distribution of these appeals. The results show that Applied Linguists prefer to promote their topic significance indirectly by appealing to the topicality, magnitude, or problematicity of their topics rather than directly appeal to the salience of them. Moreover, Applied Linguists tend to accentuate the topicality, magnitude, or problematicity of their topics by referring to entities in the research world, but highlight the salience of their topics by referring to entities in the real world. In addition, they prefer to market topic significance at the outset of RAIs, although this kind of marketing is seen across RAIs.
Through the systematic analysis of the realization of promotion from the grammatical level of linguistic resources to the discourse level of rhetoric purposes, the current study unfolds to readers the strategic realization of the hidden agenda of promotion in RAs. It contributes to the demystification of academic discourse to novice and/or L2 writers and has important theoretical and pedagogical implications.
To allow for a focused and in-depth elaboration of the rhetorical and linguistic realization of promotion in RAs, just one promotional strategy and its use in one section of RAs in one discipline have been chosen for investigation in this study. Specifically, this study focuses on how Applied Linguists indirectly promote their research in research article introductions (RAIs) by highlighting the significance of their research topics. With a corpus of 51 RAIs selected from three internationally published journals in Applied Linguistics, this study unveils to readers: (1) the types of appeals made by Applied Linguists to promote topic significance in their RAIs; (2) the repertoire of linguistic resources employed by Applied Linguists to realize each type of appeals in their RAIs; and (3) Applied Linguists’ preferred patterns in deploying the types of appeals in their RAIs.
To investigate the types of appeals with which Applied Linguists promote the significance of their topics, an analysis was carried out on the text segments of RAIs introducing topics. The qualitative description reveals that Applied Linguists mainly promote their topic significance by employing four types of appeals, that is, salience, magnitude, topicality and problematicity. The linguistic devices overtly or covertly realizing these appeals are also illustrated in this part with the tool of appraisal.
To explore Applied Linguists’ preferred ways in using these types of appeals for promotional purposes, a coding scheme was further set up according to the four types of appeals identified in the qualitative analysis. With the coding scheme, all instances of appeals in the 51 RAIs were further coded to find out the general patterns of distribution of these appeals. The results show that Applied Linguists prefer to promote their topic significance indirectly by appealing to the topicality, magnitude, or problematicity of their topics rather than directly appeal to the salience of them. Moreover, Applied Linguists tend to accentuate the topicality, magnitude, or problematicity of their topics by referring to entities in the research world, but highlight the salience of their topics by referring to entities in the real world. In addition, they prefer to market topic significance at the outset of RAIs, although this kind of marketing is seen across RAIs.
Through the systematic analysis of the realization of promotion from the grammatical level of linguistic resources to the discourse level of rhetoric purposes, the current study unfolds to readers the strategic realization of the hidden agenda of promotion in RAs. It contributes to the demystification of academic discourse to novice and/or L2 writers and has important theoretical and pedagogical implications.
Date Issued
2013
Call Number
P302.18 Wan
Date Submitted
2013