COMPRESSED AND IMPLICIT SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF L2 ENGLISH ACADEMIC RESEARCH WRITING BY FILIPINO RESEARCH WRITERS ACROSS DISCIPLINES: A CROSS-ANALYSIS

Abstract

Compressed and implicit nominal phrases as syntactic features of academic writing (Biber & Gray, 2010, 2016) are underexplored in L2 academic research writing. In this study, I cross-examined attributive adjectives, nominal prepositional phrases, noun premodifiers, and appositive nouns phrases in qualitative and quantitative research articles (RAs) authored by Filipino research writers (FRWs) across Applied Linguistics, Measurement and Evaluation, and Sociology using Biber, Johansson et al.’s (1999, 2021) framework. Major results revealed that attributive adjectives, nominal prepositional phrases, and noun premodifiers extremely co-occurred across the disciplinary RA sub-registers. A significant difference exists between the three nominal phrases and appositive noun phrases. Nonetheless, their frequencies of use also differed in RA sub-registers across disciplines. In conclusion, the three leading embedded phrasal modifiers are universal and the most functional compressed and implicit syntactic features of the five disciplinary RA sub-registers. FRWs employ the three nominal phrases as they are much more flexible than appositive noun phrases. Overall, they characterize L2 academic research writing and make it a highly nominal academic written discourse regardless of its disciplinary origin and research nature. In line with these, the study’s implications for academic writing pedagogy are emphasized.