Abstract
The study of metadiscursive practices is particularly fruitful in introductory part-genres where the representation of disciplinary discursive procedures plays a major role for the discourse community. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the ways in which some English metadiscursive expressions (forms of self-mention and illocution markers in particular) are used to offer a representation of academic argument in different genres. The paper concentrates on the representation of discourse procedures in introductory moves, looking in particular at how economists identify their research purposes and their discourse space, while providing a definition of their topic or contextualizing their research in current debates. The study is based on two small corpora of article introductions and textbook introductions. The approach adopted looks at phraseology as a perspective integrating meaning, form and function. The phraseological patterns identified are analyzed as sequences of semantic units—involving reference to a textual source, a discourse procedure and a cognitive construct. Cross-generic variation highlights a different lexical range and different lexical combinations in the two corpora examined. This is interpreted in terms of the ethos of the discourse community and the different role played by argument in the two genres.
Highlights
Research on reflexive features of academic discourse has revealed growing interest in variation across languages, genres and disciplines (e.g. Dahl 2003, 2004; Bondi 2005; Hyland 2005)
Choosing to talk about “metadiscursive practices” (Bondi 2005; Bamford & Bondi eds. 2005) means emphasizing the centrality of discourse as social action and the need for discourse participants to refer to their own discourse and represent its nature and development
For example, the study of metadiscursive practices will be concerned with illocution markers that are inherently reflexive and illocution markers that only become so in specific discourses
Summary
Research on reflexive features of academic discourse has revealed growing interest in variation across languages, genres and disciplines (e.g. Dahl 2003, 2004; Bondi 2005; Hyland 2005). The ethos of the discipline—what the community considers appropriate methodology and relevant objectives—may have an impact on language choice and determine in particular the representation of research activity Reflexivity may be the most appropriate expression when looking at features of individual lexico-grammatical units, and of Language as system, but metadiscourse is often preferred when linking work on Text—in particular the study of organizational units (Sinclair & Mauranen 2006) in the linearity of text—and work on discourse as social practice. The expression refers to a “folk linguistics” perception of discourse within the community, i.e. the words used by the community to represent its own discursive activity This may not coincide exactly with what linguists recognize as reflexive language. The analysis of the relationship between the performance of firms and managerial ownership is extended to the UK where there are important differences, as compared to the US, in the governance system.
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