Abstract
Citations are significant academically for establishing research backgrounds and justifying a research problem. In spite of the increasing studies on citations, limited studies have employed the Systemic Functional Linguistics in analysing citations. Therefore, this study explores the logico-semantic relations in citations with clause complexes, employing the ideational metafunction of the Functional Theory. The study adopted a purposeful sampling in selecting the literature review chapters of 20 PhD theses by EFL postgraduates in a public Malaysian university in two disciplines: Information Technology and Applied Linguistics. The findings revealed that citations were structured to realise two logico-semantic relations, mainly Expansion and Projection with several subcategories for each. A combination of Projection and Expansion was also used, which resulted in reclassifying the logico-semantic relations. The findings could present comprehensive descriptions of citations that could be pedagogically utilised for academic purposes. Keywords: academic writing; citations; expansion; projection; Systemic Functional Linguistics
Highlights
Academic writing is the core of postgraduate studies because it is the means for communicating the findings and arguments to the readers, attracting the interest of higher education (Coffin et al 2003) due to students’ limited experience in writing English (Williams & Takaku, 2011)
Material, relational and behavioural processes were used with a higher frequency in the first clause of the clause complex compared with verbal and mental processes
The proposed type of logico-semantic relations that involved a combination of Projection and Expansion implies the tendency of EFL Arab postgraduates in different disciplines to use more than two clauses in one citation
Summary
Academic writing is the core of postgraduate studies because it is the means for communicating the findings and arguments to the readers, attracting the interest of higher education (Coffin et al 2003) due to students’ limited experience in writing English (Williams & Takaku, 2011). Citing information cannot be neglected as it helps establish one’s study on a solid basis (Hyland 2009, Petric’ & Harwood 2013, Samraj 2013). Few studies have focused on analysing citations based on the Systemic Functional Linguistics.
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