Dissertation Acknowledgements Research Articles

The Expression of Gratitude in English and Arabic Doctoral Dissertation Acknowledgements

Abstract This corpus-based study explores the expression of gratitude in the acknowledgement section of doctoral dissertations in both English and Arabic. The objective is to analyse how gratitude in academic discourse is structured in these languages and to explore any differences related to gender. The study examines 80 dissertations (40 in English and 40 in Arabic), further divided by the authors’ gender (20 male and 20 female for each language). Data collection involved searching for doctoral dissertations from various sources, verifying the authenticity of the native language through biographical checks, and categorising the acknowledgements based on the year and field of study. The analysis utilised a mixed-methods approach based on Hyland and Tse’s (2004) framework, enabling quantitative and qualitative text analysis. The study revealed distinct differences in gratitude expression patterns between English and Arabic dissertations: English acknowledgements often used performative verbs and adjectives, while Arabic acknowledgements primarily employed nominalisation. Notably, Arabic texts showed no use of passive constructions or adjectives. Gender-related differences were also observed, such as the preference for nominalisation among male Arabic authors and the preference for bare mention among female English authors. These findings underscore the significant cultural and linguistic influences on the construction of gratitude in academic acknowledgements. The research contributes valuable insights into pedagogical approaches to teaching academic writing and highlights the interplay between language, culture, and gender in scholarly communications.

A Contrastive Study of Lexical Bundles Expressing Gratitude in Dissertation Acknowledgments Produced by Chinese and American PhD Students of Linguistics

This study compared the five-word lexical bundles (LBs) expressing gratitude in acknowledgments of dissertations written by Chinese and American PhD students of linguistics. Two corpora were built: (1) The Chinese University Dissertation Acknowledgments Collection (CUC) which contained 700 acknowledgments with a total of 300,686 tokens, and (2) the American University Dissertation Acknowledgments Collection (AUC) which contained 700 acknowledgments with a total of 493,045 tokens. We then retrieved five-word LBs, of which LBs expressing gratitude in CUC and AUC were identified, categorized, and compared with respect to frequency, forms and structures. Major findings were: (1) the Chinese students used a substantially greater number of gratitude LBs than the American students, (2) the two groups used considerably different gratitude LBs, and (3) the two groups mainly relied on verb phrase-based LBs to express gratitude, but the Chinese students used a larger proportion of noun phrase- yet a smaller proportion of verb phrase-based items than the American students, and (4) the two groups used dissimilar structures and words to construct gratitude LBs. These findings enrich our knowledge of linguistic patterns in dissertation acknowledgments as a unique genre of academic prose, and provide corpus-based learning materials for students tasked with properly expressing gratitude in their theses or dissertations.

Acknowledgement Patterns in Information Science Students’ Dissertations in a Nigerian University: Are there Generational Differences?

This study investigated generational differences in acknowledgement patterns of Information Science students’ dissertations at Nigerian’s premier university in the past 30 years. Acknowledgements have become commonplace in thesis and dissertations, however, with culture shifting and individuals reflecting this in their attitude, such cultural change may likely produce generational differences in acknowledgement behaviour of different disciplines. A total of 961 Information Science dissertation acknowledgements (DAs) from 1992 to 2021 at the Wilson Olabode Aiyepeku (WOA) library were examined and categorised into two generations – 1st-Gen (1992 – 2006) and 2nd-Gen (2007 – 2021). Data analysis involved descriptives and content analysis of the DAs. Results showed no significant differences in the number of individuals acknowledged by names but a decrease in the average length of DAs in the second generation. Generational differences were observed in the number of individuals acknowledged by categories and in the acknowledgement of library/librarians. Generally, 1st-Gen DAs had the tendency to acknowledge supervisors first, while 2nd-Gen DAs generally acknowledged God first. Expressions of gratitude in the 1stGen were more informal than among 2nd-Gen DAs. Also, 1st-Gen DAs acknowledged gratitude for technical, clerical and access types of support than 2nd-Gen DAs while the latter acknowledged moral, financial and spiritual supports than 1stGen DAs. The study showed a declining tendency by the students to acknowledge library/librarians. It also revealed that students in this discipline gave less recognition to data sources, as expression of gratitude for data access dropped significantly in the second generation.

Dissertation Acknowledgements in Cameroon English: A Semantic Analysis

The acknowledgement section of a thesis is a genre within the academic discourse community. It gives the graduate student an opportunity to express their gratitude toward a number of addressees after the completion of a rather tedious research process. This genre has attracted a lot of interest in research in academic writing in English in the Outer Circle. Some of these studies have focused on their generic structure (Al-Ali, 2010, Hyland 2004), their expressions of gratitude (Hyland and Tse 2004) or their semantic structures (Cheng 2012). These features have, however, been conspicuously neglected in the literature in Cameroon English. Given that genre is the study of language use in a given sociocultural or academic context, this study examines 200 dissertation acknowledgements (herein after DAs) collected from six major disciplines in three renowned state universities in Cameroon. Our objective here was to do an in-depth analysis of all the thanking acts of the various texts that constituted our corpus in order to bring out the dominant semantic features that were used in expressing thanks. As far as semantic categories are concerned, our data revealed about 1494 thanking acts with seven categories of thanking, 1308 of which were explicit and 186 of which were implicit. These thanking strategies, however, varied greatly from one discipline to another. For the purpose of this study, the strategies were simply identified as strategy 1 to strategy 7 according to how they were semantically structured and strategy 8 comprises implicit thanking acts. The different semantic strategies were classified following Cheng’s 2010 coding scheme though with modifications depending on what our analysis revealed.

Conceptualizations of gratitude: A comparative analysis of English and Persian dissertation acknowledgements written by Persian authors

ABSTRACT The present study applies a cultural conceptualizations framework within the multidisciplinary field of Cultural Linguistics to the analysis of gratitude in dissertation acknowledgements (DAs), as a culturally-embedded genre written in Persian and English by native speakers of Persian. Benefitting from a corpus analysis approach to Cultural Linguistics, 185 English and 196 Persian DAs from language-related fields were selected randomly from DAs written in national universities in Iran as the corpus for the study. Grounded theory-driven analysis revealed a number of similar and different representations of Persian cultural schema and cultural metaphors between the sampled Persian and English DAs. Additionally, the unclosed cultural conceptualizations revealed a selective transfer of Persian cultural conceptualizations to the DAs written in English. The paper concludes with reference to the emergence of Persian English in the DAs. By complementing genre analysis with a Cultural Linguistics perspective, the study contributes to the literature on comparative genre analysis of DAs, moving it beyond move-step analysis to a more systematic in-depth cultural analysis. In addition, the findings advance the literature on Cultural Linguistics by revealing a relationship between cultural schema and cultural metaphor.

Language as an interpersonal marker in English dissertation acknowledgments

Expressing gratitude and patronage in the form of dedication or acknowledgment can be traced back to the 16th century (Görlach, 2004). In the present time, writing an acknowledgment section has become a common practice in scholarly works, such as books, dissertations, theses, and journal articles. Research on acknowledgments as a text type, however, is relatively new. In his pioneering work, Hyland (2003) dubbed dissertation acknowledgments ‘a Cinderella genre’ because it is often regarded as a taken-for-granted component in a dissertation and has not received due academic attention. Unlike other conventional academic genres that aim to establish claims and reputation, dissertation acknowledgments reflect the reciprocal gift-giving among scholars, constituting ‘the most explicitly interpersonal genre of the academy’ (Hyland, 2004: 323). In addition to expressing gratitude to others, writers also use the acknowledgments section to build interpersonal relationships with their academic colleagues and/or professional communities (Chan, 2015). In this study, we adopt computerized text analysis to further explore how language patterns mark the interpersonal features in English dissertation acknowledgments.

Systematic Metaphors in Norwegian Doctoral Dissertation Acknowledgements

ABSTRACT This article investigates patterns of systematic metaphors used to characterize various aspects of the doctoral education period, based on analysis of dissertation acknowledgements (DAs) from doctoral dissertations across academic disciplines and written by researchers from four PhD programs offered by a Norwegian university. The primary research question addressed here asks which metaphors doctoral researchers in Norway use to describe their educational experience as a whole, as well as the assistance they received during their doctoral period. A discourse dynamics approach is applied to the data, allowing for the identification of metaphors employed about these topics followed by the categorization of the identified metaphors into broader categories. The resulting overview of the systematic metaphorical patterns in DAs provides empirical evidence concerning how doctoral researchers view their experiences, useful in mentoring situations as a starting point for addressing attitudes, beliefs and values about the various challenges and rewards involved in doctoral trajectories.

Acknowledgement behaviour of Information Science students of Nigeria’s premier university

This study is an exploratory analysis of master’s dissertation acknowledgements (DAs) of Information Science students of Nigeria’s premier university – University of Ibadan. A total of 932 DAs from 1992 to 2019 were examined. Fifteen recent graduates of the Africa Regional Centre for Information Science were also interviewed. Descriptive and Inferential statistics as well as qualitative content analysis were carried out on the DAs while transcribed interview data were analysed thematically. Findings revealed that while addressees thanked in the DAs included supervisors, other academics, administrative staff, organisations, family and friends, most of the DAs however, acknowledged God first. More friends were acknowledged in the DAs than academics and family members, suggesting the extent to which the students value their social cycle. Interview data and excerpts from DAs revealed cases of students copying acknowledgements in past dissertations and acknowledgements of fellow colleagues. Results also showed that academic and moral supports were acknowledged more than technical, spiritual, financial and access. Overall, results from this study have shown the influence of socio-cultural and religious beliefs on the acknowledgement genre among Information Science students of Nigeria’s premier university.

“My heartfelt gratitude goes to …”: The construal of gratitude in master’s dissertation acknowledgements

“My heartfelt gratitude goes to …”: The construal of gratitude in master’s dissertation acknowledgements

A Cross-Linguistic Study on the Reflection of Metadiscourse Markers in the Acknowledgements of the Iranian and Native English Dissertations

The acknowledgement section in a thesis or dissertation expresses gratitude for the people who have helped the author in the process of conducting the research and writing the paper. The study sought to explore the extent to which metadiscourse markers have been employed in the dissertation acknowledgements. Excluding the rhetorical moves, emotional tones and cultural backgrounds, the research has primarily contrasted dissertation acknowledgements written by Iranian EFL doctoral graduates and English native speakers at an identical level. Hyland’s metadiscourse model features and his four-tier main obligatory thanking move was applied to determine and interpret the features predominantly used in the thesis acknowledgements. A qualitative analysis of the results revealed that except for a meaningful difference in attitude markers, Iranian acknowledgements were consistent with the model and not any noticeable difference detected in using interactive metadiscourse features between Iranians and native speakers when writing their dissertation acknowledgements.

Metadiscourse in Dissertation Acknowledgments: Exploration of Gender Differences in EFL Texts

Metadiscourse in Dissertation Acknowledgments: Exploration of Gender Differences in EFL Texts

A Genre Study of Doctoral Dissertation Acknowledgements by English Native Speakers and Korean Ones

Though acknowledgements have been neglected in writing dissertations by Korean master and doctoral students, they are obligatory by native speakers. The purpose of this study was to investigate a contrastive study of doctoral dissertation acknowledgements by English native speakers, non-native speakers (Korean) who studied in USA and non-native speakers(Korean) who studied in Korea. To this end, the same number of acknowledgements were selected. The model used in this study was Hyland(2004) model. The results showed that there are some significant differences in the length of the text, rhetorical moves, frequency of occurrence, individuals acknowledged, etc. More important was to find a new move which native speakers do not use in acknowledgements from Korean writers.

THE GENERIC STRUCTURE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IN PERSIAN DISSERTATIONS

Acknowledgments are vital since students/researchers can demonstrate their genuine appreciation through them and more importantly shape their (local/global) academic identity. In line with this significance, the present study examined the move patterns of 503 Persian dissertation acknowledgements from two major universities in Iran, from 1981 to 2014 and from sixteen various disciplines including soft and hard science disciplines. Overall, 65,323 words were analyzed. By and large, a careful examination and analysis of the corpus indicated that Iranian university students follow a three-tier moves pattern in writing a dissertation acknowledgments, namely a “Framing move” (including six micro steps), a main “Thanking move” (consisting of nine micro steps), and a “Closing move” (containing four micro steps). Moreover, the results indicated that the longest and shortest acknowledgments were 986 and 4 words respectively. The results also indicated that there was a significant difference in the complexity of acknowledgments in hard and soft science disciplines. The results of this study can hold valuable implications for both university students and professors who aspire an appropriate, coherent, and to the point display of scholarly competence and academic identity.

Tracing Native Culture in Iranian Students Academic Writing: Focus on Acknowledgements

It seems obvious that there are some differences in the writing traditions among the university students all around the world. It can be attributed to different identity, ethnic, race as well as benefiting from various cultural backgrounds. Generally, culture is believed to be transmitted through language. Academic writing as a genre of language widely exploited by the students all over the world is not excluded from this rule. Written language is an attempt to communicate with the reader. A writer has an intention or purpose, as well as information to convey. Thus, the current study gives some enlightenment on the different cultural schemata utilized by the native speakers of Persian (NSP) in writing their dissertation acknowledgments. The findings revealed some interesting Persian culture-based themes in this part of academic writing. As a whole, it can be concluded that domestic culture is present in all aspects of human life even in the realm of academic writing.

A Genre Study of Undergraduate Dissertation Acknowledgements in a Ghanaian University

A Genre Study of Undergraduate Dissertation Acknowledgements in a Ghanaian University

A corpus-based study of the expression of stance in dissertation acknowledgements

Although much previous research has examined the expression of stance in different registers, it is restricted to such primary genres as published research articles, textbooks, and student essays. Little is known of the ways writers express stance in an underexplored academic genre – acknowledgements. Using a corpus-based approach, this present study builds on previous research, notably from Biber (2006), aiming to investigate to what extent the frequencies of the range of lexico-grammatical devices used for the expression of stance in acknowledgements vary across disciplines. In particular, it focuses on disciplinary writing practices of the soft and hard disciplines and on stance expressions with regard to social functions and lexico-grammatical patterns. A quantitative analysis shows important distributional trends of stance expressions across disciplines, with the soft disciplines using more stance features than the hard disciplines, and a qualitative analysis of selected concordance lines identifies various social functions and distinctive lexico-grammatical patterns. It is found that stance devices appear to be motivated by different factors such as the nature of research, the imbalance of the power and position between the writers and thanked addressees, the amount of assistance and support the writers receive from different sources, and their strategic career choices.

Dissertation acknowledgements in Cameroon English: A study in linguistic politeness

This study investigates the polite language behaviour of users of Cameroon English in a typical plurilingual and multiethnic context with emphasis on the politeness strategies used with regard to acknowledging. Based on Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory, the data, obtained from the acknowledgements pages of students' dissertations in the University of Yaoundé 1, were investigated with the aim of identifying politeness strategies and their relative frequency. The study demonstrates that the urge to save face by being polite engenders a range of strategies, including the use of honorifics to mark deference, the use of terms of kin to foster solidarity and the use of self-abnegation as well as polite lexical forms to show deference, create and consolidate fraternity and above all save face as they acknowledge the contribution of others to the realisation of their research projects.

Cross-Cultural Investigation into Generic Structure of Dissertation Acknowledgements in English and Persian: Reflections on Politeness Strategies

This contrastive study, in the first place, examined the generic structure and, in the second place, explored the face theory proposed by Arundale (2006) in 140 doctoral dissertation acknowledgments written by native speakers of Persian (NSP) and native speakers of English (NSE) in 7 disciplines representing soft sciences to find out what discourse genre components writers employ to articulate the communicative purpose of these acknowledgments. The results of the first phase of the study revealed four moves and a number of constituting steps. Careful surveillance uncovered an obligatory acknowledging move framed by two optional resonating and declaration moves. The findings related to the second phase of the study discovered that, approximately, majority of moves and steps exploited by the two groups function as connection face except for the shouldering responsibility step voiced as separation face. Persian writers, guided by their different cultural and literacy practices, utilized this step more than English writers. The study provided valuable information about the academic values, socio-cultural practices, and personal identity of the writer encoded in the rhetorical and organizational components of this genre.

Dog at My Feet: A Moment of Identity Construction within Dissertation Acknowledgements

Abstract Human-animal studies (has) is a legitimate and multidisciplinary academic endeavor. In the last three decades, there has been a proliferation of articles revealing multiple ways of knowing about the human-animal relationship. This paper, informed by social psychological theories, turns the mirror upon new researchers as they emerge as professional selves into academia. Post-graduate students engage multiple and sometimes contradicting identities throughout their candidatures. The unit of analysis is the dissertation acknowledgement (da) at both a structural and functional level. The das have recently become objects of serious empirical investigation as linguistic choice promotes a situated academic, cultural, and social identity in a moment of time. This paper examines the generic structure and purpose of 104 das, with a particular focus on the student-writer’s identity with relationship to nonhuman animals in their lives. Fourteen sub-themes are subsumed into thanking, reflecting, and announcing moves. A case is made that the study of das is a potentially fecund research area for a unique moment of identity construction.

Politeness in Persian and English Dissertation Acknowledgments

Though usually seen as just marginally related to the key academic goals of establishing claims and reputations, acknowledgement as a genre is widely employed in academic discourse to express gratitude for the contribution of an individual or an institution so that writers establish a favorable academic and social position. Having considered the significance of acknowledgment texts in academic writing and the fact that little, if any, has been devoted to highlight dissertation acknowledgments in the Iranian academic context, the current study, adopting Arundale’s face theory, examined the politeness strategies of 70 doctoral dissertation acknowledgments written by native speakers of Persian (henceforth NSP) and native speakers of English (hereafter NSE) in 7 disciplines representing soft sciences. The findings revealed that approximately majority of communicative moves and linguistic steps exploited by the two groups function as connection face except for cases in which writers accept the responsibility of possible errors and weaknesses of the dissertation. Of course, Persian writers, due to their cultural background, used this step more than English ones. To sum up, the study provided valuable information about the socio-cultural practices and personal identity of the writer encoded in the organizational components of this type of genre.