Lexico-grammatical Patterns Research Articles

CAN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PREFERENCES BE AN ALTERNATIVE TO HUMAN LINGUISTIC CHOICES? A MULTIDIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH ABSTRACTS OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Background and Purpose: With the rapid advancements in generative AI, understanding its ability to emulate human language conventions is crucial. This work aims to analyze the possibility of applying AI technology in language production by comparing the lexico-grammatical features of abstracts created with the help of ChatGPT and written by British and American researchers. Methodology: Twenty papers written by researchers affiliated with UK universities and twenty by researchers affiliated with American universities were selected from the journals listed under the first quartile of the Web of Science and Scopus. Using the titles that were from the selected works, 40 abstracts were generated from ChatGPT for comparison. Each article was introduced with its title, and ChatGPT was asked to create an abstract based on the title. Subsequently, the subjects were examined with the help of Biber’s (1991) multivariate model considering five dimensions, which include the Informational vs Involved discourse, the Narrative vs Non-narrative, the Explicit vs. Situation- dependent discourse, Overt expression of argumentation/persuasion and the Impersonal/Abstract style as opposed to the Non-impersonal/Non-abstract style. Findings: The five factors analysed in the texts give evidence that ChatGPT generates more information-centric, non-narrative, argumentative, and less abstractive discourse than human researchers. Contributions: The results of the study show the possibilities for the further development of AI that helps to create language closer to human language. Keywords: Abstracts, ChatGPT, lexico-grammatical patterns, multidimensional analysis, research articles. Cite as: Ali, M., & Ali, S. (2024). Can artificial intelligence preferences be an alternative to human linguistic choices? A multidimensional analysis of research abstracts of English linguistics. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 9(2), 514-536. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol9iss2pp514-536

Multidimensional Analysis of Differences in Lexico-Grammatical Patterns in Saudi and British Linguistics and English Language Teaching Research Articles

This study explores linguistic variation in research papers published by Saudi and British researchers in Linguistics and English language teaching (ELT). The main aim is to identify and compare interdisciplinary lexico-grammatical patterns between and within the sub-disciplines of these research articles, exploring the extent to which Saudi research articles align with or diverge from their British counterparts. Utilizing Biber’s (1988) multidimensional model, this research developed a specialized corpus of academic research articles, which was analyzed using multivariate statistical techniques to investigate linguistic variation. The corpus included tagging of 67 linguistic features, and factor analysis was employed to identify patterns of linguistic co-occurrence. Significant findings indicate that Saudi research papers distinctly differ from British papers in their preference for informational, explicit, non-argumentative, and abstract discourse. Notably, while most sections of the research papers showed variations in non-argumentative discourse, the ELT conclusion sections from both regions demonstrated a tendency towards mixed-purpose discourse. The significance of the study lies in its detailed analysis of how regional differences affect lexico-grammatical choices within academic writing, offering a deeper understanding of linguistic strategies in scholarly communication. The study concludes with recommendations for further research to explore underlying factors contributing to these differences and suggests the development of targeted academic writing aids to support researchers in achieving greater international coherence in their discourse. This could potentially enhance the clarity and impact of scholarly communication across diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

An Analysis of Student’s Recount Text: An SFL Approach

This paper reports on the results of a study aiming to investigate the student’s ability to write recount text of a university student in Bandung. The study was conducted using the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), especially functional grammar, in terms of the Transitivity, Mood and Modality system. The study used a case study on text analysis. A text, which is a recount text written by a higher achiever university student, was analysed using the Transitivity, Mood and Modality system. In terms of the Transitivity system, the result indicates the writer’s adequate syntactic compression and rich lexico-grammatical patterns. Moreover, in terms of the Mood and Modality system, the text shows the writer’s ability to infuse, temper, negotiate, and constrain the experiential meanings in the Mood that is in focus. Hence, the writer is categorized as a mature and critical writer, and the text is appropriate to be used as a model text. Research on text analysis using SFL of different genres of text and how the teaching of writing should be conducted to help improve students’ writing ability is recommended.

The Phraseology of Legal French and Legal Popularisation in France and Canada: A Corpus-Assisted Analysis

The popularisation of legal knowledge is a critical issue for equal access to law and justice. Legal discourse has been justly criticised for its obscure terminology and convoluted phrasing, which notably led to the Plain Language Movement in English-speaking countries. In Canada, the concept of Plain Language has been applied to French since the 1980s due to the official policy of bilingualism, while the concept has only been recently discussed in France. In this paper, we examine the impact of Plain Language rewriting on legal phraseology in French popularisation contexts. The first aim of our study is to see if plain texts published in France contain more traces of legal phraseology than French Canadian texts. Our second objective is to determine if a ‘phraseology of plain language’ can be identified across genres and languages. To do this, we compare two corpora of expert-to-expert legal texts written in French—made up, respectively, of legislative texts published in France and judicial texts published by the Supreme Court of Canada—with two corpora of texts that are claimed to have been written in Plain French Language for a non-expert readership—texts that guide laypersons through legal and administrative processes in France and summaries of decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada. Using n-grams, we extract and discuss the patterns that emerge from the corpora. In particular, our analyses rely on the concept of ‘lexico–grammatical patterns’, defined as the minimal unit of meaningful text made up of recurrent sequences of lexical and grammatical items. We then identify a sample of recurring lexico–grammatical patterns and their discursive functions.

Exploring Lexico-grammatical Patterns in Doctoral Dissertations: A Multidimensional Analysis

Doctoral dissertations occupy a prominent place in academic communication and advancement. This genre applies its intricate lexical and grammatical patterns to shape its effectiveness and these patterns need to be studied. The study aims to investigate the discussion section of the doctoral dissertations from ten leading British universities. The objective of the study is to explore the lexico-grammatical similarities and differences between ELT and Linguistics dissertations. It also attempts to analyze how far the lexico-grammatical choices used in the discussion section of ELT dissertations are similar to or different from those of Linguistics. The corpus used in this study consists of 200 discussion sections: 100 from ELT and 100 from Linguistics. A random sampling technique was used to collect data which consisted of publicly available dissertations. Biber’s Tagger was used to annotate grammatical and lexical features. To find out the significant interaction between the selected disciplines, a factorial ANOVA was used. The study is significant in terms of providing insight into the preferred lexico-grammatical patterns used by the students. It further explains how two different disciplines – Linguistics and ELT, make various lexico-grammatical choices. The findings of the study will help the researcher from around the world, particularly the ones from non-English speaking countries, in terms of familiarizing them with the conventions involved in writing a dissertation.

A Multidimensional Analysis of Academic Writing: A Comparative Study of Saudi and British University Students’ Writing

Academic writing is one of the most crucial skills for university students across the globe; however, the conventions of writing vary across different cultures. This research study used a multidimensional approach to analyze Saudi students' writings compared to British students. A specialized corpus of Saudi academic English writing (CSAEW) was developed to explore interdisciplinary lexico-grammatical patterns. The data was collected from the undergraduate students enrolled in the universities from three regions across the Kingdom. The CSAEW was compared with the British Academic Writing English corpus. Biber's multidimensional model was used to examine linguistic features along dimensions such as involvement, information, argumentation, narration, and abstraction. The study provides evidence about how Saudi students prefer particular lexical and grammatical patterns over others and how Saudi academic writing is distinguished compared to British academic English. The study results indicate that CSAEW is more explicit and non-narrative than BCAW. There are marked differences on dimensions 1, 4, and 5. The mean scores of CSAEW and BCAW fall on the opposite side of the continuum. The findings document the patterns of linguistic variation in Saudi students' academic writing compared to that of British students. Based on the pattern of variation, the study provides some recommendations for pedagogical practices to improve Saudi students’ writing skills.

How Causal Relation Affects the Construction of Problem-Solution in Argumentation Essays

The Problem-Solution text pattern is often used in academic writing. The present study investigates how Problem-Solution is used in non-native speaker (NNS) argumentation essays by Japanese speaking students, in comparison with native speaker (NS) essays by American students. By taking the clause relational approach, the present study attempts to find how the students use causal relation when employing the Problem-Solution pattern in their essays. The investigation focuses on problem, which is a causative device, as well as a shell noun that can construct the text. This paper will show that in the two corpora the students’ use of causal relation was similar in frequency and drew on the same types of causal categories; however, how the causal categories were expressed in lexico-grammatical patterns was often different. Furthermore, NNS students used problem in non-causal relation significantly more frequently than NS students did. This paper points to what lacked in NNS essays in order for the students to use causal relations in the same ways as NS students did in their essays (e.g., type of verbs, rheme-theme development). A discussion of the pedagogical implications of the findings provides insights which could be helpful to educators developing syllabi and teaching academic writing to NNS students.

Advice seekers’ legitimation strategies in online health communities

Previous studies of different online health communities have shown the importance of examining advice seekers’ legitimation strategies. However, most research has been based on the qualitative analysis of small samples from discussion threads. Using a specialized corpus comprising 1836 advice seekers’ initiating messages (317,540 words) and a corpus-assisted discourse analysis approach, this paper first identifies the recurrent lexicogrammatical patterns that advice seekers use and then connects these patterns to particular legitimation strategies according to the specific pragmatic functions they serve across texts. In this way, three major legitimation strategies are structurally classified with the identification of their typical lexicogrammatical realizations: justification of presence, amplification of details and evocation of feelings and emotions. Empirically, this corpus-based investigation complements previous qualitative research, extending prior findings drawn from small samples. Methodologically, this study demonstrates the potential value of investigating lexicogrammatical realization patterns using a corpus approach for exploring (online) health discourse.

Building trust in the transport sector during the pandemic

Abstract This paper looks at cross-cultural variation in corporate communication over the pandemic, focusing on the language adopted by rail companies in the UK and Italy to enhance trust in safety and highlighting how they engage in communicative action with potential passengers and other online users. The analysis shows that UK companies generally prefer personal forms of self-mention and avoid technicisms, while Italian companies adopt more formal language and more impersonal forms of self-representation. Common elements seem to be related to repeated communicative functions, and the semantic elements they involve, thus highlighting the close link between pragmatic units and lexico-grammatical patterns (with their semantics), as well as the interplay between meaning, dialogic action and context in communication.

Application of Roland Barthes’ Five Codes on Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Story The Black Cat

This research focuses on Roland Barthes’ structural theory of five codes on “The Black Cat” a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The study examines the selected story by means of qualitative method in the light of Roland Barthes’ five codes. The paper examines short critical premises of The Black Cat and then the application of the five codes as framed by Barthes’ on the sturucture of the selected story. Based on the textual analysis, it indicates that the selected story covers all the five codes such as Proairetic, hermeneutic, semantic, symbolic, and cultural codes. The selected story begins with an enigma and the story includes many linguistic elements that reflect connatative and hidden meaning. It also includes cultural references of Greek and Roman Mythology. In addition, symbolic code in other words binary oppositions play significant role in the lexico grammatical pattern of the story in terms of love and hate, illusion versus reality, the entirely black cat versus the black cat with white spot on the skin, poor versus rich, sense of innocence versus sense of evil. The research concludes that the author creates a balance in the story by means of the five codes of Barthes. The study suggests that the unnamed narrator’s inner world, viewpoints and his perception of the reality constructs the basic structure and content of the story.

Scientists say: Patterns of attribution in popular and professional science writing

The research article (RA) has held unparalleled importance in several fields of applied linguistics but is only one genre among many that researchers produce and readers consume. This study compares RAs with a related genre called ‘popular science.’ More linguistic-oriented research of popular science genres is needed to account for the growing body of contemporary popular science discourse. This study collected 400 matching professional and popular science articles published online to compare their use of three lexicogrammatical patterns that often function to perform attribution. Results showed that the popular science texts were denser with attribution, often named human authors within instances of attribution, and utilized reporting verbs with a neutral or positive evaluative stance. This study argues that, while the function of attribution in RAs is to build ethos and build an argument through identifying a gap in previous literature, attribution in science news articles functions to portray study authors as the main actors in research stories and portray popular science writers as objective, though at times supportive, reporters of recent news, highlighting the journalistic function of this variety of popular science.

The Passive across Two Registers of Present-Day British English: A Corpus-Based Lexico-Grammatical Perspective

Abstract This paper explores the use of the passive in present-day British English, focusing on its register-specific lexico-grammatical patterns. The interaction of the grammatical structure, lexis, phraseology and register is examined on the basis of two sub-corpora of the British National Corpus 2014 – academic prose and informal conversation. The results have corroborated the findings of previous studies in that the pattern ‘BE / GET V-ed’ is populated by verbal participial forms which create a cline with departicipial adjectives. The communicative needs of registers have been shown to have a decisive impact on the frequency of passive patterns and the specific lexical choices associated with the patterns. In both registers, the ‘BE / GET V-ed’ patterns appear to constitute the core of larger fixed phraseological units, e.g., can’t be bothered to/with, or it should be noted that.

English lexical and grammatical preferences in framing media discourse

This paper is a corpus-based analysis of English newspaper reportage of eight South Asian countries: Pakistan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The objective of the study is to analyse lexico-grammatical patterns between the crime press reportage (CRR) of South Asian countries and explore how they are similar to or different from each other in reporting crime. To achieve this objective, three English newspapers from each country were selected and a specialized corpus was compiled which was analysed with reference to the five textual dimensions introduced by Biber (1992 & 2006). This research is significant as there is hardly any study that attempted to find the differences and similarities between the Englishes used in South Asian countries. The comparison indicates that CRR of all the South Asian countries are significantly different from each other in producing informational, explicit, non-argumentative, and abstract discourse. Moreover, while most of the South Asian countries vary in producing narrative discourse, Afghanistan produces non-narrative discourse. The results provided substantial evidence that the English used in each South Asian country counts as a distinct variety.

Emotion and opinion in online tabloids and broadsheets

This paper is a corpus-based study focusing on implicit evaluation expressed in newspaper discourse, namely, the semantic mapping of emotion and opinion. The corpus, compiled of online “front page” newspaper articles from both selected tabloids (The Sun, The Express, The Mirror) and broadsheets (The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent) was used to answer three research questions: 1) Is evaluation markedly expressed in newspaper discourse? 2) What linguistic means are typical for construing evaluation in newspaper discourse? 3) Is there a difference between the tabloids and the broadsheets regarding the way in which/how evaluation is conveyed/employed? To answer these questions, a pilot keyword study on only six articles was carried out (one article from each of the aforementioned newspapers). The findings confirmed the importance of adjectives in expressing evaluation. Following this, a large study was conducted to detect local grammar adjectival lexicogrammatical patterns, introduced by Hunston (2000) and further amended by Bednarek (2007, 2009). These patterns, which are known for carrying the evaluative load, were analyzed in terms of frequency and function. It was observed that there is a difference in expressing evaluation between the tabloids and the broadsheets. However, more significant differences were found between the broadsheet newspapers themselves.

Shell noun phrases in scientific writing: A diachronic corpus-based study on research articles in chemical engineering

A key feature of scientific writing is the use of shell noun phrases to turn human experiences into abstract entities. This paper reports on a diachronic study of shell noun phrases in 120 chemical engineering research articles over a span of 40 years, focusing on their lexico-grammatical patterns, functional categories and alternative expressions. A corpus-based analysis revealed a significant decline of cataphoric shell noun constructions, a substantial decline in discourse and cognition shell noun phrases and concomitant changes in the frequencies of alternative constructions (i.e., reporting clauses). These observed patterns of shell noun use can be explained by the joint influences of a general move toward greater authorial visibility in the academic writing of hard disciplines, disciplinary developments specific to chemical engineering, the informalization of academic discourse in response to the perceived need for knowledge and identity negotiation, and the functional interrelationships among various linguistic resources. They demonstrate that diachronic changes to academic writing are contextually embedded and respond to discipline-internal developments, shifting epistemologies, larger social changes, and the versatility of linguistic resources.

The International Laws of War: Linguistic Analysis from the Perspectives of Register, Corpus and Grammatical Patterning

Abstract All texts, including all legal texts, are constructed in language. All legal constructs and discriminations are an effect of language. As such, linguistics and text analysis should be considered a necessary adjunct to legal studies and, in particular, to critical legal studies. While the disciplines of linguistics and law are increasingly interacting, there is a paucity of linguistic analysis in the field of the international laws of war. This paper seeks to open doors to collaboration, by viewing the texts of the international laws of war from three linguistic perspectives: as a ‘register’, as a ‘corpus’, and in terms of their lexicogrammatical patterning. In terms of register, the international laws of war herald a new form of textual practice, the function and effects of which are subject to debate. As a corpus, some dominant lexical habits of these texts are explored and interpreted for their ideological implications and reactances. Finally, an examination of covert lexicogrammatical meanings in this register, via a small extract from Article 8 of the Rome Statute, illuminates the contradictory meanings that these texts navigate. These three perspectives offer a preliminary glimpse into the value of linguistic analysis for critical perspectives on the international laws of war.

Content and language integrated learning in bachelor programs in linguistics: Prospects and potentials

Communicative and active learning is recognized as a dominant didactic model in foreign languages teaching and learning paradigm, wherein Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) seems to be very promising. The key principle of CLIL is its dual focus: learning a subject through a language and learning a language through a subject. The focus of a CLIL lesson is on the subject content, which students need not only to understand and learn, but to interiorize in a foreign language. Being placed in a specific cultural context, the content gains certain linguistic and cultural features which are country specific for each professional sphere. The article also addresses how the students develop Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). The students not only master the subject but also improve foreign language skills by mastering lexico-grammatical patterns and discourse formulas focused on a specific subject area. Using several foreign languages (plurilingual approach) would allow the students to master the subject even more effectively.

From modals to modal constructions

AbstractThe goal of this paper is to present the results of a corpus analysis aimed at identifying n-grams (i.e., lexical sequences) with the modalscan,couldandbe able to. While details about the functional profile of these verbs are still being discussed (e.g.,Leclercq & Depraetere 2022), it is surprising that relatively scarce attention is given to the lexico-grammatical patterns in which they are found and which come with their own semantic and pragmatic features. Using the methodology developed inCappelle and Depraetere (2016b), a total of 1,640 n-grams were extracted from COCA (Davies 2008-). A number of these patterns are discussed and, in keeping with the approach developed in Construction Grammar (Hilpert 2019), it is shown that an enhanced understanding of these verbs can be achieved when viewed as part of more complex networks of constructions.

Lexical Verb Forms in L1 and L2 Spoken English: A Corpus-Based Analysis

The present study investigates Korean learners’ use of English lexical verb forms and identifies learner deviations from native usage patterns. It examines the frequencies of six verb forms (i.e., base, present, third-person singular, past, gerund, and past participle) in a native and a learner corpus of argumentative speeches. The study reveals that certain verb forms are overor underused by Korean learners of L2 English, compared to native speakers of English. It is also found that L2 overuse and underuse of verb forms are closely related to Korean learners’ overreliance on or avoidance of major lexico-grammatical patterns around the verb forms (e.g., to + base verb). These findings have pedagogical implications for teaching Korean learners to use various verb forms with major lexico-grammatical patterns in English speaking.

Patterns and functions of I in academic writing: From a local grammar approach

This paper describes the co-selection of patterns and functions of the authorial I in soft science articles under the analytical framework of local grammar. Based on the taxonomy of Tang & John (1999), we generalized four functional categories in terms of the writer roles enacted by I: i.e. I as architect, I as data analyser, I as recounter of research process, and I as opinion holder/originator. We then identified the frequent semantic-functional patterns and lexico-grammatical patterns of I under each category of function. In so doing, we explored the connections among patterns and collocations of I and functions that I is used for. It is hoped that this paper would help novice soft science writers to gain a better understanding about how to use the authorial I more appropriately to construct authorial identity in academic writing.