|
|
Intertextuality in academic writing: citation in soft and hard sciences
Štěpánková, Jana ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
Based on a corpus analysis of 72 research articles, this thesis examines citation practices in four academic disciplines, two soft (linguistics and art history) and two hard (biology and astronomy). The first part provides quantitative results for the usage of two basic types, integral and non-integral citation. The non-integral type is preferred mainly in biology (91%), whereas astronomy and linguistics do not show such strong preference. In art history, both types are used with similar frequencies. The second part is focused on integral citation and examines instances of its sub-types (verb-controlling, naming and non-citation). The third part analyses the distribution of citations in the individual sections of research articles which shows to be dependent on the structural organization of the article. In general, two tendencies have been found: in articles with IMRD structure (biology and linguistics), citations occur mainly in the introduction and discussion. In astronomy and art history, citations are almost evenly distributed across the text. The last part of this thesis is focused on reporting verbs and their semantic classification (research, cognitive and discourse acts). Astronomy shows strong preference for research acts verbs, whilst biology employs this type only slightly more often...
|
|
|
Pragmatic and stylistic aspects of expressions of futurality in professional economic text and their didactic consequences
Mikuláš, Martin ; Pípalová, Renata (advisor) ; Povolná, Renata (referee) ; Malá, Markéta (referee)
The dissertation surveys the use of expressions of futurality in professional economic texts (the linguistic part). In addition, it investigates didactic aspects of futurality in the process of English as a second language acquisition, focusing on undergraduates in the study programme B 6208 - Economy and Management (the didactic part). The topic was chosen on the basis of the author's empirical experience and the results of pre-tests in the target group. The research is based on a corpus-based linguistic study. Seven representative monographs written by native speakers were selected as a source of relevant information about the use of futural constructions in a written economic text. All the sources were explored by means of corpus query software and instances of selected futural constructions (will, shall, be going to, be about to, be on the point of, be (due) to and the present tense) were excerpted. Functions of the futural constructions were elaborted on the basis of the numerous excerpts and confronted with English for specific (economic) purpose textbooks that are used widely at Czech economic universities. To prove or disaprove their mutual interdependence, the correlation of general language and specific language proficiencies of undergraduates from two universities was measured....
|
|
|
Gerundial and ing-participial clauses in written and spoken academic texts
Pajmová, Klára ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
This Master's thesis deals with the gerund and -ing participial clauses in written and spoken academic texts. The theoretical part defines the academic discourse and non-finite verb forms. Gerund and -ing participial constructions are further described regarding their forms and syntactic functions. The sources used for the research part are two corpora of contemporary academic British English: BASE and BAWE. BASE corpus contains transcripts of academic lectures. BAWE corpus is a collection of university-level students' writings. Both corpora contain texts from four different genres and moreover students' assignments are divided into four levels of study. For the purpose of the research part of our thesis, only the genre "Arts and Humanities" and the highest level of study will be taken into account. The practical part analyses the frequency of gerund and -ing participial clauses, frequency of verbs occurring in these constructions and collocations of these verbs. A detailed analysis aims at studying 100 sentences from written texts and 100 sentences from academic lectures. This sample is examined regarding the internal structure of each non-finite clause and its syntactic function. The final section summarizes the results or our research.
|
|
| |
|
|
Pragmatic and stylistic aspects of expressions of futurality in professional economic text and their didactic consequences
Mikuláš, Martin ; Pípalová, Renata (advisor) ; Povolná, Renata (referee) ; Malá, Markéta (referee)
The dissertation surveys the use of expressions of futurality in professional economic texts (the linguistic part). In addition, it investigates didactic aspects of futurality in the process of English as a second language acquisition, focusing on undergraduates in the study programme B 6208 - Economy and Management (the didactic part). The topic was chosen on the basis of the author's empirical experience and the results of pre-tests in the target group. The research is based on a corpus-based linguistic study. Seven representative monographs written by native speakers were selected as a source of relevant information about the use of futural constructions in a written economic text. All the sources were explored by means of corpus query software and instances of selected futural constructions (will, shall, be going to, be about to, be on the point of, be (due) to and the present tense) were excerpted. Functions of the futural constructions were elaborted on the basis of the numerous excerpts and confronted with English for specific (economic) purpose textbooks that are used widely at Czech economic universities. To prove or disaprove their mutual interdependence, the correlation of general language and specific language proficiencies of undergraduates from two universities was measured....
|
|
|
Interpersonal metadiscourse in English university lectures from Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences
Klapalová, Kateřina ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Brůhová, Gabriela (referee)
(in English): The diploma thesis explores the means of expressing interpersonal function (metadiscourse) in English academic lectures. This function includes means mitigating the proposition of authors (hedges), expressions boosting its credibility (booster), instances reflecting attitude of the author (attitude markers) and means referring to both, the author himself (self-mentions) and the audience (engagement markers). For the purpose of the analysis, the integrative approach of Ken Hyland was chosen. It explores interpersonal resources as well as interactive resources in written academic discourse. Means organizing text into an intelligible and comprehensible unit will be also studied. The excerpted instances of metadiscourse were examined with respect to their function and realization form. In a case of realization forms, we expected to find means expressing modality (modal verbs, adverbs, adjectives), evaluative adjectives and adverbs, conjunctions and an array of personal pronouns referring to the participants of lectures. The findings showed surprising deviations in the categories of boosters, extended frame markers and attitude markers. Remaining categories, despite the different mode of the data (spoken academic language) corresponded with Hyland's findings from written academic discourse.
|
|
|
Gerundial and ing-participial clauses in written and spoken academic texts
Pajmová, Klára ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
This Master's thesis deals with the gerund and -ing participial clauses in written and spoken academic texts. The theoretical part defines the academic discourse and non-finite verb forms. Gerund and -ing participial constructions are further described regarding their forms and syntactic functions. The sources used for the research part are two corpora of contemporary academic British English: BASE and BAWE. BASE corpus contains transcripts of academic lectures. BAWE corpus is a collection of university-level students' writings. Both corpora contain texts from four different genres and moreover students' assignments are divided into four levels of study. For the purpose of the research part of our thesis, only the genre "Arts and Humanities" and the highest level of study will be taken into account. The practical part analyses the frequency of gerund and -ing participial clauses, frequency of verbs occurring in these constructions and collocations of these verbs. A detailed analysis aims at studying 100 sentences from written texts and 100 sentences from academic lectures. This sample is examined regarding the internal structure of each non-finite clause and its syntactic function. The final section summarizes the results or our research.
|
|
|
Intertextuality in academic writing: citation in soft and hard sciences
Štěpánková, Jana ; Malá, Markéta (advisor) ; Šaldová, Pavlína (referee)
Based on a corpus analysis of 72 research articles, this thesis examines citation practices in four academic disciplines, two soft (linguistics and art history) and two hard (biology and astronomy). The first part provides quantitative results for the usage of two basic types, integral and non-integral citation. The non-integral type is preferred mainly in biology (91%), whereas astronomy and linguistics do not show such strong preference. In art history, both types are used with similar frequencies. The second part is focused on integral citation and examines instances of its sub-types (verb-controlling, naming and non-citation). The third part analyses the distribution of citations in the individual sections of research articles which shows to be dependent on the structural organization of the article. In general, two tendencies have been found: in articles with IMRD structure (biology and linguistics), citations occur mainly in the introduction and discussion. In astronomy and art history, citations are almost evenly distributed across the text. The last part of this thesis is focused on reporting verbs and their semantic classification (research, cognitive and discourse acts). Astronomy shows strong preference for research acts verbs, whilst biology employs this type only slightly more often...
|
guest ::
