Discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics

Research work on the grammatical features of academic writing has revealed that science writing relies more on phrases and nominalization, and humanities writing on clauses. Embedded clauses, however, occur at the rank of a word phrase, and the extent to which the two genres differ in their use of e...

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Main Author: Leong, Alvin Ping
Other Authors: School of Humanities
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173500
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1735002024-02-07T06:23:26Z Discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics Leong, Alvin Ping School of Humanities Language and Communication Centre Arts and Humanities Science Writing Humanities Writing Research work on the grammatical features of academic writing has revealed that science writing relies more on phrases and nominalization, and humanities writing on clauses. Embedded clauses, however, occur at the rank of a word phrase, and the extent to which the two genres differ in their use of embedded clauses is not well understood. To address this gap, this study investigated the occurrence rates (per 1,000 words) of 10 categories of embedded clauses in a corpus of 40 research articles from cell biology and classics. The analysis relied on a modified form of the Hallidayan framework. The results reveal that classics articles use more embedded clauses, and biology articles, more ranking clauses. As embedding involves layering, this finding implies a more complex clausal structure in the case of classics articles. With only two exceptions, the rates of embedded clauses are higher in classics articles than in biology articles. The exceptions involve the greater use of –ed and –ing relative clauses in biology articles, particularly in the adjunct position. The higher rates of non-finite relatives in biology articles reflect the condensed nature of science writing. Further work involving text samples from more disciplines and interdisciplinary fields is recommended. 2024-02-07T06:23:26Z 2024-02-07T06:23:26Z 2023 Journal Article Leong, A. P. (2023). Discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics. Word, 69(4), 362-379. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00437956.2023.2270875 0043-7956 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173500 10.1080/00437956.2023.2270875 2-s2.0-85176444244 4 69 362 379 en Word © 2023 International Linguistic Association. All rights reserved.
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Arts and Humanities
Science Writing
Humanities Writing
spellingShingle Arts and Humanities
Science Writing
Humanities Writing
Leong, Alvin Ping
Discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics
description Research work on the grammatical features of academic writing has revealed that science writing relies more on phrases and nominalization, and humanities writing on clauses. Embedded clauses, however, occur at the rank of a word phrase, and the extent to which the two genres differ in their use of embedded clauses is not well understood. To address this gap, this study investigated the occurrence rates (per 1,000 words) of 10 categories of embedded clauses in a corpus of 40 research articles from cell biology and classics. The analysis relied on a modified form of the Hallidayan framework. The results reveal that classics articles use more embedded clauses, and biology articles, more ranking clauses. As embedding involves layering, this finding implies a more complex clausal structure in the case of classics articles. With only two exceptions, the rates of embedded clauses are higher in classics articles than in biology articles. The exceptions involve the greater use of –ed and –ing relative clauses in biology articles, particularly in the adjunct position. The higher rates of non-finite relatives in biology articles reflect the condensed nature of science writing. Further work involving text samples from more disciplines and interdisciplinary fields is recommended.
author2 School of Humanities
author_facet School of Humanities
Leong, Alvin Ping
format Article
author Leong, Alvin Ping
author_sort Leong, Alvin Ping
title Discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics
title_short Discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics
title_full Discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics
title_fullStr Discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics
title_full_unstemmed Discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics
title_sort discipline-specific writing and embedded clauses: the case of cell biology and classics
publishDate 2024
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173500
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