Language Use: A study on the Differences Between Scientific Texts, Non-Scientific Texts and Oral Expression

Abstract

There are differences between language use in scientific context and its use in the context of oral communication. While some sentence structures, expressions and words are frequently used in scientific writings and expressions, they are used less in daily written and spoken language. In this study, an attempt was made to reach a conclusion by scanning 50 randomly selected adjectives in the Turkish National Corpus in three categories: academic texts, non-academic texts and oral expression. The frequency of words in the adjective category used in scientific prose, non-scientific prose and oral expression was examined. The findings revealed that while some words are frequently used in scientific prose, they are not used at all in oral expression, and likewise, some words are used less in nonscientific prose. The reason why adjectives are examined in this study is because adjectives are more subjective expressions. Subjective expressions can be more easily evaluated for use in different contexts.