Structural Patterns of Research Article Titles: An Exploratory Study in Five Branches of Linguistics

Abstract

This study explores the constructions of research article titles in five branches of linguistics by examining two key aspects: title length and syntactic structures. Data from 15 specialized journals covering language teaching, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and stylistics were analyzed. The findings reveal that, on average, computational linguistics titles are the shortest at nine words while titles in other branches tend to be 12-13 words long. Total of 12 types of title structures were identified, with single-unit titles, especially single phrases, being most common in computational linguistics and multi-unit titles, specifically phrase/phrase structures, being more frequent in other branches. Independent clauses are found most often in psycholinguistics titles. This study provides useful guidelines for researchers seeking to craft titles in these main branches of linguistics and encourages instructors in English for Academic Purposes to incorporate the structural patterns of titles into their lessons.