Text-organising metadiscourse markers in academic texts

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the use of text-organising metadiscourse markers as a means of the author’s stance expression in academic texts from a cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary perspectives. This comparative study analyses scientific research articles in the fields of technology and social sciences (economics) written in Lithuanian and English. The results of the study revealed that the authors of the studied articles tend to create a coherent text, therefore the markers such as transition, endophorics, and references to the text are quite often. The more frequent evidentials, which are intended to refer to the publications of other authors, show the individual choices of the authors in the field of technology, probably determined by the peculiarities of the discipline or the requirements for publications of the scientific journals regarding the scope and organisation of the text. The results of the quantitative research demonstrated that more text-organising markers were found in the articles written in Lithuanian rather than English. The cross-disciplinary research indicated that authors use text-organising markers in the scientific articles of economics more often than the authors of technological academic texts, which means that disciplinary differences prevail. Qualitative research disclosed cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary similarities, as the analysed examples of markers were employed by authors to perform the same functions. Furthemore, a similar perception of the organisation of the text emerged. No qualitative differences were observed in the use of the text-organising markers.